Michael Clayton Review

MICHAEL CLAYTON
Plot :		Originality :
Acting :		Style :
Characters :		Replay :
Genre :		Tilt :

The Vitals :

Rated :	R
Runtime :	1:59
Directed By :	Tony Gilroy
Starring :	George Clooney
	Tom Wilkinson
	Sydney Pollack
	Tilda Swinton
	Michael O’Keefe

I really didn’t know anything at all about this movie coming into it, so I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to reveal to you what the movie is about or to leave you with that kind of uncertain ‘what is going on’ kind of feeling that I had throughout the early stages of the movie. In a way, I think that feeling gave the movie more of an edge-of-your-seat kind of feel.

Without revealing too much, Michael Clayton (Clooney) plays a ‘janitor’ as his colleagues describe him who is responsible for cleaning up legal messes involving clients of a high-end firm he works for. Early on in the movie we are shown an example of his work when he is summoned to the house of one of his vacationing colleague’s clients to help him deal with a ‘mess’ he has made. Turns out this man has hit someone while driving home and needs the issue to be buried before he gets into legal trouble.

There’s a lot of depth to Clayton’s character which makes him feel extremely real. He’s probably divorced – although I can’t ever recall the movie stating this we do see him visiting his son and his wife seems to have gotten cozy with another man. He’s a recovering gambling addict, so much so that it got him into financial trouble and his friends all know him for it. He’s just recently tried to open a restaurant and failed, sinking him into even deeper debt with his creditors. He’s got a rocky relationship with his brother, who tried to help him open the restaurant and has a serious drinking problem. And to add to all of this, the events of the movie cause him to question whether or not this ’shady’ job is right for him. He was a good trial lawyer and he pines for the simpler days, to which his colleagues reply,” You were a good trial lawyer, but you’re great at this.”

Sydney Pollack is great as Clayton’s boss.

Clooney plays Clayton well. He has this brooding, contemplative look to him throughout the whole movie. The crow’s feet around his eyes give us an indication of the stress that he’s been put under on a daily basis. He has a darker expression than the Clooney we are used to from films like the ‘Ocean’s 11′ series. Very rare are the smiles that make women faint, instead replaced with sort of a melancholy glower that would surely win him a staredown with most anyone.

Tom Wilkinson plays the eccentric Arthur Edens, Clayton’s long time friend and fellow big-shot lawyer albeit one of the normal kinds. Wilkinson is working on a big case defending a genetic agriculture company called uNorth – a case so big that he’s been locked up with it for 6 years, more than 30,000 man-hours of work he says. Clayton is brought into the picture because at a meeting, Edens inexplicably goes a little bonkers and strips naked in front of the plaintiffs and chases them through the parking lot. Clooney is brought in to clean up the situation.

Take your meds Tom, no more nakedness.

Where I will leave you with my plot synopsis here is that Edens has stumbled upon something in his defense of this company, something that troubled him so deeply that he got off his meds which caused him to go crazy at the meeting in question. That something is sort of the heart of this movie. Can Clayton keep it a secret ? Does he want to ? The internal struggle Clayton faces as well as the struggle between sides is what this movie is about.

No spoilers here, but I will say that the ending is very well done. I particularly liked the performance by Tilda Swinton, who had built her character up to be this person that is incredibly anxious and doesn’t cope well with stress. As the movie goes on, we watch her topple like a house of cards under the weight of the building importance of her actions.

The story is a little more complex than I reveal and it’s kind of told in a different way. Here, the director decides to use the standard ‘4 months earlier’ about 20 minutes into the movie and we are taken back and shown the events leading up to the present. I’ll admit that when the screen said ‘4 months earlier’ I audibly groaned. Flashbacks are all too commonly done wrong and needlessly. Here however, it did add a little zest because for the first 20 minutes we were (or at least I was) pretty confused.

