George Clooney plays the titular character, a "fixer" at a law firm, a guy who bails out the wealthy clients using connections. The story revolves around an ongoing class action lawsuit against a company who's pesticide has killed hundreds of people. One of the men on the case (Tom Wilkinson) goes crazy, strips naked at a deposition, tells one of the victim's family he loves her and Clayton as to go help clean the mess up. But it turns out maybe Arthur (Wilkinson) wasn't crazy.
I never thought about watching this one until it got nominated for best picture. There really isn't anything in the movie that could make for a convincing trailer (no action, or great one liners) and it's kind of hard to summarize. It is really well put together, a really good script and great acting. Definitely worth checking out if you don't mind 2 hours without any car chases, explosions, love stories, or hilarious bloopers.
8/10
Wristcutters (A Love Story) dir. Goran Dukic (2006)
Zia (Patrick Fugit) has just killed himself. Now he's at a place where all suiciders go, which is "pretty much the same, only a little worse." When he finds out his ex-girlfriend "offed" herself (they say that way too often) he brings his Russian rocker friend along for a zany road trip to go find her. On the way they pick up Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon) who believes she doesn't belong there and is looking for the people in charge so she can go home.
This one was okay but kind of disappointing. It's stretched a little thin because there is a beginning to the story and an end but the middle is just kind of a drag to connect the dots. The movie is only like 84 minutes, but it's still too long. It has its moments, just not enough.
6.5/10
Stranger Than Fiction dir. Marc Forster (2006)
Will Ferrell is Harold Crick, an IRS auditor who suddenly starts hearing a voice narrating his life, which only mildly upsets him until the voice says he is going to die.
I really like this movie. I think Ferrell does a good job of being a more subdued character (also in Winter Passing) and I just think this is a smart, funny, original movie.
9/10
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (book)
Our unnamed narrator (he has forgotten his name, but his soul is named Joe) encounters some very odd policeman after going to retrieve a box that belongs to a man he has killed.
I picked this one up because the producers of LOST said it was a big influence. There are parts where I can see why, (running in to dead people, an underground "hatch" where numbers must be entered) but I can't really say more without giving it away (the book, and maybe LOST). Basically a bunch of weird stuff happens, and the cops are superweird. I'll probably read it again because some of the stuff seemed to be going somewhere but in the end it turned out it wasn't (probably like LOST) and was just there for the sake of entertainment/weirdness.
7/10
movies 33/150
books 6/15
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