Freshman

Michael Clayton (2007)

Actors: Sydney Pollack (producer), Anthony Minghella (producer), Bill Raymond (actor), Tilda Swinton (actress), David Zayas (actor), George Clooney (producer), Denis O'Hare (actor), Ken Howard (actor), Michael O'Keefe (actor), Kevin Cannon (actor), Tom Wilkinson (actor), Sydney Pollack (actor), George Clooney (actor), James Newton Howard (composer), Steven Soderbergh (producer),

Plot: Michael Clayton, a high-priced law firm's fixer, leaves a late night poker game, gets a call to drive to Westchester, and watches his car blow up as he's taking an impromptu dawn walk through a field. Flash back four days. He owes a loan shark to cover his brother's debts (Michael's own gambling habits have left him virtually broke). His law firm is negotiating a high-stakes merger, and his firm's six year defense of a conglomerate's pesticide use is at risk when one of the firm's top litigators goes off his meds and puts the case in jeopardy. While Michael is trying to fix things someone decides to kill him. Who? Meanwhile his son summarizes the plot of a dark fantasy novel.

Keywords: agribusiness, ambiguous-ending, ambition, answering-machine, anti-depressant, apartment, arrest, attempted-coverup, attorney, auction
Genres: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller,
Taglines: The Truth Can Be Adjusted The truth is what he makes it.

Quotes:

[from trailer]::Michael Clayton: You are the senior litigating partner of one of the largest, most respected law firms in the world. You are a legend.::Arthur Edens: I'm an accomplice!::Michael Clayton: You're a manic-depressive!::Arthur Edens: I am Shiva, the god of death.

Michael Clayton: I'm not the guy you kill. I'm the guy you buy! Are you so fucking blind that you don't even see what I am? I sold out Arthur for 80 grand. I'm your easiest problem and you're gonna kill me?

Marty Bach: We've got 600 attorneys here. We've got to find out who's an expert on psychiatric commitment statutes.::Michael Clayton: I can tell you who that is: Arthur.

Barry Grissom: Look. I agreed to this, OK? But there's rules now. You want the contract, you're signing a confidentiality agreement; it's gonna be bulletproof, and it's gonna be retroactive. Because Marty's too nice to say it, but with everything you know about this place and the clients here and the people who work here, it makes it a little weird when you come in and ask for 80 grand.::Michael Clayton: If I was gonna shake anybody down, Barry, I'd come directly to you, and it wouldn't be for 80 grand.::[to Marty]::Michael Clayton: Is this him, or is this you?::Barry Grissom: Hey, if I'm wrong, I apologize.::Michael Clayton: You're wrong. You're way the fuck wrong!::Barry Grissom: So there you go.

Michael Clayton: You're my meal ticket, Marty. If you leave, it's just me and Barry in a room and I'm trying to explain what the hell it is I do around here.

[last lines]::Taxi driver: So what are we doin'?::Michael Clayton: Give me fifty dollars worth. Just drive.

Michael Clayton: I am not the enemy.::Arthur Edens: Then who are you?

Arthur Edens: Michael, I have great affection for you and you live a very rich and interesting life, but you're a bag man not an attorney. If your intention was to have me committed you should have kept me in Wisconsin where the arrest report, the videotape, eyewitness reports of my inappropriate behavior would have had jurisdictional relevance. I have no criminal record in the state of New York, and the single determining criterion for involuntary commitment is danger. Is the defendant a danger to himself or to others. You think you got the horses for that? Well good luck and God bless, but I'll tell you this: the last place you want to see me is in court.::Michael Clayton: I'm not the enemy.::Arthur Edens: Then who are you?

Michael Clayton: Do I look like I'm negotiating?

Arthur Edens: Yes! Here we are, all together. Is everyone listening? 'Cause this is the moment you've been waiting for, a very special piece of paper, so let's have a big, paranoid, malignant round of applause... for United Northfield Culcitate Internal Research Memorandum #229! June 19th, 1991. "Conclusion: The unanticipated marketing growth for Culcitate by small farms in colder climates demands IMMEDIATE cost-benefit analysis." Hah. Would you like a little bit of legal advice? NEVER let a scientist use the words "unanticipated" and "immediate" in the same sentence. Okay? Okay. "In-house field studies have indicated small, short-season farms dependent on well water for human consumption are at risk for toxic, particulate concentrations at levels significant enough to cause serious human tissue damage." Well, this is a long way of saying that you don't even have to leave your house to be killed by our product, we'll pipe it into your kitchen sink. "Culcitate's great market advantage that it is tasteless, colorless, and does not precipitate, has the potential to mask and intensify these potentially lethal exposures." Now, I love this. Not only is this a great product, it is a superb cancer delivery system. "Chemical modifications of Culcitate product, or the addition of a detector molecule such as an odorant or a colorant, would require a top-down redesign of the Culcitate-manufacturing process. These costs, while assumed to be significant, were not summarized here." Which, loosely translated, means "it's going to cost a fortune to go back on this, and I'm just an asshole in a lab, so could someone else PLEASE make the decision?" "CLEARLY, the release of these internal research documents would compromise the effective marketing of Culcitate, and MUST be kept within the protective confines of United Northfield's trade secret language." You don't need me... to tell you what that means. Goodbye!

Kiepie & Kandas (1981)

Actors: Jan Scholtz (director), Jan Scholtz (writer), Jan Scholtz (producer), Johan Lategan (editor), Dawid van der Walt (actor), Willie van Rensburg (actor), Jannie Wienand (actor), Zack du Plessis (actor), Alex Heyns (actor), Schalk Jacobsz (actor), Ryno Hattingh (actor), Friedrich Stark (actor), Pierre Knoesen (actor), Boet Troskie (producer), Morne Coetzer Jr. (actor),

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance,