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George Clooney is a beloved leading man in Hollywood, getting his start on the hit TV drama ER, before his first major Hollywood role in From Dusk till Dawn (1996). Clooney would go on to be nominated for several Best Actor Oscars at the Academy Awards, and would win one for Best Supporting Actor in Syriana (2005), which is coincidentally not on this list.
Of course, he is beloved for several roles, but when discussing his filmography it’s almost impossible to exclude his infamous role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Joel Schumacher‘s Batman & Robin (1997). That role aside, Clooney has a great mix of comedy and drama in most of his catalog. Often times opting for a hybrid of both in one movie.
‘Oceans Eleven’ (2001), Tomatometer: 83%; Audience Score: 80%
A remake of the original Ocean’s 11 (1960) with the Rat Pack’s Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Clooney plays the titular Danny Ocean, alongside other A-listers Bard Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Julia Roberts, the late Bernie Mac and others.
Ocean and his crew plan an elaborate heist to rob multiple Law Vegas Casinos, owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who is dating Ocean’s ex, Tess (Roberts). The reboot spawned two more spinoffs with the original crew, and another spinoff, Ocean’s 8 (2018).
‘Hail, Caesar’ (2016), Tomatometer: 86%; Audience Score: 44%
One of the more forgotten films among the great one’s written and directed by the Coen Brothers. Hail, Caesar! Is a musical black comedy period piece set in the 1950s, revolving around real life Hollywood fixer Eddie Manix (Josh Brolin) and the kidnapping of actor Baird Whitlock (Clooney), star of Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ.
It’s the biggest gap between Tomatometer and Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes website, but the film received good critic reviews and also performed well at the box office, with a net of about $40 million. It’s definitely weird, and you have to be open-minded going into it.
‘The Descendants’ (2011), Tomatometer: 87%; Audience Score: 79%
The Descendants follows Matt King (Clooney) a Honolulu-based attorney, as he tries to navigate around selling, or keeping, 25 acres of very profitable land or selling it for his family. All the while he finds out his wife, now comatose and dying, was cheating on him.
King deals with accepting his wife’s (Shailene Woodley) affair while also accepting her death, as well as traversing the problems with his children, as he feels the pressure from his family and others to sell the land for money, or stay true to his inheritance and work around the rule of perpetuities. This film earned Clooney his third Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
‘Up in the Air’ (2009), Tomatometer: 90%; Audience Score: 79%
Clooney plays Ryan, an HR rep who specializes in employee-termination consultation for other companies. Ryan flies all around the country conducting lay-offs, and is almost always on a plane. His company hires Natalie (Anna Kendrick) for video conference lay-offs, which he thinks is a bad idea.
Ryan and Anna challenge each other’s philosophies and approach, while Ryan also explore a connection with Alex (Vera Farmiga), a similarly traveling businesswoman who he meets up with in different cities. The movie really holds out hope for a happy ending, but sometimes things don’t always end up that way. This movie earned Clooney his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
‘Michael Clayton’ (2007), Tomatometer: 91%; Audience Score: 69%
Considered to be Clooney’s defining role, as it was his first film to earn him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Clooney plays the titular Michael Clayton, a fixer for a very prestigious law firm in New York City. Clooney is in debt and therefore deeply tied to the law firm, which puts him squarely in the middle of a dangerous cover-up.
While battling against his own law firm and the agricultural conglomerate U-North, he comes face to face with hitmen, and scrapes past death several times. The movie is also filmed In Medias Res, with Clayton’s car exploding in the beginning.
‘Out of Sight’ (1998), Tomatometer: 94%; Audience Score: 74%
Clooney plays another master thief and career criminal Jack Foley in this one, opposite of love interest but also enemy Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). Foley is the greatest bank robber in the country, but was thrown in jail after a spur of the moment heist, and now must escape prison.
When he does, he swoons Sisco, who fantasizes about him. Jack teams up with people not as professional as him in an attempt to steal diamonds from a house, and things unravel pretty quickly. It’s another strong heist movie under Clooney’s belt.
‘Good Night and Good Luck’ (2005), Tomatometer: 93%; Audience Score: 83%
Written, directed, and starring George Clooney is the historical drama between journalist Edward Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare epidemic, and how McCarthy accuses Murrow of being a Communist live on his show.
Murrow dukes it out with McCarthy, disproving his claims and suggesting that McCarthy is only trying to incite fear in Americans, which is of course true. Murrow and CBS eventually win their journalistic duel with McCarthy, as the U.S. Senate investigates him.
‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ (2009), Tomatometer: 93%; Audience Score: 85%
The stop-motion animated movie directed by Wes Anderson and based on the children’s novel by the legendary Roald Dahl. Mr. Fox was a thief, stealing from three farmers, nut he renounces that life and becomes a newspaper columnist.
But when Mr. Fox gets dragged back into the life of stealing from the farmers, he not only loses his tail, but puts his kids, wife, and community at risk of the three farmers. It is a super unique movie with great animation, a great story and great performances all around.
‘Three Kings’ (1999), Tomatometer: 94%; Audience Score: 77%
An ensemble cast of Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze, the film takes place after the Gulf War with these four soldiers are on the hunt for gold in Iraq and against Saddam Hussein. The movie then turns into a rescue mission after Troy (Wahlberg) is captured by Iraqi soldiers.
The movie, directed by David O. Russell, is hailed for its seamless blend of telling a story of war, action sequences, and naturally comedic dialogue. All the characters are unique, and Three Kings stands out as a top-notch war film.
‘Gravity’ (2013), Tomatometer: 96%; Audience Score: 79%
A unique two-star space thriller, Clooney stars as veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski, alongside Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone, who is being escorted by Kowalski to do repairs on the Hubble Space Telescope.
When space debris caused by the Russians heavily damages everything around them, they must both think quickly and fight to survive in the vacuum of space. It’s an incredibly tense movie, with Clooney and Bullock showing a ton of chemistry together and flexing their acting chops.
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