The Couch Potato's Guide to the Best of the Best by Geoff Carter

Nicolas Genin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

George Clooney’s Top Ten Films

By Geoff Carter

He epitomizes cool. George Clooney exudes an aura of ease, intelligence, and confidence reminiscent of old school stars like Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, or Cary Grant. He can be complicated, too, embodying the angst and disappointments of a typical middle-aged joe. Or he can be just plain funny.

Clooney has the ability to glide through an intricate caper film like Oceans 11—barely breaking a sweat, and winning the girl in the bargain—and then take on a self-deprecating comedic role of specious leading man Baird Whitlockin Hail, Caesar!, the Coen Brothers send-up of 1950s Hollywood. Then, in films like Michael Clayton, The Descendants, and Up in the Air, Clooney he can bring a wounded sensibility to characters mired deeply in their past regrets and unforgivable sins.

He knows his way around behind the camera, too. Clooney has been nominated for an Academy Award four times as an actor (winning once for Syriana), once as a director, twice as a screenwriter, and once as a producer (winning for Argo). He was the driving force behind 1994’s biopic of Edward R. Murrow, Good Night and Good Luck, a testament to the courage and integrity of television news pioneer Murrow and his producer, Fred R. Friendly, in their efforts to expose Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Clooney is also a social activist. With his wife Amal, a renowned human rights attorney, he established the Clooney Foundation for Justice which fights for humanitarian causes worldwide. In 2020 alone, Clooney donated $500,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative. Not coincidentally, a significant number of films he has produced, acted in, directed, or written have addressed significant humanitarian and political issues.

So, in recognition of an actor, a writer, director, and producer—a force—who has contributed as much to the general good as he has to the film industry, the Couch Potato would like to salute George Clooney’s work by rating his top ten films.

George Clooney’s Ten Best Films

Michael Clayton: A “fixer” for an exclusive law firm has been assigned to contain a colleague’s meltdown that is threatening to compromise a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit. Clooney’s portrayal of Clayton plumbs the depths of the character’s guilt, regrets, and own culpability in his firm’s moral bankruptcy in a poignant portrayal of a man beaten down by his choices. Notable for Tilda Swinton’s portrayal of neurotically reptilian attorney.

Starring: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack, and Dennis O’Hare. Written and directed by Tony Gilroy.

Up in the Air: Ryan Bingham lives his life with as few attachments as possible. He flies from city to city, hired by outside firms to fire their employees. Ryan even celebrates his no-frills lifestyle in business seminars. When his way of life is threatened by new technology—attached to an absurdly young associate, (Kendrick), Bingham starts to realize he will need someone to tether him to Earth. Clooney brings a poignancy to Bingham, especially when he realizes that his solitude is the price he has paid for emotional convenience. Notable for Anna Kendrick’s breakout performance as Natalie.

Starring: George Clooney, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman, and Amy Morton.

The Descendants: Matt King, a wealthy landowner, tries to put the lives of his family back together after his wife suffers a severe boating accident injury which has left her in an irreversible coma. King then discovers from his daughter that his wife had been having an affair. Torn between the need to keep his family together and trying to understand why he was betrayed, King follows the lover, confronts him, and comes to an uneasy conciliation with himself, his wife, and his own regrets. Clooney’s depiction of male middle-aged angst—the loss, despair, and absurdity—is absolutely dead on. Notable for Nick Krause’s portrayal of Sid, the daughter’s boyfriend.

Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Sid Krause, Matthew Lillard, Amara Miller, and Robert Forster. Written and directed by Alexander Payne.

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?: Three convicts from a Southern chain gang, led by Ulysses Everett McGill, escape to find a trove of buried treasure. McGill’s smooth-talking and scheming patter leads them into all types of misadventures including attending a stint in a recording studio, crashing a KKK rally, and being seduced by a trio of sirens. Clooney is by turns didactic, clueless, clever, and comically brilliant. Notable for the wonderful soundtrack of “old-timey” music.