The movie doesn’t offer much unique in the way of visuals or cinematography, but it doesn’t really need to given its setting. One thing that did kind of stand out to me when Clayton stopped by the side of a road, got out of his company-issued Mercedes, and walked up a grassy hill to confront three horses standing by a tree that looked eerily familiar to an illustration in a book he had just examined. The general tone of the movie is dark and is reinforced with the visuals – a large part of the movie takes place at night. The score reinforces it with moody bass – and it all serves as a good backdrop for the events that are going on.

The movie isn’t perfect though. Although it does stand out from your common business drama movie, it still isn’t terribly original. The outlook it takes has been done before. Some people might find the film a little long or confusing. If you’re not a Clooney fan, that’s going to be hard to get past in this movie because you see a lot of him.

All told though, Michael Clayton was a film that seemed to get more interesting as it went on, which is much better than the other way around, and if you can stick with it you’ll be rewarded with a great finish. I even liked the strange somber mood during the credits as we watch Clooney ride in a cab. Go see it (or since this is a little later on in its life, rent it on DVD).

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Review

ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES…
Plot :		Originality :
Acting :		Style :
Characters :		Replay :
Genre :		Tilt :

The Vitals :

Rated :	R
Runtime :	2:40
Directed By :	Andrew Dominik
Starring :	Brad Pitt
	Casey Affleck
	Sam Rockwell
	Mary-Louise Parker
	Sam Shepard

In rating this movie, I had a really hard time deciding what genre it belonged to. It’s a western sure, but this isn’t your grandpa’s six-shooter spaghetti western. It’s got a plot that isn’t so straight and narrow – something we can sink our teeth into. It’s kind of a biopic, but there are a lot of characters and it jumps around following different ones at different times. Sure there’s action mixed in as well, but I think it is best described as a drama – one that just happens to be a period-piece as well.

Brad Pitt is the big name here, starring as the title character Jesse James, but the real main character of the movie is the other title character Robert Ford – played by Casey Affleck. Having recently watched a mediocre Affleck in ‘Gone Baby Gone’, I must say that this performance is much better. No surprises really about how the movie progresses, the title pretty much tells you what’s going to happen. Of course, if you’re a historian and you know a little more about the events that transpired, you may question how true to fact this movie really is. I wondered that myself sitting in the theater, but I was uneducated as to the topic matter. So, just now I did some looking on the internet and from what I can tell the movie is very factual. It might take some liberties with the details, but as far as I can tell the events happen as they really did.

When we join the James Gang at the beginning of the film, they are encamped in a forest anticipating the heist that is to come. We find out that the original James Gang has been mostly decimated by arrests and deaths, and pretty much the remaining members are a middle-aged Jesse James and his older brother Frank James played very well by the grizzled Sam Shepherd. The rest of the gang is formed of loose relatives and acquaintances including supposed cousins Robert Ford and his brother Charles (Sam Rockwell). It seems like the James brothers have more ‘cousins’ than they know what to do with. Anyhow, the robbery at Blue Cut, Missouri proceeds as planned and although the haul is a little light the James brothers had decided that this would be their last train robbery and the time had come to attempt living as a normal citizen.

The train robbery is a memorable scene

Jesse befriends Robert… well actually I don’t know if befriend is the right word. More like ‘is amused by’. Anyway, Jesse is amused by Robert Ford, and so he invites him to stay with him for a couple of days after the robbery. Nothing could please young Mr. Ford more, having been a fan of the myth that is Jesse James his whole adolescent life. Later on in the movie, we see a shoebox under Robert’s bed filled with Jesse James comics and ‘nickel-books’.

The character of Jesse James is presented in a fantastic way in this movie. He isn’t the bullet-firing, masked renegade that I expected. He is a calm, calculated, thinker that can read people so well he probably would have been a hell of a poker player. Pitt is perfectly suited for this. His facial expressions and mannerisms let us in a little on what Jesse is thinking, but we’re never quite certain what he’ll do next. He is always alert, always thinking, always on his toes. What does Jesse know? What doesn’t he know? This builds the drama and draws in the audience.

