michael clayton (2007) & the kids' table

 An endangered species in these here modern times, 'Michael Clayton' is a stylish & sleek legal drama that unfurls itself so intricately that when it finally does show you all the lines connecting all the dots, you're ensnared in the web yourself.

I don't know what happened to these things. Like our contemporary politics and much else in the culture like social issues or... any issues I guess; things are just far too binary. The much-maligned pejorative 'the great divide' in regard to American leanings, pick your colour and cheer, nitwit; is due mostly to 'you're either with us or against us'. It's hard to stay on board with the publicly adorned entertaining films that come out now and still feel like an adult. Everything is selling you your past back to you bit by bit. They're either in the nostalgia business or manufacturing nostalgia. Never lived through the '80s? That's okay, here are some cherry-picked made-up memories through Stranger Things to make you miss it. Everyone making this shit were kids then, so weren't tainted by the numerous adult issues of that time as they were fucking children. Not rose-coloured glasses but instead the ones with the funny nose and moustache. Haha. But even Rambo was reckoning with something contemporary. Die Hard. They still did stuff.

My point is, if you're not watching baby gunk today then you're an arthouse prick.

Tonight, I watched MICAHEL CLAYTON. Maybe I'm on some fucking high horse that wants to feel aggrandized but it was bloody fantastically compelling while feeling like it was made for adults. Like if I went to the cinema I'd be among people my age, not an 8-year-old with a popcorn junket.

I mean, it's great that films can bring so many people together in one room, but when every single flick is either full of kids (or man-children) or exclusively seniors, then your great divide is excluding everyone who can operate a motor vehicle, drink alcoholic beverages and god forbid vote in an election. People who can change things. And they're gone, missing. And I don't know which came first but that's how it is. But I know someone we can call to fix it. A bagman.