A-List: George Clooney
By Josh Spiegel
November 12, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But for this week's A-List, Clooney is being highlighted because of his third project, the most eclectic of all. What could be more eclectic than co-starring with a hippiefied Jeff Bridges in a movie about goat-centered psychosis? How about a starring role as a walking, talking fox? A fox married to another fox voiced by Meryl Streep? A fox whose son is voiced by Jason Schwartzman? Oh, and the whole thing, called Fantastic Mr. Fox, is in stop-motion animation...and it was directed by Wes Anderson, the auteur behind The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore. Though he's best thought of as a leading man, it's hard not to see George Clooney as the A-List King of Quirk, especially with these movies.
Clooney is well-respected in Hollywood partly for his unique choices in topic. His most famous directorial collaborator is Steven Soderbergh, who worked with him in quite a few films, including Solaris, The Good German, and a few other movies that may just appear in this list. Three of his most recent films were helmed by Joel and Ethan Coen, two of the quirkier Hollywood helmers. Now, with Anderson among the directors he's worked with, once Clooney works with, say, Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, or Paul Thomas Anderson, he'll have achieved the Triple Crown, the hat trick, and other sports metaphors regarding auteur directors. Let's bask in some more Clooney glow and get to this week's list.
Out of Sight
Though it's worth noting that Clooney's career started before 1998's modern noir classic Out of Sight, his only notable performance is in From Dusk Till Dawn, a cheesy but fun horror-action movie about a couple of convicts, the broken family they kidnap, and the vampires that descend upon them in Mexico. However, his time as a movie star began around roughly the time that he walked onscreen here, as Jack Foley, a bank thief so charming and believable that he just about holds up a bank without raising his voice or using a gun. Foley, an iconic Elmore Leonard creation, ends up escaping out of prison and running into the woman who will haunt and hound him for the rest of the movie, Karen Sisco. Sisco, a U.S marshal, is played by Jennifer Lopez in her sexiest and best performance (yes, I realize the choices are few, but she is genuinely good). Their cat-and-mouse takes up the majority of Out of Sight.
In many ways, Out of Sight was not as huge a boost for Clooney as it was for the film's director, Soderbergh. The bespectacled director had been wallowing in self-absorbed projects for most of the 1990s, but when this fell into his lap, he brought the right amount of flash and style while letting Clooney and Lopez's natural chemistry do the rest. Audiences were convinced, though the film's box office wasn't as impressive as the film's impact is lasting. Though the term gets bandied about often (most recently, with regards to Mad Men star Jon Hamm), Out of Sight presented George Clooney with his first role akin to anything in the filmography of Cary Grant. His suavity isn't matched by the dimwit nature of his cohorts or the criminals around him, portrayed by the likes of Steve Zahn, Don Cheadle, and Albert Brooks, among others; however, the cool oozes off the screen here.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
"Damn, we're in a tight spot!" Despite being the least faithful and most ridiculous version of Homer's classic epic The Odyssey, this 2000 Coen Brothers picture is the most fun and funny. Clooney is Ulysses Everett McGill, a recently escaped convict dragging along two other inmates, Pete and Delmar. He claims to hunt for treasure, but really just wants to get home to his loving wife, Penelope. Of course, once he finds her, he sees that Penelope has gotten involved with someone else, someone who is "bona fide". That won't stop Ulysses, to the point that he'll dress up as both a Ku Klux Klan member and as a bluegrass singer. I know, you're wondering how The Odyssey is connected at all, but can I point you in the direction of John Goodman, as the Cyclops as Bible salesman?
Yes, O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a bit of fun, but the bluegrass music is infectious, the cinematography by Roger Deakins is appropriately dusty-looking, and the screenplay is about as wordy and weird as something from the Coens gets (the scene where Goodman and Clooney first meet in a restaurant is deliciously verbose). Clooney proved here not that he could be a leading man, but that he had a sense of humor. In each of his collaborations with Joel and Ethan Coen, the filmmakers have sought to make fun of Clooney's public image; in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they constantly make fun of his hair, by having Ulysses always look for some Dapper Dan pomade to get his hair just so. Nothing about this movie ever gets old, especially Clooney's frustrated charisma.
