Hannah

So post Andor, a friend recommended I check out A More Civilized Age (@MoreCivilized), which is a podcast mostly about Clone Wars, but who had been covering Andor since it's premier. Their Andor episodes are fantastic, but this post is not about that. They talk several times about the showrunner for Andor, Tony Gilroy. They mention Gilroy's previous work, and in particular a film called Michael Clayton, in which Gilroy's style of storytelling is very evident. So I decided to give it a shot.

Rather than an intergalactic spy thriller, Michael Clayton is a legal drama... and also a bit of a thriller, towards the end. Michael Clayton the Character is a lawyer, but his primary job is to clean up messes for a law firm when something goes really wrong. The current problem that needs solving is Michael's old friend Arthur. Arthur is the architect of a legal defense for a massive agricultural corp, and he just had a public meltdown. Michael has got to step in and get Arthur under control. Things go poorly for everyone.

The crux of the story is that this corporation, U-North, has unquestionably killed people with a carcinogenic weed killer. Arthur has a crisis of conscience, because he knows he's on the wrong side of this legal battle, and has been for years. He's also off his meds. The plot that unfolds is U-North taking increasingly extreme measures to prevent Arthur from leaking the research that proves they knew the danger. And then trying to prevent Michael from doing the same.

AMCA were totally right, this movie has Gilroy's fingerprints all over it. Even the cinematography reminded my of Andor. It deals a lot with how people are trapped, bent, and controlled by the systems they live under. It deals with the amorality of people with power, but more than that, how other people are forced to become complicit in the crimes of the powerful. Take the legal battle U-North is in. There is literal written evidence, signed by the CEO, that they knew the product they were selling was toxic, and had a high probability of killing people if it stayed on the market. So clearly the CEO came to a decision to bury the evidence. But it's not as if he was the only one who knew about it. Think of the researchers who made the discovery. Of every person along the corporate chain who laid eyes on this report. At some point every one of those people had to become fine with it. Were they threatened? Were they paid off? Maybe some of them. Some of them were protecting their positions, others were likely afraid of losing their jobs, etc. etc. But that decision killed people. And it could have remained buried forever. Until Arthur cracked under the immense weight of that decision.

Whew. I kinda went off on a tangent there. The long and short of it is, I think this movie is really good. Being primarily a legal drama, it may come off as a bit dry to some people. Personally, I think it's pretty gripping, maybe not as much as Andor, but it's in that realm. The last third of the movie is extremely tense, and it completely sticks the landing. George Clooney delivering the line, "You are so fucked," is gonna stick with me. King shit.

SHIVA/10