MICHAEL CLAYTON at the Toronto Film Festival 2007
by Andre Soares
In Salon, Stephanie Zacharek talks about the Michael Clayton press conference at the Toronto Film Festival:
"First, let me say that most of the journalists and writers in attendance at the Michael Clayton press conference were not assholes. A Canadian journalist asked [George] Clooney if he approved of Canada’s response to Darfur, Sudan. (He said that he did.) Even the usual ‘How did you prepare for the role’ stuff was perfectly polite and well-meaning. But I single out for ridicule the joker behind me — I didn’t catch his name or his outlet — who pompously stood up and announced that he’d heard George (these guys are always on a first-name basis with movie stars) had been seen in Venice, Italy, with a model, and he wanted to know how they’d met."
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The directorial debut of screenwriter Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton follows a wealthy attorney for the rich and powerful who, while helping cover up an agro-chemical conglomerate’s misdeeds, suffers a crisis of conscience. Gilroy’s drama also stars Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, and Sydney Pollack.
Zacharek calls Michael Clayton "confident but overwrought," while Clooney is "marvelous, so unforced and believable that he almost makes you forget how strained and overeager the movie around him is."
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Addendum: Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post:
"Jodie Foster finds her inner Charles Bronson in the vigilante thriller The Brave One, Tommy Lee Jones stars in In the Valley of Elah (either the Deer Hunter or Coming Home of the Iraq war, depending on the critic), George Clooney assumes a latter-day Robert Redford role in Michael Clayton [above] and director James Gray retools the famous French Connection car chase in the upcoming police drama We Own the Night. Filmgoers may feel they’re in a time warp lately, with movies revisiting what many consider the second golden age of American cinema, if not literally — they’re all set in the present day — then in style and sentiment."
Toronto Film Festival 2007 - Awards
Toronto Film Festival 2007 Award Winners - Article
Toronto Film Festival 2007 - Contemporary World Cinema
Toronto Film Festival 2007 - Gala Screenings, Masters, Special Presentations
Toronto Film Festival 2007 Real to Reel Documentary Line-Up
Toronto Film Festival 2007 - Visions and Vanguard Sidebars
OBSCENE at the Toronto Film Festival 2007
DARFUR NOW at the Toronto Film Festival 2007
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