Come anticipate "Michael Clayton"

ya i'm looking forward to this.

i'm anticipating it.

I'm a little put off by the 'A Civil Action'-ness and Grisham parallels.

I can't think of a single courtroom drama film I've ever enjoyed

I'm looking for to this and also Leatherheads. What are a Clooney going to call his own independent film festival?

So you haven't enjoyed 70% of talkies?

(xpost)

(actually, I haven't enjoyed 70% of talkies)

This doesn't quite look like a courtroom drama, but tense/paranoid Clooney Oscar bait... Armond White convicts it of imitating the "dullness" of All the President's Men (AW and jblount, sep'd at birth).

So you haven't enjoyed 70% of talkies?

? I assume you have a bit of a broader definition of "courtroom drama" than I do

Simply that a large perecentage of talking films are courtroom dramas.

Re AW: I've gotten to the point where I enjoy his work and will likely vote the other way.

of TALKY films? that aren't by Eric Rohmer or Kevin Smith?

This is out in the UK already. I quite enjoyed it, but you could tell the Clooney audience generally wasn't. Lots of people left. It's pretty dry stuff. Stylish, mind. The direction seemed fresh, but maybe didn't ultimately achieve that much.

It's not a courtroom drama, in that none of it takes place within a court.

There's a great closing shot.

It's great to have a chance to watch Sydney Pollack on screen again, too.

Fuck, I've just read that he's been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.

That sucks! My favorite screen lout of the last 30 years.

What a spectactularly muddled movie.

I would have liked it more without the D, E, and F plots getting in the way.

This is out in the UK already. I quite enjoyed it, but you could tell the Clooney audience generally wasn't. Lots of people left.

Well, at least they left, unlike the chorus of yappy girls who were sitting behind me when I saw it.

I thought it was good, but as good as films should be rather than completely brilliant. It has a lovely low-key seventies washed-out feel to it, and I really like the fact that it doesn't piss about much, but it was slightly disappointing.

Hmph. More thoughts here. Gilroy turned Tilda Swinton into Glenn Close in Dangerous Liasions.

this movie is okay. not great.

i couldnt believe they cheaped out the ending that way. i mean come on. how many fucking lame thrillers have ended like that. pathetic.

This was great fun!

I'm not happy with the ending either. For a moment I thought Gilroy had turned Michael Clayton into a Dick Diver sort of figure - wandering from town to town, never settling with anyone/where for too long, content to have made his mark as a mediocrity.

luvd it! details so sweet.

the "i got you to sputter out your evil plan while i was secretly wearing a wire" thing is so played... it's like a straight-to-video plot device at this point

the only thing that could have made that worse was if he had also broadcast her confession over the hotel's PA system to the shock and consternation of the company's stockholders.

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan that is blown up in this film was first used in filming of The Devil Wears Prada (2006). For the earlier film it was cut in two for use in process shots featuring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. It was then welded back together and repainted in order to be blown up in ‘Michael Clayton’.

the only thing that could have made that worse was if he had also broadcast her confession over the hotel's PA system to the shock and consternation of the company's stockholders.

Is there time to re-edit this for wider release??

Tilda Swinton is used for her sweaty armpits and White Witch face.

I can't decide if her American accent was good or not.

tilda swinton's armpits are insured for a million dollars each

they're the most naturally sweaty in the business.

Upon reflection there wasn't anything wrong with her accent but it had a kind of mealy Canadian over-enunciated to it.

Wilkinson has a knock-out American accent though.

watch what you say about canadians.

enunciatedion

Why?

i did mostly like this movie, the ending just really rubbed me the wrong way and removed any pretensions that this was in any way a morally ambiguous or challenging film.

unlike ben affleck's gone baby gone! (srsly... it's really good!)

Why?

-- Tracer Hand, Wednesday, October 17, 2007 3:33 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

i mean watch how you say it.

It was sort of crap that the horses were wearing bridles. Why would they have bridles on?

The confrontation between Swinton and Clooney at the end was brilliant and I wouldn't trade it for anything. What comes after that was pretty Scooby Doo though, I agree. It would have been just as satisfying and much cooler for one of the kids at that (gigantic) white clapboard farmhouse to go down to the mailbox one morning and find a spiral-bound red booklet peeking out the front...

I got some problems with some of the Peter Finch-style nonsense that Wilkinson's gotta bellow too.

But, god, Sydney Pollack is great.

always.

i wish he was my uncle or something.

I'm all excited about the Affleck movie, especially after seeing Wire-Omar in the preview.

But otherwise, yeah, I can't believe she fell for the old "recording device confession" trick. And I'm not sure blowing up George Clooney's car is Baron Von Subtelty as far as covering-up-conspiracies goes.

