The movies George Clooney is proudest of: “A high point for me, career-wise”
In many ways, George Clooney is Hollywood. Handsome, charming, well-dressed, well-connected, as appreciative of a blockbuster as he is of a self-directed passion project. Clooney epitomises what it means to be a superstar and has the resume to back these claims up. From slick heist thrillers to bullet-spraying horrors to World War II comedies, he’s done it all, and done it all in style.
Like most megastars, the face of Nespresso had to work his way up from nothing. Some of his earliest works are enough to send shivers down any self-respecting film fan’s spine. Return to Horror High. Grizzly II: Revenge. Return of the Killer Tomatoes. These are hardly critics befitting a double Oscar winner. Even some of his later directorial offerings haven’t been up to scratch. Suburbicon anyone? Or how about The Tender Bar?
Even with these disappointments to his name, Clooney has managed to forge an incredibly impressive career. When asked to reflect on it by The Telegraph, the heartthrob revealed some of the movies that he’s happy are on his Wikipedia page. “I’ve been lucky enough to do a few films that will last longer than an opening weekend and those films are the ones I’m proud of,” he said. “The first of those was Out Of Sight and then I figured out that a screenplay was important and I had a good run with O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Three Kings, and certainly Good Night, and Good Luck was a high point for me career wise…. just something I was proud to work on. And obviously Michael Clayton.”
Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight played a big role in establishing its star as a successful leading man. It came one year after the abject failure of Batman & Robin and was a much-needed notch in his win column. It proved that he could do action, comedy, and romance, particularly in the film’s incredibly saucy scenes between him and Jennifer Lopez.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one of Clooney’s many excellent collaborations with Joel and Ethan Coen. Alongside John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson, he plays one of a group of escaped convicts who go on a Homer-inspired odyssey to track down a haul of hidden booty, all whilst a ruthless sheriff is hot on their heels. One year earlier, he’d made Three Kings, another unlikely comedy with a buried treasure motif. Clooney plays an American soldier serving in Iraq who is tasked with tracking down a cache of gold looted from Kuwait. Both pictures proved that Clooney had matured as a performer, as he was able to balance their dark tones with some much-appreciated levity.
Michael Clayton, a legal thriller in which Clooney plays an embattled lawyer, is one of the actor’s best-reviewed movies. It also earned him his first Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actor’. Then there’s Good Night, and Good Luck, which marked his first trip behind the camera. As well as directing, he also stars as Fred W. Friendly, a TV producer whose interview show goes toe-to-toe with infamous anti-Communist politician Joseph McCarthy during the height of the Cold War.
Each of the five films Clooney mentioned represents a different stage in the evolution of his career. They all played a key part in making him the respected name he is today, and you can see why he was more keen to bring them up than something like Spy Kids 3-D. However, that is also a cult classic.
