Movie Corner!!!

Michael Clayton, written and directed by Tony Gilroy.

Hey, everybody! Wasn’t it funny how the Tilda Swinton character was shown getting dressed and we saw that flabby bulge of flesh under her bra? Wasn’t it funny and didn’t it make her look sad and old and grasping and pathetic even though George Clooney in real life is probably older than she is, and we never got a single glimpse of his flabby love handles or his sad sagging paunch? Wasn’t it funny how we never saw George Clooney in anything other than a suit? Wasn’t it funny how the Tilda Swinton character was, for all intents and purposes, the only female character in the film? Wasn’t it funny how she was the only character shown partly nude? Wasn’t it funny how she had to practice her lawyer speeches, even though everyone else in the movie was a lawyer and they didn’t have to practice speaking? Wasn’t it funny how the only female character was the antagonist? Wasn’t it funny how you were like, “YEAH! Take THAT, bitch/whore!” when the Clooney character busted her? Wasn’t it funny how she was a bitch and did you notice she was a female and a lawyer and the only female lawyer? Wasn’t it funny how the film teemed with men–lawyers, lawyers, more lawyers–and the Tilda Swinton character was shown setting out her nude pantyhose and putting on her make-up and getting dressed and looking at herself in the mirror and later being the bad-ass lead counsel of a huge corporation but ultimately she was so fragile (i.e., incompetent) that she killed two men in a desperate attempt to retain her power? Wasn’t it funny how in the end she got punished for her transgressive behavior, except what was the transgression, exactly? Was it being a powerful lawyer? Isn’t it funny how the semiotics of misogyny are so embedded in our culture that you almost didn’t realize how deeply insanely fucked-up all of the above is?

by Left Hook | 13 October 2007 | popular culture | Comments