But yeah, this falls in the "Mystic River" great movie/shame about the ending bracket.

i do like how all the trailers paint this as really intense and whiteknuckle and everything but really leave you no clue as to what the plot setup is. CLOONEY is BARKING at PEOPLE and STUFF is HAPPENING.

Yeah, it's the same in this till about one hour through. It's the sort of movie ILX people like to call middlebrow, whatever that means (and they're probably right), but it's really not a bad effort. At the very lest, Wilkinson is very memorable, despite the crap accent.

His accent was great though?!

hey this was pretty awesome. I was completely sold on Clooney selling out at the end in pure frustration and fuckitallitude. And then they dropped the ridiculous wire thing (which was really kind of lame - she offered him money, never admits to having the other guy whacked or trying to whack him! that's like 1/10 as awful as the memo that he's already given the police.

Extremely pretty film. Love how it all seems to be shot at dawn or before morning really gets going, even the city bits. Clooney was great. Didn't think the ending was that bad, and I really liked the final shot in the cab.

Agree with nearly all that, but am with s1ocki here ... the motorola ex machina is lazy.

The more I think about it, the more I realize how ridiculously conceived Tilda Swinton's role was.

how so?

she's used for her sweaty armpits and white-faced anxiety.

enjoy those EMP conference presentations

i didn't want to see this but maybe i'll catch it on dvd. it did look a little grishamy for my taste, though.

If my opinion has any validity, omar, it was really, really, really good. And not very Grishamy at all. The most effecting scenes were the least 'ploty.' Like Clayton watching the horses, or the shots of him rising out of the city underground like a man ascending from hell.

this sounds like a cross between black stallion and hellboy so i am vv intrigued o_O

i have liked what i've seen of the sad bastard look of the film

can this wait til disc? Feb 19

i really enjoyed the film, but it's true legacy was the poster.

The plot is familiar and a bit predictable, but it's extremely well made and there's are interesting themes of disappointment and wasted lives running through it. Wilkinson is terrific.

And Tilda Swinton's character is entirely realistic.

Part of me wants to see this with my wife just so I can be a big baby and say "SEE WHAT LAW SCHOOL IS GOING TO DO TO ME! SEE!!!"

otm re: familiar plot. i kept thinking 'i know i've seen this movie before!'

tilda swinton's character was the best part of the movie, i think!

really really really liked this

i didn't think the end was hokey at all! i think they skate the overdoneness of the wire thing by not explicitly turning him into michael clayton THE HERO. no coronation, no check, no pat on the back-- and even though that would totally go against who clayton is as a person and professional, i think there's still a sense that something isn't totally right with his life as he rides away in the cab. i mean it's not like it ends with him in front of the UN or something.

also cake otm about how this looked. i was watching on a shitty tv that i routinely have to hit with a show to stop the screen from shaking and i was still struck by how pretty and clean this was

shoe*

Saw it on a plane -- catches the feel of big law firm life (including facing all those dawns in boring expensive suits) better than any other big movie I have ever seen.

Just saw this for the second time. Maybe I'm just picking a world very alien to me to over-romanticize, but I found it really powerful. It's a very American film, as much as TWBB, I think.

Also, Pollack was amazing. I had no idea he produced it.

I just watched it tonight, and loved it. I don't think it could be more perfect. And so blessedly far from the Grisham dramas that you come to expect with 'legal' movies. Kinda noir, and beautifully shot. The horses made me cry a little. The closing credits, with Clooney in the cab...I've got a whole new appreciation for the fella now. And Gilroy! Major props.

this was a totally dope movie--opening monologue plus shots of night-time office buildings was awesome

i loved it too, especially the MYSTIC HORSES

i kept expecting one of them to start talking

Saw this last night, not bad. It definitely has a dreamlike quality, which is cool and all, but it was really hard to get a sense of time (ie within the 4 days) or place (when he was outside of the city).

this was really good. i liked the way tilda went about ordering the um, you know...

pizza!!!!!!

shhh do you wanna spoil the movie?

