Michael Clayton: A combination of everything good
Michael Clayton, George Clooney’s latest movie, is up for best picture, and I believe Clooney is up for best actor as well. In the movie, Clooney plays a lawyer who is considered a “fixer-upper,” and just does all of his firm’s dirty work. The case that Clayton’s firm is working on deals with a company called UNorth, who makes pesticides and other chemicals. A class action lawsuit has been brought against UNorth in terms of billions of dollars because they made faulty pesticides, which caused tissue deterioration in many farmers and was blamed for the deaths of 430+ farmers who died as a result of UNorth’s negligence.
One of Michael’s coworkers named Arthur, who was originally heading the defense for UNorth, realizes what he is doing defending a company that has killed so many (“I have blood on my hands Michael!” as he often exclaims), and thus he goes crazy. During all of this there are many plot twists involved, and who is good and who is bad seems to get jumbled together and get confusing at times.
It seems though that Michael Clayton is a deserving nomination for best picture and best actor, as Clooney did an amazing job acting, and when the film ends and you realize who has won and who has lost, you feel good “supporting” Michael through everything that has happened. Tilda Swinton also very much deserved best supporting actress as the nervous, paranoid executive at UNorth.
Also, Michael Clayton managed to provide a combination of what everyone wants, a little bit of humor here, a little bit of action and cars exploding there, and a lot of wit, good writing, acting and plot twists.
Dealing Out Greatness
Over the past month, I have bought and completed watching the first season of Weeds.
Weeds is a Showtime show about a mother living in the wealthy town of Agrestic. Agrestic is full of sexual scandals, political battles for town positions, and, of course, the marijuana dealing widowed mother of two.
Nancy Botwin, the town dealer, has gotten herself in to mess after mess. First, she deals her weed in other dealers’ territory. Next, she has 14,000 dollars worth of marijuana stolen from her by a campus policeman. Her most recent accident is sleeping with a DEA agent.
I am only 7 episodes in to the second season, and my prediction is as good as yours. Silas, Nancy’s son, has knocked up a deaf girl. Andy, Nancy’s brother in law, brings Shane to a whore house. All the while, Nancy struggles with herself with honesty issues. Do her kids deserve to know about her line of work?
Her latest problem has been a raid on the dealers growing marijuana in the apartment building that she also grows in. The twist is, the DEA agent, who she recently married, by the way, ordered raids on those apartments to take away competition for his wife.
Nancy’s life is twisted, and is past the point of return. A mix of humor, as Andy teaches Shane masturbation techniques, with drama, as Nancy struggles to communicate with her children awards this show with the honor of “best show ever to reach the screen,” from me.
Lets Be Honest
Repulsive, horrendous, and atrocious are all adjectives accurately describing Fox’s new “hit” show, The Moment of Truth.
Judging by its widespread build-up, I thought maybe the show was set to premiere in lieu of the Super Bowl. I did some research; Super Bowl XVII has not been rescheduled.
Mark L. Wahlberg is the host. Doesn’t that speak for itself? If not, let me enlighten you. Wahlberg was also the host of Joe Millionaire and Temptation Island. Joe Millionaire was a reality dating show in which a so-called millionaire named Joe was the king of a mansion full of gold diggers. At the conclusion of the season, Joe chose a wife. A year or so later, the public finds out Joe was depicted slightly inaccurately. He wasn’t a millionaire.
What’s next? Contestants on The Moment of Truth really don’t have elaborate pasts complete with lying, cheating and stealing?
“Have you ever cheated on your spouse?” was a question asked to a contestant. Now, I’m not one to pry into others’ lives but lets face it, their on the show. If the answer to that question is “yes,” couples therapy or divorce court is probably more prudent than a game show on Fox.
As I said, I’m not going to lead your life. If you don’t have anything better to be doing on Wednesday nights at 9 o’clock, I invite you to waste an hour.
