Popular reviews

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  Review by Ayo Edebiri ★★★★ 10

  remember that episode of master of none that ended with that long close up of Aziz Ansari in the back of a cab after a weird date or whatever and it was so long and you're supposed to like be moved by it but it's also like why are you doing this you are not George Clooney at the end of Michael Clayton you're Aziz Ansari at the end of master of none and anyway if you don't remember it, I do

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe 12

  Haven't watched this since college and I'd somehow forgotten every detail of it since. Spent years nodding blindly when people mentioned Michael Clayton with reverence, and now I'm happy to announce I can nod confidently while continuing to add nothing to the conversation. Movie rocks. Not sure how I blocked all memory of Arthur's final scene, because it's one of the most haunting scenes of its kind that I've ever watched.

  Possibly Clooney's finest hour. He weaponizes his charisma and oozes a strangely palatable, legal-specific smarm up top until it slowly withers away, leaving a desperate and desolate man powered only by his self-loathing. Even in his triumphant final moment, he unravels Karen in the same breath that he unravels…

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  Review by Sean Fennessey ★★★★★ 12

  Fuck yes.

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  Review by David Sims ★★★★★ 7

  give me fifty dollars’ worth

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  Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★★★ 4

  Three people have given their lives over to Mammon.

  One seeks to atone.

  One seeks escape.

  One seeks to do its bidding.

  On this viewing, I kept rewinding and watching the scene of Tilda Swinton’s character collapsing to the ground when the jig was finally up. Having given herself fully over to Mammon in hopes of success and fulfillment, she is left hollow, an empty shell of a human being who can’t even stand on her own two feet.

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  Review by Matthew Christman ★★★★ 2

  If There Will Be Blood sports the best closing scene of 2007, then Michael Clayton certainly takes the gold for best film opener. Over images of the darkened offices of powerhouse Manhattan law firm Kenner Bach and Ledeen, a voice spins a manic monologue recounting his crisis of conscience as a litigator for the same firm. The viewer takes in the sleek, immaculate, cold rooms as they are being cleaned by anonymous janitorial staff while the urgent, near whispering voice speaks of the revolting horrors that are perpetrated when those rooms are occupied. The speech comes to a frantic climax as the image cuts from an empty conference room to one bustling with dozens of lawyers rushing to and from,…

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★★ 6

  "I'm not the guy you kill, I'm the guy you buy. Are you so fucking blind that you don't even see what I am? I sold out Arthur for 80 grand! I'm your easiest problem and you're gonna kill me?"

  After my fourth watch in under a year, I think it's safe to say that Michael Clayton is one of my new personal favorites. It's hard to imagine a better lead for this character-driven mystery than the classically charismatic George Clooney.

  Clayton is a conflicted man propelled by his ideals in a profession centered around money. He's the man who gets the job done, even if it means not getting around to reading his son's favorite book. But he's also…

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★★ 1

  "I am Shiva, the God of Death."

  Reckoning with being an arm of the slick, modern branding of evil, and the inherent pretense of corporate humanity. A movie structured with a constant sense of accumulation and making moves within a rotted system and that ultimately feels itself like the slow-acting collective poison it's depicting. Has one of the most mundane, efficient murder scenes I've ever seen in a movie which somehow makes it even scarier. Would make for an excellent double with Mann's The Insider.

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 3

  88

  Bone-chilling. Front to back, a classic screenplay. As a man of virtue, Michael Clayton's only flaw is that he refuses to acknowledge not just who he represents, but 'what' - a transformation from individuals to entities, clients to corporations. This is about wiping the slate clean, and plummeting to your doom as a result. Delighted to see Katherine Waterston pop up in a one-scene role, her only moment being a gesture: understanding that keeping her mouth shut is a matter of life and death, a cog in the system self-aware.

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  Review by Colin Burgess ★★★★½

  one of the few movies out there that has Michael Clayton in it

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★½ 1

  interesting how the billion-dollar corporate malfeasance class action lawsuit that cost hundreds of farmers' lives is essentially background, a catalyzer for the rescue of George Clooney's soul. this is a very writerly, very self-consciously classy movie, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★★ 14

  There's a scary world in which this movie is passed over as another disposable political thriller instead of being recognized as the masterpiece that it is and sometimes I worry that I'm living in that world.