I loved the way she talked the first time she called those guys. Giving them the password really weirdly/nervously, etc.

this took its sweet fucking time getting where it was going though didn't it

I liked a LOT of this film but it could've been a little edited? I think? also the score is either appropriate or not, I can't figure out whether he is supposed to be dead and floating in purgatory or if he is actually in new york.

the credits cabride is great.

also check out waht somebody JUST PUT UP on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Michael_Clayton_horses_hill.jpg

finally got around to this last week and loved it. early on i thought "oh no this is gonna be the Network of 2007" but thankfully the writer/director didn't let the Truth ranting get out of control. the cab ride closeup kept perspective and totally sold the otherwise oversized finale. clooney looked agreeably worn.

i liked this a lot. good to see that one dude from 'real genius' playing a black ops type killer.

http://www.sofacinema.co.uk/guardian/images/products/9/3359-large.jpg

oh holy shit that was KENT

"If you wanted to commit me, you should have kept me in Wisconsin, where my arrest, the videotape, and the eyewitness statements would have been enough to satisfy jurisdiction. I have no criminal record in the state of New York. And there's only one standard for involuntary commitment: danger. Is the subject a danger to himself or to others? If you want to do this, Michael, you better have your balls in order because the one place you don't want to see me is in court!"

This really expresses the fact that the concept of going crazy is often just letting go of an otherwise bedrock presumption you have, and the results thereof. Arthur, apparently THE litigator at this firm, just decided that he was not going to spend the rest of his life as a wingtip warrior, and lets it go. But he loses none of his powers and skills as a litigator.

While this may have seemed like bluster, it really was a powerful lawyer moment. And well played by Wilkinson.

"If you wanted to commit me, you should have kept me in Wisconsin, where my arrest, the videotape, and the eyewitness statements would have been enough to satisfy jurisdiction. I have no criminal record in the state of New York. And there's only one standard for involuntary commitment: danger. Is the subject a danger to himself or to others? If you want to do this, Michael, you better have your balls in order because the one place you don't want to see me is in court!"

Incorrectly quoted. The correct version is below.

Michael, I have great affection for you and you live a very rich and interesting life, but you're a bag man not an attorney. If your intention was to have me committed you should have kept me in Wisconsin where the arrest report, the videotape, eyewitness reports of my inappropriate behavior would have had jurisdictional relevance. I have no criminal record in the state of New York, and the single determining criteria for involuntary commitment is danger. Is the defendant a danger to himself or to others. You think you got the horses for that? Well good luck and God bless, but I'll tell you this: the last place you want to see me is in court.

good movie. great mise en scene.

good Clooney too

i finally saw this the other month. enjoyed it, good to see an old-fashioned corporate thriller. my major quibble is that the tilda swinton character's level of sheer evilness was hard for me to swallow (the old woman-needing-to-prove-her-toughness thing seemed sorta '80s-thrillerish -- although i guess that's another side of its old-fashionedness). clooney was good, loved tom wilkinson.

yeah, i had problems with the level of evil, but it's a hollywood movie, whaddyagonnado

i was excited that the lawyers talked like lawyers

I'm glad Swinton was the one singled out from this cast for the Oscar. She had the least playable role, so I give her credit for trying to at least tackle it.

yeah i liked her first scene where she's prepping for the interview. i like tilda. but she's got that pale angular thing that has a tendency to get her cast as castrating bitch.

i haven't seen her cast as that in this or otherwise. she gets cast as worried/bloodless.

well maybe frigid/repressed more than castrating. but she was pretty emasculatory in adaptation.

trailer for something in the same vein by clayton writer/director, playing before milk screenings at the mo.

my major quibble is that the tilda swinton character's level of sheer evilness was hard for me to swallow

Her character's evil in that corporate banal sort of way, no?

As the White Witch, she's truly evil.

Yeah, gimme Swinton in the otherwise boring Narnia movies any day.

i love this movie for the cinematography as much as anything else

Still love this film. Slightly worried about Gilroy's next one: http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/duplicity/

what about the cinematography? the color palette? the tight shots?

i wonder when they made the decision to front-load the explosion. was it in the shooting script or was it in the editing? did they feel the opening needed more of a hook? cuz it also really kills the suspense of that sequence when it comes later int he movie.

still have never seen, ie fuck the Oscars

why gabb did u not like the photograhpy? i love the way the cinematographer gives each location a different feeling without sacrificing an overall aesthetic--everything is lush and stable and sort of old-fashioned, in a good way--beautiful colors and expert lighting

still have never seen, ie fuck the Oscars

― Dr Morbius, Monday, December 1, 2008 4:05 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what does this mean?

i dunno, i liked the unexplained 'splosion at the beginning and then working up to it later. would there really have been that much suspense with it at the end? it was in the trailer and everything, you knew there was gonna be a car explosion at some point.

xpost

DP also did there will be blood

and.. gigli!!

also syriana and good night good luck - hes basically clooney's boyfriend

still have never seen, ie fuck the Oscars

― Dr Morbius, Monday, December 1, 2008 4:05 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what does this mean?