James usually has a far-off look, like he is calculating scenarios in his mind.

Some time passes and James eventually plans another bank robbery. We’re not sure why … maybe the last haul wasn’t enough, or maybe he just has an itch he has to scratch. His list of allies growing slimmer as the reward on his head increases, Jesse turns to Charles Ford to assist him in a bank robbery. Charles recommends that they bring Robert along – and although Jesse is rightfully suspicious of him he agrees.

I don’t want to go too far into what happens next for fear of ruining the movie for anyone – so I’ll just point out one major observation I had about the scene that is the title of the movie. Jesse more or less figures out that Robert is going to betray him (or at least we think he does – which is the beauty of this movie … we’re never sure) and Robert seems to pick up on this. Inexplicably, Jesse disarms himself and places himself in a very compromising position. Why would someone so intellectual let this happen? I can only draw two conclusions. Either he believed that Robert would not have the guts to do what he did or wouldn’t do it at that time in Jesse’s own house with his family present, or he wanted to be killed. The more I thought about it the more I leaned towards the latter. Dying makes him a legend and if he didn’t much care for the life of an upstanding citizen, that would be a way out. I’ll leave it to you to decide what you think.

The movie is a bit long and a bit sluggish at times, but it’s entirely forgivable when you take the movie as a whole. The score is interestingly done. I vividly recall thinking that the score was perfectly done during the train robbery. Deep, ominous tones that foretold bad things coming for the train’s passengers. The same bit is used later only this time against Jesse James on the moments leading up to his death. Other times the score is quirkly, almost whimsical and at least for my taste it didn’t seem to fit the mood of the movie.

I can’t complain about the costume or settings the movie utilizes except I guess to say that with the similarly bland clothes and beards some of the more minor characters start to blend together after a while. But there’s only so much you can do with a Western in terms of the dusty roads and towns with wooden houses and picket fences. Utilizing the wheat fields and forests in many scenes was a good choice.

Gay ? I don’t know… I don’t see it.

There are rumblings on the internet about the movie implying that Robert Ford was gay and desired a relationship with Jesse James. I can see why people might think that, but I think for the most part people might just be taking the ‘hero-worship’ thing a little too far. It’s a compliment to Affleck though that this element of the movie was portrayed in such a strong light.

Despite all the praise I can give it, the movie might have a hard time fitting in with many of its potential fans. Western fans will be confused and bored by the plodding pace of the movie. Action fans won’t find enough action to satisfy. Jesse James fans will be less than enthusiastic about all the time where Jesse James is almost a secondary character in the movie. History buffs might poke holes in the plot or costumes or what have you. There’s very little romance to be found. But for the all-around movie lover there’s a lot to like here and it’s definitely worth your time. The more I think about it, the more I liked it.

Gone Baby Gone Review

GONE BABY GONE
Plot :		Originality :
Acting :		Style :
Characters :		Replay :
Genre :		Tilt :

The Vitals :

Rated :	R
Runtime :	1:54
Directed By :	Ben Affleck
Starring :	Casey Affleck
	Michelle Monaghan
	Ed Harris
	Morgan Freeman
	John Ashton
	Amy Ryan
	Titus Welliver

Gone Baby Gone follows a kidnapping in present-day Boston. The victim is 4-year-old Allison McCready, and from what we can tell her aunt and uncle seem to care more about this than her mother who is quite the drug addict and is involved in some shady behavior. The police are on the case and seem to be doing their job, but Allison’s aunt Bea is so grief stricken that out of desperation she reaches out to two private investigators in an attempt to augment the police’s ongoing investigation.

The private eyes seem in over their heads at first, in fact even debating amongst themselves whether to take the case. We get the impression that they are used to working smaller cases with far less media attention. The detectives that are assigned to helping them work the case seem to agree, trying to handle the lion’s share of the workload on their own. Will the young PIs rise to the occasion?

