''Clay Pigeons'' is a 1998
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
film written by Matt Healy and directed by
David Dobkin. The film stars
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (; né Bottom; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for playing dark and unconventional characters in independent films. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academ ...
,
Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American actor.
Vaughn began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Swingers''. He has appeared in ...
, and
Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Marie Garofalo ( ; born September 28, 1964) is an American comedian, actress, and former co-host on the now-defunct Air America Radio's ''The Majority Report''.
Garofalo began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on ...
.
It is the second film on-screen collaboration between Vaughn and Phoenix, the first film being ''
Return to Paradise'', released in the same year.
Plot
Clay Bidwell, a young man living in Montana, witnesses his friend Earl kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the Earl's adulterous wife Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists Amanda's advances when she presses him to continue with their affair as if nothing has happened.
After a jealous Amanda kills a waitress Clay briefly dates, he inadvertently befriends Lester Long, who happens to be a serial killer. Lester murders the nagging Amanda in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy", leaving Clay horrified. Soon enough,
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
agent Dale Shelby and her partner Reynard come to town and zero in on Clay as the prime suspect.
Cast
*
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (; né Bottom; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for playing dark and unconventional characters in independent films. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academ ...
as Clay Bidwell
*
Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American actor.
Vaughn began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Swingers''. He has appeared in ...
as Lester Long
*
Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Marie Garofalo ( ; born September 28, 1964) is an American comedian, actress, and former co-host on the now-defunct Air America Radio's ''The Majority Report''.
Garofalo began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on ...
as Dale Shelby
*
Georgina Cates
Georgina Elaine Cates (born Clare Elaine Woodgate; 14 January 1975) is an English film and television actress.
Life and career
Born Clare Elaine Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, Cates attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke ...
as Amanda
*
Gregory Sporleder
Gregory Sporleder (born April 14, 1964) is an American actor and filmmaker, notable for playing military men in films such as '' The Rock'', '' Black Hawk Down'' and ''Renaissance Man'', as well as Calvin Norris in the HBO series ''True Blood'' ...
as Earl
*
Phil Morris as Agent Reynard
*
Scott Wilson as Sheriff Dan Mooney
*
Vince Vieluf
Vincent Ernest "Vince" Vieluf (pronounced ''Vee-loff''; born November 10, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in ''Rat Race'' and the short-lived UPN sitcom '' Love, Inc.''
Life and career
Vieluf was born in Joliet, Illi ...
as Deputy Barney
* Nikki Arlyn as Gloria Collins
*
Joseph D. Reitman
Joseph David Reitman (born May 25, 1968) is an American actor, producer, director, and writer.
Early life
Joe Reitman grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, and majored in theatre at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, in order to pursu ...
as Glen
Production
''Clay Pigeons'' was developed under filmmakers
Ridley and
Tony Scott
Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was an English film director and producer. He was known for directing highly successful action and thriller films such as ''Top Gun'' (1986), ''Beverly Hills Cop II'' (1987), ''Day ...
's company,
Scott Free Productions
Scott Free Productions is an independent film and television production company founded in 1970 by filmmakers and brothers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. They formed the feature film development company Percy Main Productions in 1980, naming the ...
.
Vaughn has described his character, Lester, as "a guy who isn’t necessarily from the West — that’s just an image he’s created of himself. Whatever his reality is — being badly hurt by women or whatever — he’s made it over, taking bits and pieces of things he’s seen in movies. He sees his life as a strange Western movie, with himself as the hero. He thinks he’s a sane person in an insane world."
Dobkin said of the characters, "I wanted everyone to be different than what they appear to be — the FBI agent who smokes pot, the small town sheriff who seems slow but is the one who figures
he murders
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
out in the end."
Reception
The film received mixed reviews. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 61% based on reviews from 54 critics with the consensus: "Joaquin Phoenix, Janeane Garofalo, and Vince Vaughn play for kills in this dark comedy, but the film's aim misses some of those ''Clay Pigeons''." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
the film has a score of 49/100 based on 26 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clay Pigeons
1998 films
1998 comedy films
1998 crime drama films
1998 directorial debut films
1998 independent films
1990s black comedy films
1990s crime drama films
1990s serial killer films
American black comedy films
American crime drama films
American independent films
American neo-noir films
American serial killer films
German black comedy films
German crime drama films
German independent films
German neo-noir films
German serial killer films
English-language German films
Films directed by David Dobkin
Films set in Montana
Films shot in California
Films shot in Utah
Scott Free Productions films
Gramercy Pictures films
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films
1990s English-language films
1990s American films
1990s German films