The latest George Clooney movie The American is not a kick-ass Bourne style action flick as the trailer would have you believe. It is however a kick-ass modern western made with superior skill and filled with great performances. It’s a film that uses the clichés of the hitman genre with refreshing restraint while making them seem new again.

The movie was made by Ductchman Anton Corbijn, the same director of the best music biopic you never saw, 2007′s Control. A sleek black and white piece about Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, that makes Walk the Line look like an episode of American Idol. Corbijn uses more of his minimalist stylings and deliberately slow pacing present in that film here. While the general audience may dismiss this as boring, the rest of us will be entertained as the film slowly builds to it’s conclusion. Read the rest of this entry »