Showing posts with label George Clooney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Clooney. Show all posts

Monday, February 6, 2017

All the Pretty Horses

Michael Clayton (2007) - Gilroy
Michael-Clayton-Still-1024x427
Was on TV. It was a pretty riveting. The moral angst in George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson's faces is so meaty and heavy, it could smother a dozen vegetarians to death. Tilda Swinton is superb as nervous as wreck corporate whore who gets her biggest comeuppances at the end. You can see the lineage of her Karen in Toni Erdmann's Ines. Really though, the best thing about Michael Clayton is that George Clooney is saved by bunch of horses.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Un-American

The American (2010) - Corbijn

Anton Corbijn's film is as precise as its title character Jack/Edward(George Clooney), a weapon maker/assassin in Italy. There is a Once Upon a Time in the West on TV in Italian cafe where brooding Jack drinks his 'Cafe Americano'. It's quite clear Corbijn is paying tribute to its Ford - Kurosawa - Leone/Melville, West/East/West genre borrowing by masters. The American has a very un-American feel to it. It has the mood of Le Samurai and other yesteryear's fatalistic brooding noirs of 'I just died in your arms tonight' variety. Corbijn trades fedoras, raincoats and jazz clubs in for no nonsense, undeniably American George Clooney in a minimalistic quaint European city setting. There are some effectively tense scenes throughout. Unlike its ominous title, the film is a completely subtext-free genre exercise.