Auteur Watch: George Clooney

...did anyone else notice this while watching La La Land?  There was the scene where Ryan Gosling was in his apartment, and he was playing the piano.  And it seemed like they re-dubbed his playing with someone else's, which seemed a little unnecessary.  But then I thought that, well, maybe it's an actual L.A. apartment they're in, so the sound outside is probably drowning out everything.  Plus, there were probably a lot of gawkers outside as well, and security guards trying to hold back the throngs wanting to catch a glimpse of Ryan Gosling.  Never did finish the movie; a little too L.A. narcissistic for my taste, but someday I will really sit down and watch it on a double bill with Up in the Air.
Anyway, America... you make me sad.  Ever since 2002, George Clooney has directed a film every three years.  We've got 2002's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, 2005's Good Night and Good Luck, 2008's Leatherheads... that's the black sheep of the family, if only in my mind... There's 2011's The Ides of March, 2014's The Monuments Men... and now, 2017's Suburbicon, the long rumoured Coen script in which Clooney was supposed to play a guy who gets beaten to death with a golf club, because someone else saw Pacific Heights too!  There even was a sustained TV and IMDb-based ad campaign for the damn movie.  You might've seen it too.  I only seem to watch "The Daily Show" and it was there!  And that's, like... the most popular show on TV!  Alas, it wasn't meant to be.  Maybe it's only in 300 theaters or something, mostly in the Midwest.  Well, people stayed away because they saw the ads and went "...Paramount?  I thought Clooney was a WB man, through and through.  Nope, ain't going to see it."
No, people wanted a little more fantastical version of violence, so they went to see Jigsaw.  Ick.  Well, it was #1 with a piddly 16.3 million dollars, so Jigsaw will go on to play against Jason in the semi-finals.  Alien seems to be winning on the Alien v. Predator side of things.  No one likes Predator anymore.
Meanwhile, at #6, it's Thank You For Your Service.  It made $3.7 million domestic, so I think the phrase is safe.  People probably aren't going to confuse it for the movie any time soon.