I was recently thinking about George Clooney. For the past few years he seems to have been in a movie almost every year that has been hailed by critics as “one of the best movies of the year.” I write that facetiously as my wife and I often joke about this type of shameless marketing. Nonetheless, he is now getting praise for his performance in Up in the Air, a film being hailed with platitudes like being “one of the best movies of the year.” If you don’t believe me, just check out the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
George Clooney in his latest critically loved film, Up in the Air.
I haven’t seen the movie so I don’t really know if it’s deserving of the praise. What I find interesting though is that there hasn’t seem to have been an actor in a long time who is approaching a sort of Tom Hanks-like popularity for both a substantial portion of the population and film buffs alike. If you don’t remember the Tom Hanks era of movie dominance, you are probably pretty young. (more…)
