Movie Reviews from Algolia: Michael Clayton, American Gangster & Death Proof.

Aside from having one of the least inspiring titles in recent years and marketed as a George Clooney star turn, Michael Clayton has proved to be one of the most successful of the "lawyer fights corporate entity" subgenre (and not written by Grisham, either). Expect the acting world to be full of wannabe stars auditioning with Tom Wilkinson's excellent opening monologue and, indeed, it is his performance and that of Tilda Swinton that really make this film work.

The character of Michael Clayton is a fixer, that of the quasi-legal "janitor" for a huge and successful law firm but really he is a passenger for the first 90% of the plot being driven by the British duo (Wilkinson and Swinton) who are really at the centre of events. So in Algo parlance, he is our Han Solo in this film - our link to the story and we see developments through his eyes. As a consequence of this his character lacks a certain something - depth of colour if you will - but this does not hinder the film at all, merely simplifies something it would have been too easy to get bogged down in.

I also was big fan of the structure of the film - the opening segment gaining weight and significance as the layered plot was revealed and the characters of Mr Vern and his associates came into view. A good performance from all then, the late Sydney Pollack included - but Tom Wilkinson utterly steals the show as the Bipolar lawyer at the centre of events. The film is watching just for his performance.

It is this kind of whole cast performance Ridley Scott must have been hoping for when he assembled the ensemble for his American Gangster, but I wasn;t as impressed here. The two worlds, that of Russell Crowe's cop and Denzel Washington's gangster were excellently differentiated and their performances were good enough. I didn't really feel connected with anyone in any of the movie, though its hard not to feel for Frank Lucas's mother at any stage of the film. So universally solid performances from the cast, but nothing I would rave about afterwards.

The story and setting really steal the show here - the tale of the man who smuggled heroin in soldiers' coffins is a really great one and is shown over a long enough time period for things to really develop and take shape over the course of the film. I do feel personally that the Denzel character is seen through rose tinted glasses and we are really manipulated into wanting to like him. He is certainly more palatable than most of the police force present in this movie - most eloquently shown by the in-everything-at-the-moment Josh Brolin. You almost hiss when he shows up. This is an interesting dynamic when you think a crooked cop is played as worse than a multiple murdering heroin dealing crime lord - we don't see any of these cops' back story to feel sympathy. Also it is hard to believe that in the whole of this film only one character is openly and flagrantly racist - and this is someone who has no introduction and little other dialogue, he's just a faceless roadblock who is seen for a moment and then immediately forgotten. I abhor racism in all its forms but it seems the subject is oddly glossed over in this case.

So both of these films are worth seeing in short, but if you can only see one I'd go with Michael Clayton for the Tom Wilkinson performance.

One film I DO NOT recommend is Death Proof. Tarantino's tedious extended cut is the one I saw (the Grindhouse experience being unavailable to us brits) and it is just plain odd. I can't work out the morality of it and it has none of the wacky charm of planet terror. It is episodic, in true cliched Tarantino style and is broadly in two halves, the first (which is too long), follows a group of attractive young women who talk crap for forty five minutes and are then brutally murdered in a car collision... the second half (which is too long) follows a group of young women who talk a lot of injokey movie crap and then are attackec by... wait... why did we have the first half again?

Maybe the Grindhouse thing would have worked but this movie is not very good.