Starring: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. Written by Joel and Ethan Coen. Directed by Ethan Coen.

Syriana: An espionage thriller that uses three converging storylines to depict the political convolutions involved in supporting the oil industry in the Middle East. Bob Barnes, (Clooney) is a CIA agent caught in the middle during an arms deal gone awry. While attempting to report irregularities with the incident, Barnes finds himself targeted as a “rogue agent” the scapegoat in an international plot gone awry. Clooney won the Academy Award for his performance as Barnes.

Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peete, Christopher Plummer, Jeffrey Wright, and Chris Cooper. Written and directed by Stephen Gaghan.

Three Kings: In the aftermath of the Gulf War, three grunts discover a map to some of Saddam Hussein’s secret bunkers containing untold riches. Commandeered by Archie Gates, an entrepreneurial officer, the small group ventures out to find their fortune, encountering a variety of unexpected people and situations. Along the way, the mission becomes skewed by circumstances beyond their control, and the group finds itself at the crossroads of selfishness and sacrifice. Clooney’s depiction of Gates as a no-nonsense self-serving officer who suffers a dramatic change of heart is classic.

Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Spike Jonze, and Ice Cube. Written by David O. Russell and John Ridley. Directed by David O. Russell.

Good Night, and Good Luck: Clooney’s directorial tour-de-force about the true-life saga of television journalist Edward R. Murrow’s courageous efforts to expose Senator Joseph McCarthy’s red scare reign of terror. Shot in black and white (to match the depiction of McCarthy, shown only in archival footage) the movie’s terse editing and clipped tone lends a sense urgency to the subject matter. Produced by Clooney on a shoestring budget—who paid himself one dollar for writing, acting, and directing—the film was a sensation, garnering six Academy Award nominations.

Starring: George Clooney, David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Frank Langella, Jeff Daniels, and Robert Downey, Jr. Written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov. Directed by George Clooney.

The Perfect Storm: Based on Sebastian Junger’s true-life account of the last voyage of the sword-fishing boat Andrea Gayle when it becomes caught in a devastating North Atlantic storm. Clooney’s portrayal of the Gayle’s hard-bitten Captain Billy Tyne, who is determined to end his run of bad luck, shows a bitterness and hard-core edge not usually seen in his characters. Tyne’s borderline obsessiveness, while driving his crew and ship to their very limits, blinds him to the blind fury of the sea. Notable for a great supporting cast.

Starring: George Clooney, MarkWahlberg, Diane Lane, William Fichtner, John C. Reilly, Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio, and John Hawkes. Written by Sebastian Junger and Bill Wittliff. Directed by Wolfgang Peterson.

Burn After Reading: Another Coen Brothers production resembling a cross between a 1930’s screwball comedy and Dr. Strangelove. Two clueless gym workers attempt to sell a CIA operative’s information to the Russians for profit. A womanizing US Marshal, Harry Pfarrer, finds himself caught between the operative’s wife (Tilda Swinton) and the gym worker (Frances McDormand), both of whom he’s having an affair with. Pfarrer finds himself breaking into the operative’s home where he accidentally encounters the other gym worker—with shocking results. Clooney stumbles his way through the absurd situations, as confident—and as boneheaded—as Inspector Closeau. Notable for Brad Pitt’s hilariously inane gym worker.

Starring: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, and Tilda Swinton. Written by Joel and Ethan Coen. Directed by Ethan Coen.

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Clooney’s foray into Wes Anderson’s version of Roald Dahl’s animated classic. The voice portrayal of Mr. Fox is quintessential Clooney—breezy, elegant, and supremely confident, like Cary Grant with fur, and his interactions with his wife (Meryl Streep), his son Ash (Jason Schwartzman), and friend Kylie (Wallace Wolodarksy) are priceless. Even in the direst situations, Mr. Fox exudes an aura of hope, cleverness, and inevitable victory.

Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, James Gambon, Willem Defoe, Jason Schwarzman, and Wallace Wolodarsky. Written and directed by Wes Anderson.