The story is told in an interesting fashion, but there’s something strange about it. It’s almost like it feels like the point that it’s driving at is more thoughtful than your standard sleuth type movie – which it isn’t. I suppose it touches on some sociological issues like the welfare of children and so forth, but I didn’t find myself really moved at all.

The plot twists that tend to accompany these types of movies are present here. They’re not terribly unbelievable, which is good, but they’re also almost unnecessary. I also feel like the PIs seem to get lucky a lot – a lot of coincidences fall their way. The pacing of the movie is slower than your standard detective flick, so when we are presented with a twist instead of the typical shocking reaction the audience might experience it’s more of an … ‘Oh?’ type reaction.

Ed Harris confronts the girl’s mother about her drug issues.

While the story is a little pedestrian, the acting is better. Ed Harris shines in his role as Detective Remy Broussant, a role which has a sharp duality to it. One second he’s driven, motivated, just, and pretty much your standard cop character from cop flicks. The next second, he’s drinking heavily, confessing to planting evidence in the past, and exhibiting much more shady behavior. It’s a good thing too because if Harris’ performance wasn’t so spot on, the movie would suffer. Morgan Freeman is good as usual, but almost feels misused in this role. He looks really odd in a black police uniform. Almost like he is above it.

Casey Affleck drew a lot of praise for this role, but frankly I don’t see it. He was kind of lifeless and his raspy Boston accent gets really annoying after a while. Also, he tries to come across as a hardass, and I’m not buying that. One memorable scene is when he confronts a local drug kingpin named ‘Cheese’. Affleck tries to threaten him, and ends up getting bullied himself. The bad thing is that the movie seems to think he did an effective job as ‘Cheese’ ends up assisting them. Casey’s not a bad actor – I just don’t like him here. His sidekick Michelle Monaghan has become one of my favorite actresses, but she like Freeman feels a bit underused and her performance is very blah except for some emotional moments at the end of the movie. TV veteran Titus Welliver is fantastic as the kidnapped girl’s uncle Lionel. I should note that one thing this movie does do very well is give a lot of depth to its characters, even the smaller ones like Lionel.

Director Ben Affleck (and I believe he was a writer too) does a fine job with the cinematography and gritty nature of Boston – I suppose given that Affleck was behind the camera I should expect as much, but it just feels overused. Maybe I’ve seen The Departed too much, and maybe I’m just tired of Bostonians because all their sports teams are doing well at the moment and they won’t be quiet about it.

In the end I left the theater satisfied, but not overly impressed. Without giving away too many details, the plot itself wasn’t what interested me as much as thinking about why people did what they did. The movie had some memorable moments, but in the end will probably fade into the genre as another clone – albeit a fairly well done one.

30 Days of Night Review

30 DAYS OF NIGHT
Plot :		Originality :
Acting :		Style :
Characters :		Replay :
Genre :		Tilt :

The Vitals :

Rated :	R
Runtime :	1:53
Directed By :	David Slade
Starring :	Josh Hartnett
	Melissa George
	Danny Huston
	Ben Foster
	Mark Boone Jr

Horror movies tend to irk me in that they all fall back on the same old tired scares of films past, most of which are cheap and predictable. If Hollywood thinks they can still scare me by having a shadow move past the screen in conjunction with a loud screech or boom – then they are mistaken. Of course it’s not the 24-year-old male demographic they care about, but the 15-20 year old demographic where the aforementioned cheap tricks entertain the girls and the needless gore entertains the boys. In fact, in that respect I suppose this movie is a success.

Along those same lines I find this movie difficult to judge. For a horror flick it isn’t that bad – the plot is fine, the acting is fine, the visuals and atmosphere are very good – however if you want to benchmark this on the same level with some dramas or even your better action movies – it comes up lacking. It just doesn’t really bring anything new to the table.

Hope rent’s cheap.

