Confessions of a Not-So-Dangerous Mind*
Sep 8, 2026 · 24 min · 8 segments
Michael Keaton's fantastic turn as McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc in 2016's The Founder ranks with his best work, showing every side of the complicated, heel-ish entrepreneur.
Well, recently, it was Michael Keaton's 75th birthday, and like many Gen Xers, I am- have been a fan of Michael Keaton since Mr.
Mom back in 1982, or watching it on HBO as a child who was, I don't even think, 10 years old.
You know, what a concept, the woman being the breadwinner, the dad raising the kids, and cooking the meals, and all of this kind of stuff.
It was very, uh, if you wanna say ahead of its time, that would be one way to describe that movie.
But Michael Keaton always had a different kind of energy, and he was somebody who was very skilled with comedy, his timing impeccable, but also really good at drama.
And so, you know, you start thinking, what are some movies of his that I consider myself a big fan of that I haven't talked about on the channel.
Of course, I have discussed, uh, OG Batman 1989, of course, with Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger.
Was one of those big, old-fashioned Hollywood event movies, summer movies that ended up living up to expectations, not just in terms of box office, but in terms of being a really high-quality piece of work.
You know, kudos to Tim Burton for taking a risk in casting Michael Keaton, who, no offense, wouldn't exactly have been, uh, you know, first on the call sheet if somebody in 1986 said, "Well, who could we get for Batman?" I mean, you'd think that somebody like a Mel Gibson, a Kevin Costner going into the summer of '89, somebody like that you'd think would have been up first.
But the movie that I wanna discuss today is a film that is now 10 years old, a historical... [smacks lips] I, the film is not necessarily a docudrama, but a lot of it happened.
Maybe it didn't happen in exactly the sequence that we are presented with, or in the exact same manner.
Maybe the main character was even worse in real life, or maybe Michael Keaton's interpretation and what the filmmakers were going for made him seem even worse.
But the 2016 film, The Founder, about none other than Ray Kroc, not the founder of McDonald's, but the man who essentially ended up becoming CEO and one of the richest men in the country for a time because of his ability to take control of McDonald's.
Michael Keaton's performance in that film, I know he was nominated the previous year for Birdman.
Michael Keaton in The Founder, it is as good of a performance, I will go down on this hill, it is top level, top tier, and possibly the best performance he's ever given in a movie, in a great true story, even if, again, it's not 100% accurate to history.
There is a little bit of, you know, liberties taken in any story based on some level of true events.
You know, we talked a b- about the movie Sleepers and how much of that was true.
Well, recently, it was Michael Keaton's 75th birthday, and like many Gen Xers, I am- have been a fan of Michael Keaton since Mr.
Mom back in 1982, or watching it on HBO as a child who was, I don't even think, 10 years old.
You know, what a concept, the woman being the breadwinner, the dad raising the kids, and cooking the meals, and all of this kind of stuff.
It was very, uh, if you wanna say ahead of its time, that would be one way to describe that movie.
But Michael Keaton always had a different kind of energy, and he was somebody who was very skilled with comedy, his timing impeccable, but also really good at drama.
And so, you know, you start thinking, what are some movies of his that I consider myself a big fan of that I haven't talked about on the channel.
Of course, I have discussed, uh, OG Batman 1989, of course, with Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger.
Was one of those big, old-fashioned Hollywood event movies, summer movies that ended up living up to expectations, not just in terms of box office, but in terms of being a really high-quality piece of work.
You know, kudos to Tim Burton for taking a risk in casting Michael Keaton, who, no offense, wouldn't exactly have been, uh, you know, first on the call sheet if somebody in 1986 said, "Well, who could we get for Batman?" I mean, you'd think that somebody like a Mel Gibson, a Kevin Costner going into the summer of '89, somebody like that you'd think would have been up first.
But the movie that I wanna discuss today is a film that is now 10 years old, a historical... [smacks lips] I, the film is not necessarily a docudrama, but a lot of it happened.
Maybe it didn't happen in exactly the sequence that we are presented with, or in the exact same manner.
Maybe the main character was even worse in real life, or maybe Michael Keaton's interpretation and what the filmmakers were going for made him seem even worse.
But the 2016 film, The Founder, about none other than Ray Kroc, not the founder of McDonald's, but the man who essentially ended up becoming CEO and one of the richest men in the country for a time because of his ability to take control of McDonald's.
Michael Keaton's performance in that film, I know he was nominated the previous year for Birdman.
Michael Keaton in The Founder, it is as good of a performance, I will go down on this hill, it is top level, top tier, and possibly the best performance he's ever given in a movie, in a great true story, even if, again, it's not 100% accurate to history.
There is a little bit of, you know, liberties taken in any story based on some level of true events.
You know, we talked a b- about the movie Sleepers and how much of that was true.
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