Michael Clayton

i’ll never be as genius as tony gilroy. a master of his craft who’s characters are masters of their crafts. each line feels important like there was no other way they could’ve been said to make them any better. this movie is very layered and endlessly rewatchable.  maybe i talk about andor too often but i believe we as a society are not talking about it enough so perhaps i’m grasping at straws here but i see a through line between this and andor. “perhaps it’s too late. but i’ll tell you this, if i could do it again, i’d wake up early and be fighting those bastards for the start” “and that i had been coated in this patina of shit for the best part of my life. the stench of it and the stain of it would in all likelihood take the rest of my life to undo” two characters that are written off, thought to be losing it, in their moment of clarity. they’ve been complacent maybe for different reasons and maybe one is more guilty than the other but realizing the system they’re apart of is a disease.  “calm. kindness. kinship. love. i’ve given up all chance at inner peace. i’ve made my mind a sunless space. i share my dreams with ghosts. i wake up every day to an equation i wrote 15 years ago from which there’s only one conclusion, i’m damned for what i do. my anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they’ve set me on a path from which there is no escape. i yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time i looked down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. what is my sacrifice? i’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. i burn my decency for someone else’s future. i burn my life to make a sunrise that i know i’ll never see. and the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude. so what do i sacrifice? everything!” michael shares similarities to luthen in my opinion, and again not a one to one but i can’t help but see such a great connection between michael confronting karen and luthen deedra. two guys who have been slowly chipped away at bit by bit luthen knowingly, michael at little less clear maybe he just didn’t want to admit it to himself but finally get to release and even gloat a little to someone who thought they had the upper hand but is as fucked as they are.  maybe i’m reaching or maybe i just wanted an excuse to talk about andor.