The one element of this movie that impressed me the most was where the movie was set. The icy Alaskan countryside bereft of any noticeable life due to the extreme cold, the streets that only appear to be slightly smaller snowbanks with power lines running along one side, the dimly lit ‘Utilador’ which is something like the hub to an oil pipeline along with a utility center for the town’s electricity. The blizzard scenes of the movie were extremely well done – at one point the characters venture outside using a white-out as cover and the swirling snow in the streets is incredibly intense. The light snowfall throughout the movie also looks realistic and is a good way to limit vision of both the characters and the audience to increase tension without seeming forced.

The movie even starts fairly well. We are introduced to sheriff Oleson (Hartnett) who is sort of a quiet but stern leader in this sleepy Alaskan community. The main cast of characters basically centers around Oleson – there’s his ex Stella who is trapped in town after missing the last plane out of town, his younger brother, his mother or grandmother (I cant remember which), his deputy, and various townspeople with which he interacts. These interactions are facilitated by some strange crimes that begin to occur on the last day of sunlight for the next month. For example, a local couple that apparently breeds dogs has their entire kennel gruesomely murdered (feel rehashed? it is, complete with the scene where all of the dogs are barking out of control).

The one character that seems to have nothing to do with Oleson or the town is the myserious drifter played by Ben Foster – one of the better younger actors that Hollywood has to offer. What he’s doing with this fairly minuscule, fairly needless part is beyond me. For the time he is on screen, he definitely draws our attention. The unfortunate part is that he exits the movie all to early and we’re never quite certain who he was and what his role was in all of this – although we are offered some vague clues.

The uncertainly bleeds over into the onslaught of creatures the movie offers up as well. Are they vampires as many suggest in the movie’s pre-release coverage? Yes and no. They are never explicitly referred to as vampires, and we are never really told their true purpose for attacking. It seems like maybe they are feeding, but if that’s the case how have they survived without feeding for the past thousand years when they were in hiding as the leader of the vampires suggests? The movie implies that maybe these vampires are behind cataclysmic events that appear to be other things. At one point in the movie they try to burn the town to decrease their ‘footprint’ as it were. Unfortunately, this is a big stretch. I suppose it’s frivolous to play logic games with a vampire movie – sort of an oxymoron in and of itself – but it can certainly make your mind jump around a little.

She’s a hottie.

I like that they went a different direction with the vampires in this movie – I just don’t much care for the direction that they went. Some of the vampires looked like aliens and they wore human blood on their face and skull like a trophy, leaving it caked on their jaw and scalp. The hierarchy was interesting, but also never really explained. There was one clear ‘lead’ vampire, and Danny Huston did a good job of making him stand out from the pack.

Speaking of logic, there are quite a few things that made me raise my eyebrow. First of all, I’m not an expert in Alaskan living conditions, but I’m pretty certain there is at least a couple hours of light in Alaska even in the dead of winter. To suggest otherwise would result in a pretty funny tilt for the Earth’s rotation. Also, I don’t believe the sun can rise in the same place that it set 30 days earlier.

I suppose I’d better mention the action as well. It’s good. It doesn’t stand out but it doesn’t disappoint. The rampage Mark Boone Jr.’s character goes on at one point in the movie was funny – grinding up vampires in his combine-line tractor while firing his shotgun at others as he went and simultaneously ensnaring more in bear traps strewn on his vehicle. A lot of the townspeople have guns, which I guess is believable in a wilderness area – but they aren’t very effective on the vampires. Hartnett uses an axe many times. Theres also this suped up meat-grinder like apparatus at the ‘Utilador’ that is shown early in the movie. Gee, I wonder if someone is going to fall into it later? This movie is based on a ‘graphic novel’ (comic book) so of course theres going to be your gratuitous blood ‘n guts – but if you’re going to this movie for this sheer purpose I wonder if there is enough to satisfy ?

All told this movie is mostly your standard slash and scream type movie – the kind that I’ve seen over and over again and never ceases to let me down. However, there were moments of interest that caused it to rise above some of the other movies of that genre to a tolerable status. I wouldn’t recommend paying money for this, but if it’s on TV or if you’re a big fan of the genre it might be worth your time.