GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (2005) *** George Clooney did a lot right with this film. I'm impressed. I wouldn't be surprised if he's President some day. I bet I'd vote for him. The subject matter's right, timely in that historical way, but I don't find it as risky as some apparently do. Most people understand that McCarthy was a gross klutz backed up by a pathological mental case of a lawyer. But it's good to fight against that! The film absolutely feels like I figure the 1950s were. You could write a 50 volume work on the communist witch hunts without covering the myriad cross-currents, but it's not very sexy, and loses its immediacy at some depth, so Clooney does well to catch the main ones, admit that there was at least a little bit on a lot of sides, and then champion the big issues that transcend all of the enmity, bitterness, and personalities. So I don't think it was all so ambitious as a lot of people do, but I do agree that the execution was effective to the point of...it just feels so wrong to use the word "brilliant" to describe even this depiction of an epoch so bereft of genuine inspiration (well ok, maybe Little Richard). Diane Reeves is great as the Greek Chorus, and Frank Langella's portrayal of journalistic aesthetics headed for the mall is actually sympathetic. There was some trickiness involved in casting this broad of a spectrum so quickly, in communicating something so complex so concisely, it's professionals depicting professionals. Maybe it's just that we live in a society where any guts at all appears extraordinary, and isn't that the point of the film? Well done.
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