I screened Michael Clayton the other day, and its a great movie, don’t get me wrong. It’s definitely a rental, cause the cinematography is nothing to write home around, but as much as I liked it, I just don’t know if it is Oscar / Golden Globe worthy. It’s in that same realm of Memento and The Usual Suspects (both personal favs), where the plot is all edited together in such a way that makes you confused up until the last 30 minutes. And George Clooney was great in his post-Ocean 11/12/13 days, as a confused lawyer/clean-up guy who gets to the bottom of a corporate cover-up, but I just don’t see “Oscar” anywhere in the mix.
The directing is superb, as it always is in these kinds of movies, where you are kept guessing until the very end. But I always wonder..how much say does the editor have in the storyline? Probably none at all, as the editor is there to do what the director tells them…but as an aspiring editor, I like to think that there is always something there that the director can’t see, and that the movie just wouldn’t be the same without the editor…
So is this worth seeing? Let’s just say, its not worth the $10, but it’s worth the Netflix subscription.
RATING: NETFLIX
