Credits: Far Out / LucaFazPhoto
Sat 17 January 2026 21:15, UK
The most interesting thing about the simmering feud between George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino is whether or not the latter has a valid point to make about his From Dusk till Dawn collaborator.
At first glance, he doesn’t. Tarantino suggested that he wouldn’t consider Clooney a movie star because he hadn’t made anything worthwhile since the millennium, which is objectively wrong, since the actor and filmmaker has enjoyed almost all of his biggest successes since the turn of the 21st century.
The easiest way to counteract those claims is to point to Clooney’s two Academy Award wins from eight nominations in six different categories, all of which came after 2006, the Ocean’s franchise earning over a billion dollars at the box office, Gravity, The Perfect Storm, his Coen brothers collaborations, or any of the other big wins he’s enjoyed either critically, commercially, or during awards season.
The other side of the coin is that he hasn’t made a lot of great movies recently. Jay Kelly was pretty good, but forgettable outings on both sides of the camera in Wolfs, The Boys in the Boat, The Tender Bar, The Midnight Sky, and Suburbicon have hardly set the world on fire. And yet, Clooney remains a star.
He did tell Tarantino fuck off for his comments, and had a dig in Tarantino’s direction after he launched his unprompted attacks on Paul Dano, Owen Wilson, and Matthew Lillard, so it feels safe to say that they won’t be working together any time soon, even if the director had more than one film left on his docket.
What made Clooney stand out was that he felt like a ‘Golden Age’ star with ‘New Hollywood’ sensibilities who emerged in the modern era, which makes sense when Sidney Lumet’s Network is his favourite movie of all time, Paul Newman was one of his onscreen heroes, and Batman & Robin was a stark reminder that he wasn’t cut out to be a blockbuster leading man.
Most people would call the film that resides at the top of their favourites list as the closest thing to perfection that they’ve ever seen, but not him. Instead, when W Magazine asked Clooney which picture never fails to make him cry, no matter how many times he’s seen it, there was only one title that came to mind.
“The end of It’s a Wonderful Life,” he offered. “When he sees the card that says, ‘No man is a failure who has friends’. Kills me. It’s a perfect film.” It’s definitely a classic, but one thing that’s always held Frank Capra and James Stewart’s beloved fable from hovering around the very best of the best conversations is that not many people give a shit about it for 11 months of the year.
Network, the first two Godfather films, Citizen Kane, The Shawshank Redemption, and the rest are talked about in cinematic circles for 365 days a year, but It’s a Wonderful Life doesn’t come out of hibernation until December. As far as Clooney is concerned, though, every single frame is absolutely flawless.
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