Clayton Guilt
Every time I re-watch my Bluray of Tony Gilroy‘s Michael Clayton, which seems a bit more masterful each time, I feel a little bit worse about not being more enthusiastic when it first came out 40 months ago. I didn’t put enough feeling into my riffs about it. Calling it “never boring,” “a tense adult thriller about some unsettled and anxious people” and “as seasoned and authentic as this kind of thing can be” didn’t get it. I held back and over-qualified. And I’m sorry.
Jeff:
Thanks for this admission. I absolutely loved MC, and thought it was the best movie of that year.
I have watched it several times since, and it holds up to successive viewings better than almost any film in the last 10 years.
I was that way with “Quiz Show”.
I thought it was “okay, pretty good, I guess” when I saw it.
Love that damn movie now.
I always thought it was scary how easy and efficiently they killed Wilkinson, and covered it up.
The one that scene I don’t like is the one with the horses.
I should rewatch this.
The scene where Tom Wilkinson’s character is killed really stuck with me. Incredibly well done.
One of my favorite films. Ace performances, especially Wilkinson, excellent script and one of the best scores of the 2000′s. And that “one scene with the horses” is one of my favorite scenes ever. The whole movie is in that scene and it was ballsy of Gilroy to film it the way he did, as it was sure to confuse some folks.
Awesome film.
I saw it in the theaters…I’ll have to give it a second viewing.
I remember being very annoyed at how Clooney avoided death near the end. He gets out of the car to look at horses (why?), the professional killers lose him, then detonate it anyways without direct line of sight?
Anybody want to clarify that for me?
The one glaring weakness is Clooney tossing some personal stuff into the car fire, thinking this will convince authorities that he died in the blast. (We learn shortly after that his death has been accepted by the authorities.) Without dental remains and or DNA from the charred bones?
Jeff:
Re the car fire: I think that you should surmise that he contacted his brother, the cop, and as part of the plot to bring down Tilda Swinton, they misled everyone…that’s just my take on it, would love to hear an insider explanation…
The one glaring weakness is actually the whole “I was taping you admit your guilt all along!” ending, which belongs in a B-level thriller.
The Horsies on the Hill strikes Clooney because of the drawing in the Realm and Conquest book. There are weaknesses in the story, unrealistic things, but in a movie like this, it’s pretty easy to suspend disbelief.
Maybe sometime in the next ten years this’ll work its way onto your best of the oughts list, Jeff?
lmao @ “40 months ago”
I still don’t love this movie. I respect the heck out of it, and have rewatched it a couple times. It seems a little… I dunno… cold, clean, slick, uber-competent, but not something that reaches too far inside me.
That said, the assassination scene is wonderfully bloodless, and Tilda Swinton has some remarkable moments (particularly when she is trying to say some very evil things without actually saying them). And Sydney Pollack turns in one of his final inimitable performances as The Man. The look on his face at the bar gathering after Arthur’s death is pure Pollack… “The dumb sonofabitch…”
I’ve actually had the exact same experience with “Michael Clayton”. I saw it theatrically in 2007 and thought it was pretty mediocre–upon first viewing, some of the plot holes and B-movie devices mentioned above are a bit more glaring.
Yet whenever I’ve come across it on HBO I’ve found it impossible to change the channel. Along with “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”, “Clayton” serves as an oddly priceless time capsule of its time and place; post financial crisis, its depiction of a glassy New York where there’s somehow never enough money really hits.
I don’t know…frostbite.
Love the flick, and it’s definitely one that could use a little love. Despite having won a high-profile Oscar and being nominated for more than you’d probably remember (7!), there are a helluva lot of people out there that have just barely heard of it.
Although, as always, the contrarian in me is really curious as to what “holds up well” really means to JR when the film in question is barely even 3 years old (I’m not even saying I disagree with him, but is that enough time to truly get enough critical distance for a reappraisal? It very well may be; I am just asking).
It’s a fucking great pic and that was apparent on my first of many viewings.
Someone brought up Lumet’s latest, and while I liked that, am I the only one that really likes Find Me Guilty? Vin Diesel was pretty charming.
Sadly, this was the first film I fell asleep in while watching it at the cinema. I was truly hungover and couldn’t keep my eyes open. Only missed about 10 minutes or so, but it impacted my opinion of it at the time.
Saw it again at home some time later and liked it a lot more. It’s a very decent film.
Kaned:
All I meant by “holds up well” is that the movie is highly rewatchable (is that even a word?) and every bit as enjoyable as it was upon first viewing. There are many films I feel strongly about upon the first viewing that I never bother to rewatch, but MC is one I have seen multiple times, and my enthusiasm for the film not only hasn’t waned, it has grown.
Feel the same way about “No Country for Old Men.” Some movies “hold up” or even get better with subsequent viewings; the vast majority don’t. I rewatched “The Hurt Locker” the other day and I enjoyed it even more than the first time I saw it, and I noticed little things I had not paid much attention to before (like the music played at the very end of the film and into the end credits).
An example of one that doesn’t hold up well, for me – “Avatar.” In fact, I couldn’t sit through the whole thing a second time, and I doubt if I will ever watch it again. Another one that hasn’t held up: “Little Miss Sunshine” – there are many others, but these 2 stand out to me since I recently rewatched them.
All highly subjective – I am not trying to instigate a pissing contest.
Jeffrey -
Perhaps you should further re-invigorate Michael Clayton with French distributor M6 Video’s Blu-ray release, which blu-ray.com holds in much higher esteem than Warner’s edition:
blu-ray.com’s review of M6 Video’s edition:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Michael-Clayton-Blu-ray/9240/#Review
..and of the Warner edition:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Michael-Clayton-Blu-ray/665/#Review
Off-topic perhaps, but while I haven’t seen(or heard) Warner’s apparent lackluster Blu-ray treatment of the film, I find it to be worth it the very best transfer, even if it means a double-dip.
And yes, the French version is region free.
“All highly subjective – I am not trying to instigate a pissing contest.”
Oh, I know you weren’t — and neither was I. Just using your post as a jumping-off point because I’m genuinely curious as to what amount of time should pass before a film can be seriously reappraised. I still think 3 years is still a bit too early for one to declare that a film has “stood the test of time” (but obviously not too early to declare that it hasn’t), but I think in some cases it does depend on a movie’s subject matter.
NCFOM is a good example of a “timeless” film that can probably go into the classic film vault as early as next year (I think there should be a 5-year minimum).
Social Network, on the other hand, is a bit trickier. I think one might have to wait until 2020 or so to get enough objective distance to properly judge. Is it possible to watch, enjoy, and — most importantly — be compelled by that flick even if Facebook (at least as we know it now) is no longer a daily part of people’s current, or maybe doesn’t even exist at all?
Personally, I’d be tempted to say “yes” because I don’t use that program. But I think that’s an instance in which we’re just going to have to let some time pass first.
Never had a problem with Clayton. Clooney’s best performance in my opinion. Okay, well he’s pretty good in The American as well. Still I love the end where he just has the taxi driver drive him around. It’s about one man’s moral dilemma and how he eventually comes around to understanding that it’s not just his but everyone’s. The horses are just the representation of his moment of zen, imo.
I absolutely love Michael Clayton. I saw it three times in the theater. I thought Clooney knocked it out of the park and should have won Best Actor. This is by far the best performance of his career. I thought the casting in this movie was perfect for every role. Sydney Pollack was so great even with minimal screen time. I tell everyone I talk to that this is a must see.
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