There’s no play here. There’s no angle, there’s no champagne room.

Eight minutes into “Michael Clayton”, Michael (George Clooney) is asked to drive to Westchester in the middle of the night and take care of a frantic client. Our title character is the “fixer” for a massive corporate law firm, and this call is nothing out of the ordinary. The resulting scene with Denis O’Hare is a joy to watch in of itself, but it also expertly explains what sort of work Michael does, and what sort of a person he has to be to do it.

O’Hare plays Elliot, a successful man who has committed a plebeian hit-and-run and is being forced to learn that even rich white men don’t always get everything their way. It’s Michael’s job to deliver that unwanted wisdom as quickly as possible. He’s rescued a lot of powerful people from their own mistakes, and he’s an expert at swaddling adult tantrums into reasonableness.

Michael is in control here, but later in the film he’ll face a situation that tests first his competence, and then his morality. His colleague and apparent friend Arthur (played by Tom Wilkinson) will go off his meds and threaten to derail a multibillion-dollar class-action lawsuit. As Michael struggles to follow his firm’s orders, he will have to confront the question of whether he can make his brilliant, lunatic adversary go away quietly—and whether he can live with himself if he succeeds.

But that’s yet to come, and in the meantime, all we see is Michael at his best. Faced with Elliot’s grasping panic and verbal abuse, Michael methodically nudges him into a corner. After some screaming and the breaking of glassware, the storm seems to have blown itself out, until Elliot surfaces with one more bad idea: “What if someone had stolen the car?”

Clooney glances down at the floor, a soft knowing smirk on his face. Great scenes contain no dead moments, and even a pause can drive the story. In Clooney’s expression, we see his character’s awareness that his work isn’t quite done, that the man before him needs one more push before he submits completely. And then he does what he’s paid to do, and moves on.

This early in the film, Michael seems like a man who could sell anything. We have no idea what he’s in for.

polycinco:

Italian installation artist Esther Stocker creates stunning geometric environments that can often be explored by the viewer. The construction of each piece appears to follow some type of strange equation, resulting in unusual linear patterns and planes that completely transform the physical pace. (via empty kingdom)

(via perryg)

Last year’s “Attack the Block” is an unassuming sci-fi action-horror flick, but I found it really enjoyable within the scope of its modest ambitions. The hook is that the film’s alien invasion happens in a London housing estate and that the heroes are mostly coarse, not-entirely-sympathetic British chavs. But under that novel twist, “Attack the Block” is also a clearcut example of how economical writing can focus a conventional genre exercise.

This is a fast-moving film, but amid the bloody action scenes and the weed jokes, there is just enough characterization to make you buy into the heroes’ survival and personal growth. In particular, “Attack the Block” has a number of scenes that sneakily develop character while driving the plot forward.

In one sequence, the boys run from the top floor of their apartment building to the ground with the aim of hunting down more aliens. Each boy lives on a different floor, and as they run down the stairwell, they peel off one by one to stop at home and pick up a weapon.

We’ve seen the obligatory show-off-your-gear scene in a thousand action films, but in “Attack the Block”, this is also a chance to show a glimpse into each boy’s home life. One kid has a domineering father who demands that he take out the dog, alien invasion or not. Another has his mother almost convinced that he’s getting good grades and staying out of trouble. In a few minutes, the boys are reunited on the ground, armed with heavy chains and samurai swords. But in their short run down the stairs you’ve learned just enough to see them more as people and less as mug shots.

In addition to the characterization, I particularly appreciated the lack of mythology. There are no discoveries of ancient hieroglyphics, or pronouncements from fake scientists, which is largely of a piece with the worldview of the heroes. They don’t care what happens outside their own neighborhood; why should they care what happens on other planets?

But I also wonder if this is related to the ironic mood of modern Britain, and the resistance of Shakespeare’s homeland to half-baked gravitas. Brits might be constitutionally incapable of the bloated eschatologies of some of our stateside blockbusters. That might be bad for setting up a sequel, but you’ll probably never see a British film where, say, Shia LaBeouf comes back from a near-death experience because robot forefathers told him it was his destiny to fight alongside the Autobots. Or, say, where Mel Gibson regains his faith in God because his dying wife told him to tell his brother to kill aliens by hitting glasses of water with a baseball bat. I could go on.

Anyway, “Attack the Block” is a pretty great popcorn flick. Highly recommended if you’re staring down the barrel of your Netflix queue and looking for something fun.

Ain’t gonna lie, I have spent a lot of time watching these kittens.

Chris and Jeannie do a lot of great work with feral cats in Brooklyn. You can donate here.

“After 35 years of knowing John Waters, I turned to my wife and I said to her, ‘I have the feeling this man is gay.’”

Oh, Werner Herzog. What it must be like to be inside your head.

Seriously, not enough of you are watching “Treme”. This show might end up being better than “The Wire”, no joke.

More than anything I appreciate that it takes immensely seriously the feeling of being from somewhere besides New York, and the idea of leaving that somewhere else, and what that might cost.

And besides, if your show gets cameos from Elvis Costello and David Chang, how can you go wrong with that?