I saw “Syriana” last night, which is writer/director Stephen Gaghan’s attempt to do for geo-political oil-related power brokering and international espionage what his film “Traffic” did for America’s war on drugs: i.e. shed light on an unexamined world and explose it warts and all.
Clooney as a hard-bitten CIA spook steals the show. And without revealing any spoilers, I’ll just say the flick contains a vivid monologue defending corruption — “corruption is what keeps us from eating scraps of meat in the street,” says a smarmy lobbyist — that people will be quoting for years to come.
If you’ve seen the film and, like me, you need some help deciphering the complex storyline, the Wikipedia entry for the film is a decent resource.