― s1ocki, Monday, December 1, 2008 10:08 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

come on Morbs, at least take a shot at defending your nose-cutting and face-spiting.

people who liked the cinematography here will luuuuv "wallender", the new cop show starring kenneth branagh as the titular swede

on a flat screen TV the photography is so good it's almost distracting

i didn't dislike the photography, i just didn't notice it much. i'm not too into the shoehorning everything into a single aesthetic thing, tho.

When they came out I remember liking Syriana more than this, but I can't remember one thing from Syriana except George Clooney's beard and I remember most of Michael Clayton's major plot points pretty well.

This was a good movie. I watched the whole thing thinking it was about a real person :[

im not too into you, gabbneb

o dam

lol zings aside thats not really what i said anyway--nothing is "shoehorned," the movie has a unified visual aesthetic, like many fine movies

i lol'd

zings aside

gabbneb who is the michael clayton of ilx lawyers

but michael clayton fixed things--what does gabby fix

i think u misread him mr que

oh he was missing a ?

thanking u for citechecking gabby

yes and a comma technically

http://gothamist.com/2008/12/06/prominent_nyc_lawyer_arrested_in_ca.php

wish clooney sold out

It would have perhaps made for a more complex experience but it's hollywood, whattyagonnado.
Still a pretty good movie with better than good acting.

Anytime this movie is on cable while I'm awake and not at work, I find it and watch it to the end. True story.

Although I still can't figure out how this really ends. "Michael Clayton 2: Houseboat & A Fake ID Chronicles"

MC2: Claytoner

he just got in that taxi and took off into the manhattan sunset. some stay he got off in jersey, found a wife, and lived happily after, but me, well, i tend to think hes still in that taxi, circlin this little island we traded for a string of beads, thinkin on his life, and waitin, waiting till hes needed again.

i happen to think he got involved in illegal night-time car racing in downtown miami

either that or his son get kidnaped and held hostage at the top of the burj dubai

Why did Tilda win an Oscar for this? I mean, she was fine, but...... really, an Oscar?

because she validated every kneejerk stereotype of the amoral career woman, silly

The stink of her wet armpits made Academy voters lightheaded.

you're obsessed with her armpits in this movie

i dunno, i thought she was pretty brilliant -- thought she conveyed the grasping desperation and isolation concealed beneath a fastidious veneer in a very understated performance, she was the villain but quite human too

i don't know who she won out over but i love a tilda and can't begrudge her the statuette

Yeah, I've come around to the performance (and the pits).

maybe it's cause she should have won best actress for orlando so the judges were giving her a make-up win

Amy Ryan was her only real competition (and Ruby Dee's ridiculous 8-second scene).

her armpits were totally overlooked in orlando.

her role could have easily been overplayed as a campy ballbusting nightmare woman but it would have ruined the movie

sean cullen deserves a lot of credit for holding his own in his scenes with clooney, I think
I love the monologue to his kid in the car

Question: does Michael Clayton appear to get any sleep during the last two of the four days this movie takes place in?

her role could have easily been overplayed as a campy ballbusting nightmare woman but it would have ruined the movie

Faye Dunaway would've been kinda fun tho.

i love orlando but don't recall it being a command performance, she is mostly modelling as a faery waif the whole movie

i thought amy ryan should have won the award by tilda was pretty dope in this too

The extremely hyperbullshitic Mythic, Mithraic Mysticism of Michael Clayton

seems pretty airtight to me

But there is as much - if not more - mythic symbolism in Michael Clayton, which you wouldn't expect in a legal thriller of this type. Unless said thriller was written and directed by one of the primary screenwriters in yet another of my top 20 films, The Devil's Advocate.

The Devil's Advocate.

Whoa, this kicked ass.

Got this on Blu-Ray for $8 or so the other week. Liked it a lot when it was new, still like it now.

confession: I saw this for the first time today!

idk why i never saw it, i think at the time i heard the title & thought it was like a Michael Collins movie idk honestly that sounds bad i know! i didnt even know it was Tony Gilroy til today!
ugh! i fucked up

ANYWAY this movie rules, this is like god-tier Clooney & i love how he carries all the shit he’s carrying physically and behind his eyes so good i need to watch it again

(Maybe dumb) QUESTION: why were those horses wearing bridles? just hanging out in a field like that with bridles on. it was weird. is that a horsey thing that horse ppl do, like keep the bridle on so they can just saddle them right up whenever like a warmed-up car? i have only known kept horses to be unbridled unless they’re in the act of being ridden.

still have never seen, ie fuck the Oscars

― Dr Morbius, Monday, December 1, 2008 4:05 PM (sixteen years ago)

Hope he got around to it without coming back to the thread.