Ocean's Eleven/Twelve/Thirteen
Yes, I'm putting all three Ocean's movies here, from the 2001 remake to the 2007 threequel, all directed by Soderbergh. Most people, granted, aren't big fans of the second film, which certainly is deserving of the accusations that it's just an excuse for a lot of pretty people to hang out in fancy, palatial mansions. However, in the middle of all that hanging out is a brilliant, bizarre sequence in which Bruce Willis, playing himself, gets involved with Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts), who's pretending to be...Julia Roberts. The best running gag, to me, is how every one of the Ocean's gang dealing with Willis brags that they knew way before the end of The Sixth Sense what the twist would be.
Okay, so none of that has anything to do with Clooney, but his seemingly easy charm is one of the most enjoyable aspects of all three films. In the third film, for example, it's proven that all you need to do to get Al Pacino to stop blustering around like a madman is just stick Danny Ocean in front of him. Clooney's best when he's ribbing Brad Pitt, playing Ocean's best bud, Rusty Ryan; another top scene, possibly the best in the series, is a tete-a-tete with Roberts in the first film in a fancy restaurant. Their back-and-forth volleying here is the closest we've gotten to Tracy and Hepburn or Grant and any female costar in years. Though the series isn't beloved, if it gets Steven Soderbergh money for other movies, I say bring on Ocean's Fourteen.
Good Night, and Good Luck.
In 2002, George Clooney decided to go the way of previous Hollywood pretty boys such as Warren Beatty and Robert Redford, and get behind the camera, sit in the director's chair and make his own movie. That film, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, is one of the rarer beasts: it's pretty flawed, but truly fascinating to behold. A mix of the Coens and Steven Soderbergh, the film sports a phenomenal lead performance by Sam Rockwell, flashy cinematography, but not a fully impressive piece of work. His follow-up, a Best Picture nominee of 2005, though, didn't disappoint. Good Night, and Good Luck. is Clooney's sharpest effort in terms of making a political point without seeming preachy. The story of how Edward Murrow helped bring down Joseph McCarthy during the height of the Red Scare, the film is not only engrossing but stylish, well-made, and perfectly acted.
As Murrow, David Strathairn gets one of the best yet least emotional leading roles there is. Even when he's not delivering his scathing diatribes in a monotone to the CBS TV audience, Murrow doesn't raise his voice or even get too playful with his producer and friend, Fred Friendly (Clooney). His fight against the system is painful to watch, if only because we know that a win won't feel to successful. Clooney's direction, though, is slick and seamless, offering the best of black-and-white cinematography, courtesy of Oscar-winner Robert Elswit. What's more, he's able to blend the main action with an intriguing subplot featuring Robert Downey, Jr. Clooney's third film, Leatherheads, wasn't a big success, but hopefully, he'll get behind the camera soon.
Michael Clayton
I'll admit this much up front: I am not a big fan of Michael Clayton, the movie. For one, I have begun to hate, hate, HATE the screenwriting device that's so often employed in films and on TV, in which we are introduced to a shocking bit of action at the beginning, and then rewind to find out how that action came to be. In Michael Clayton, we open with the title character, played by Clooney, inadvertently extricating himself from his car before it blows up. And then we take the next 90 minutes to find out how he got himself in that position. Thanks for killing the suspense! See, now, I'll know that, when Clooney gets into the same car 90 minutes from now, it'll blow up but he won't be in it. Real buzzkill, if you ask me.
However, I am very much of a fan of Clooney's performance in this film. Is it good or bad that the final ten minutes are seriously awesome, way more than the rest of the film? His final face-off with Tilda Swinton, as a conflicted but immoral corporate lawyer, despite being spoiled in the previews, is the stuff of legend. Following that up with the final shot, focusing on Clooney in a taxi, is real genius. Now, if the rest of the movie was as awesome, I'd be in love. As it stands, Clooney's performance as a corporate fixer who gets in too deep is generally and genuinely great; frankly, it looks like his role in Up In The Air will be similar if lighter. Michael Clayton was a failure of script and direction, not of performances, especially not the lead.