Michael Clayton (2007) poster
2007 · thriller · drama

Michael Clayton

Directed by Tony Gilroy2h 0m2007
ElsewhereIMDb7.2180kRT90%Metacritic82TMDB6.82k
  • sombre
  • twisty
Movie DNA

Sombre, steady, measured thriller / drama, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, cold.

How every film is hand-scored →

A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multi-billion dollar class action suit.

Our read · Michael Clayton (2007) reads as a sombre, steady, grounded thriller · drama entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of Michael Clayton

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a grown-up legal thriller where corporate rot meets one tired fixer.

ends triumphantit stays with youa slow buildgrips by minute 22attention 5/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upsuicide themegraphic violence

Skip it tonightYou are too tired for dense dialogue or need action over courtroom dread.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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