Top 5 – George Clooney Movies

George Clooney is a Hollywood icon.  With the combination of debonair good looks, incredible charisma, and impeccable talent, Clooney is a man who can do it all, and has proved it with his work as an actor, writer, director, and producer.  Here are my picks for the best George Clooney movies.

This list is based on Clooney’s performance and the quality of the movie.

5 – JACK FOLEY in OUT OF SIGHT (Steven Soderbergh, 1998)

At this time in Clooney’s career, he was known more as the heart-throb doctor on E.R.  Many thought he wasn’t more than a pretty face.  That was until Steve Soderbergh got a hold of him and turned him into legitimate actor.  In this sultry, sensual, twisty neo-noir, Clooney plays a bank robber who grows attracted to a U.S. Marshall (Jennifer Lopez) he has kidnapped.  Clooney and Lopez have perfect chemistry and Clooney uses his charm to make us love a man who lives a life of crime.  Thank you Soderbergh for breaking Clooney out of his pretty boy shell.

4 – DANNY OCEAN in OCEAN’S 11, 12, 13 (Steve Soderbergh, 2001/2004/2007)

Danny Ocean is George Clooney.  Smart, cocky, good at what he does, and filled with an infinite amount of swagger, Danny Ocean was a role tailor-made for Clooney’s talents.  Teaming up once again with Steven Soderbergh, the Ocean’s trilogy is a magnificent heist series full of twists, turns, great ensembles, and off-the-rails, interesting filmmaking.  Clooney stands out amongst the stellar all-star cast of Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, and many more, working perfectly with everyone, particularly Pitt, and once again making us love a man who is a career criminal.  Hopefully Clooney and Soderbergh can team up again in the future, because they bring out the best in each other.

3 – EVERETT MCGILL in O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOUGH? (The Coen Bros., 2000)

For someone who is the definition of swagger, Clooney knows how to play a dimwit better than anyone.  Having starred in a number of Coen Brother films, O Brother, Where Art Though? was their first and finest.  This country-fried version of Homer’s The Odyssey, three escaped convicts (Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson), search for a hidden treasure while being pursued by ruthless lawmen.  Clooney really shows his comedic chops in this, as the Daper Dan-obsessed leader of the three knuckleheads.  Filled with excellent music, beautiful cinematography, and a great story, this is a Coen Brother classic.

2 – RYAN BINGHAM in UP IN THE AIR (Jason Reitman, 2009)

Jason Reitman’s 2009 dramedy has Clooney playing a man who travels around the country firing people during the American recession in 2008 and it is a brilliant performance.  This is Clooney’s most rounded performance.  It allows him to use his charm and then show is dramatic side, a side we don’t see too often.  Co-stars Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga are equally good and director Jason Reitman’s directing has never been better.  Up in the Air is a film that will be looked at years from now as a movie that represents a perfect snapshot of a time and a place in American history.

1 – MICHAEL CLAYTON in MICHAEL CLAYTON (Tony Gilroy, 2007)

Michael Clayton lands at the top spot on this list and it wasn’t really close.  This is an underrated masterpiece.  A slow burning thriller that creeps and creeps until the very end, where it hits you like 2×4 to the stomach.  Tony Gilroy’s tight, complex screenplay doesn’t spoon feed us and makes us pay attention to all the details.  This is also the best performance of George Clooney’s career.  It’s dark, complex, and engrossing.  What’s most interesting is that this is the movie where Clooney doesn’t have it all together.  In every other movie, Clooney is the leader, or has the plan, and really seems to have his life in order.  In Michael Clayton, he’s a disheveled, broke corporate cleaner at the bottom of the barrel, an unusually place for Clooney to be in.  Michael Clayton is one of the best movies of the 2000’s and the best George Clooney movie.

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