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George Clooney: A Viewer’s Guide
The highs and lows of his acting career to date

Is George Clooney the ‘Current Cary Grant’ or was Cary Grant the ‘Earlier George Clooney’? Commentators and columnists have engaged in a decades-long hunt to fill the debonair-but-sometimes-daffy void left by the great Archie Leach, and Clooney is the closest the world has produced. In truth, the tag has been a burden, albeit one lightly worn, for a man who’s played the studio system with the skill of a grandmaster and the versatility of a Swiss Army knife. When he’s not been sharpening his directorial skills or making magazine covers 600 per cent more glamorous with his silver-screen looks, he’s been showing his chops across thrillers, character dramas, comedies and whatever the heck Batman & Robin was. He’s also conquered genre pictures like no-one since... aw, who are we kidding? He is Cary Grant. So while we’re figuring out what comes in a Swiss Army Clooney (apart from a Ryan Gosling toothpick), here are some of his best – and not so best – big-screen turns.

WORDS PHIL DE SEMLYEN
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George Clooney: A Viewer’s Guide |

ESSENTIAL VIEWING: Up In The Air (2009)

Jason Reitman’s drama-comedy of contemporary life, relationships and pre-packed airplane meals proves that fate can hit even a man as eye-meltingly handsome as Clooney with its shitty stick. He plays Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizer who spends his days doing for company headcounts what Genghis Khan did for the population of Central Asia, albeit with more wry asides than the Mongol yak-botherer ever mustered. In his dealings with Vera Farmiga’s equally hard-bitten exec, Clooney’s corporate hitman reveals an emotional rawness that, much as he hates to admit it, lurks just beneath his Samsonite-tough exterior. He’s a man permanently in transit and he knows it. Witness his face falling when she cruelly dismisses him as “a parenthesis” in her life. It’s a nuanced study of a man who’s vain enough to thrill in winning ‘lifetime executive’ status from his airline, but sufficiently self-aware to be a little ashamed about it. The kind of performance, in short, that could win a man an Oscar nomination.

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1
Posted on Wednesday February 1, 2012, 15:41 by Happy Shrapnel
DUSK TILL DAWN !!!!!!!!!!! Clooney Cool before he got all serious on us. Read More

2 Is this it?
Posted on Wednesday February 1, 2012, 00:50 by cazmat
I've never really felt the true need to comment on these guides before - until now. Although I agree the films mentioned here all fall into the correct brackets - 'ish', I struggle to understand why so many others, such as O Brother Where Art Thou, Burn After Reading and The Men Who Stare At Goats, don't even get a look in. George Clooney has actually turned out to be quite an actor, playing mostly brilliant and unfortunately some not so great roles ie: Intolerable Cruelty. He has come such a long way since Return Of the Killer Tomatoes and has more than proven his capability. Regardless of the quality of film, Clooney still manages to play his roles with great versatility and is always worth watching. For a viewers guide, this is a let down. In this case readers would be better of doing their own research when it comes to finding out what he truly has to offer. Read More

3 Return of the Killer Tomatoes
Posted on Tuesday January 31, 2012, 12:32 by Mijacogeo
Obviously an Essential and I mean that completely honestly. I simply adore that film, I don't understand his shame for it when it's blatantly 100x better than Batman and Robin! Read More

4 Return of the Killer Tomatoes
Posted on Tuesday January 31, 2012, 12:32 by Mijacogeo
Obviously an Essential and I mean that completely honestly. I simply adore that film, I don't understand his shame for it when it's blatantly 100x better than Batman and Robin! Read More

5 RE: George Clooney: A Viewer’s Guide
Posted on Tuesday January 31, 2012, 04:40 by allenwalters71
It's a great piece what Jason Reitman’s drama-comedy of contemporary life, relationships and pre-packed airplane meals proves that fate can hit even a man as eye-meltingly handsome as Clooney with its shitty stick. ______________________ or Discount Codes Read More

6
Posted on Monday January 30, 2012, 21:04 by evildave69
EMPIRE, will you please do more than 7? I comment on this everytime, I love these articles but they need to be longer. As for the films, I don't know why Ocean's 11 is just for the fans, O Brother is missing entirely and Leatherheads is definately one to miss. Oh, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is brilliant. Read More

7 The Peacemaker
Posted on Sunday January 29, 2012, 11:13 by Stuntgoat
I thought that for his first big blockbuster, it was a good introduction, actually had a good story and rolled along at a good pace. Read More

8 Michael Clayton Left Me Cold
Posted on Saturday January 28, 2012, 22:50 by Blyman
And I'm indifferent about the impending Tony Gilroy directed Bourne Legacy but I agree that Solaris should be in there. Wonderfully atmospheric film helped in large part by Clooney. Read More

9 RE:
Posted on Saturday January 28, 2012, 21:56 by mulscul
Yeah, after reading that list I thought, "where's Michael Clayton?".  It should take Syriana's place and then we would have a great list. Read More

10
Posted on Saturday January 28, 2012, 06:08 by AgentDesmond
I totally agree with the lack of Michael Clayton. Read More

11 Hello? Michael Clayton?
Posted on Friday January 27, 2012, 20:44 by insomniagrrrl
What...who...how you could leave out Tony Gilroy's impenetrable and yet brilliant film Michael Clayton? With Clooney surrounded by Tilda Swinton et al? Although - bless you for omitting Intolerable Cruelty and The Men Who Stare at Goats (gaaakkk - and I really wanted to like it, I really did). But Michael Clayton??? Read More

12
Posted on Friday January 27, 2012, 10:39 by devenden
When i read that there was 'the one to avoid' i was racking my brain trying to work out what film it could be, then the last slide appeared and it all came back *shudders* now my brain is going to have to erase those memories once more. Read More

13 again....
Posted on Friday January 27, 2012, 09:55 by 7eke
7 films is not enough to warrant you calling these things viewers guides. Oceans eleven is definately not just for the fans, everybody loves it. and wheres brother?....solaris?....killer tomatos? Read More

14
Posted on Thursday January 26, 2012, 23:38 by MartinHeron
I think Clooney comes out relatively unscathed; going on to be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood he always had the blot on his sheet, but he's always taken its awfulness in his stride. Read More

15
Posted on Thursday January 26, 2012, 23:15 by lgyyojf
O Brother Where Art Thou - Essential! Read More

16 FROM DUSK TILL DAWN?!
Posted on Thursday January 26, 2012, 20:54 by Snake-Eyes
Other than THREE KINGS (and maybe Ocean's Eleven)... f**k all that noise! Clooney's finst hour was FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. End of. Read More

17 I like The Peacemaker
Posted on Thursday January 26, 2012, 20:46 by Blyman
Nice piece. Personally I'd bump Three Kings up to Essential and downgrade Up In The Air to mind numbingly overrated (Clooney is too cool to play that role, Paul Giamati would have been better). I also think The American is a fine Clooney film. And The Peacemaker is very good and I'll duel anyone who says otherwise - hands down it's more exciting then most of the bland political action thrillers that we've seen in the last 10 years. Fact. Read More


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