I’ve really enjoyed watching George Clooney go from being the heartthrob on ER to one of the most respected and politically-minded actors working today. He chooses his projects wisely and he can definitely afford to be picky at this point — which means that whenever he’s starring in something, there’s a good chance that it’s going to be at least an interesting film, if not a fantastic one. In Michael Clayton, Clooney plays the titular lawyer at a corporate law firm in New York who is pulled onto troubled cases to win them in any way necessary. When a multi-million dollar case is sabotaged by the firm’s best lawyer, Clayton is called in only to find a lot more than he bargained for. The movie is the directorial debut of Tony Gilroy, who wrote the screenplays for all 3 Bourne movies, as well as The Devil’s Advocate. While I don’t necessarily think that writing was the strength of the Bourne franchise, this movie appears to be intelligent, dense and fairly complex (which could be good or bad). At the very least the look of the film is gorgeous; cinematographer Robert Elswit previously worked with Clooney on Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana, and he also did all of P.T. Anderson’s films. Michael Clayton hits select theatres on October 5th; check out the trailer below.

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