Amanda Nguyen5
Active Member
134 messages
joined Dec 2007
Sometimes these five-star theaters serve up nothing but junk, but occasionally they actually make a smart move.
One such move is this Oscar showcase, where we get a chance to catch those Oscar-nominated films we missed out on for whatever reason.
Today’s pick was "Michael Clayton," the debut from the legendary screenwriter Tony Gilroy (the guy behind the Bourne trilogy).
It’s a story about the rise of a legal fixer—basically a high-stakes corporate cleaner—who finds himself facing massive moral dilemmas along the way.
Honestly, it’s one of the best thrillers from recent years, though it does demand a bit of a more focused audience. The plot gets pretty tangled because they use all those classic filmmaking tricks: adding a million subplots that seem disconnected, flashbacks, repeating motifs, and an intense focus on tiny details.
In reality, it’s a fairly straightforward story, just heavily spiced up, which makes it a little tough to follow at times.
On another note, watching movies at AMC Theatres has become quite the experience lately. To my left sat a young couple; the guy seemed to grasp almost everything, so he had to spend half the movie explaining the plot to his girlfriend. To my right was another couple, probably the oldest I've ever seen in a theater—both looked to be in their 60s (watching a thriller, no less!). They didn't understand a thing, but they kept chatting away, clearly trying to apply the old "two heads are better than one" logic. In front of me was a group of teenagers who lost the thread within thirty minutes. Once they realized they weren't following, they just gave up and spent the rest of the time texting, whispering, and scrolling through photos.
Everything was said loud enough for everyone to hear, so even if I wanted to tune it out, I couldn't. It was incredibly grating.
(I could go off on a tangent about how age and political leanings play into this—old folks on the right, young ones on the left, and the kids who can't even vote in the middle—but I won't, even though there's plenty to say there.)
It feels like every single screening I've caught in the last two months has someone talking loudly the entire time.
(Yesterday at Beverly Hills, it was a whole different kind of madness. Basically, they were showing a classic drama, and the crowd was packed with about 30 hardcore nostalgics who wouldn't stop shouting things like, "Oh, remember when that actor was around!" or "Man, remember what he used to do in those old movies? Kids today wouldn't know talent if it hit them!" It got so bad I actually had to walk out of my beloved Beverly Hills cinema for the first time ever.)
Anyway, back to the film. This crew is top-tier. The cinematographer is Bob Elswit, a regular collaborator with Andersen, and the score is by the great James Newton Howard. It was edited by Gilroy's younger brother, and the producer credits include heavyweights like Anthony Minghella, Steven Soderbergh, and Sydney Pollack—people who actually matter in Hollywood.
As for the cast, you've got Tilda Swinton and George Clooney, plus Tom Wilkinson and Pollack himself. I wouldn't single anyone out specifically—honestly, I don't see why this kind of ensemble acting even needs an Oscar, since Tilda is the only one who truly stands out while everyone else is just "solid"—but they work together so well that the overall performance is fantastic.
My overall impression is great. I was expecting just another mediocre Clooney movie, but as far as Best Picture nominations go, my vote goes straight to "Michael Clayton."
Gilroy uses very classic directing techniques, but those last four or five shots (the silent ones and the conversation with the taxi driver) are pure mastery. Plus, the script is written at an incredibly high level, which is exactly what you'd expect.
What do you guys think?
