George Clooney’s new movie is Chariots Of Fire on water

George Clooney's latest movie - an American Chariots Of Fire on water - is what all classic movie fans have been yearning for, for years.

Look, we get it, It's 2024. Everyone has an attention spans less than six seconds - thanks to TikTok - so filmmakers are feeling the pressure to pull out all the stops. They're making films which are so star-studded (Barbie), so shocking (Saltburn), or high-budgeted (Rebel Moon: Part One) that no one picks up their phone for a quick scroll midway through.

Obviously there's a whole lot more to those films than just that, but you get what I mean.

But George Clooney? Well, he clearly doesn't feel that pressure, as his latest directorial endeavour starring Masters of the Air's Callum Turner is exactly what the classic movie lovers among us have been begging to see more of for years.

Clooney tells UNILAD himself it's 'hard to get a unique film anymore'. Yet despite saying this, The Boys in the Boat is unique - in how it takes a stand against all the other blockbusters raining in after the pandemic and strikes to let us indulge in the nostalgia of the past.

Clooney tells UNILAD: "For us, this is an old-fashioned sports film. It's [...] a period piece. So that automatically sort of pushes that way.

"[...] We're not here to surprise anybody. We're just trying to take them on a journey. And that's old film, old film storytelling.

"In general, you kind of knew in the old romantic comedies [...] they'd end up together. You want to enjoy the journey. In the old sports films, Hoosier films, or even way before that, you knew how it was going to end [too]. So you had to set up and design the journey - that was our goal was to make sure that we liked all the characters."

And this is ultimately what makes The Boys in the Boat so successful, because it achieves exactly what it sets out to do.

Warner Bros.

As Clooney said, the movie isn't mean to shock or surprise, but take films back to the drawing board of 'storytelling', and The Boys in the Boat does this in the purest form.

While the cyclical nature of the movie could've been made more pronounced - you know, to tug even more at the heart strings - that's not to deny the film is full of heart and brims with belief.

The Boys in the Boat dives into the competitive world of rowing as a mental and not just physical sport, highlighting the importance of teamwork and pinpointing sport as being - at its core - about the 'best' person winning.

Add in themes of trust, overcoming the odds, believing in yourself, sportsmanship and what it truly means to win, the film is relatable to everyone. Even if you were the sort of person to be picked first or last in high school.

The cinematography is stunning and yet again - while nothing radical or artistic, like the recent release Saltburn - it sets the tone of the movie as classic and swings along in perfect unison with the acting, plot and period the film is set.

Oh, and let's not forget that at the heart of it there is a 'really beautiful love story' too, Clooney notes to UNILAD.

Warner Bros.

However, until Clooney pointed it out, it wasn't on the forefront of my mind as I left the cinema, reflecting on 124 minutes I'd just sat through.

While beautifully acted by Callum Turner and Hadley Robinson, we don't see enough of their romance to truly care as much as we do about Joe's personal journey or the rowing team. There's a reason it's categorised as more of a sports drama than romance, after all.

Despite this, Turner is the perfect combination of charm and grit, and all of the rest of the cast - let alone the rowers - act in perfect unison, expertly coxed by Clooney to create a beautifully lyrical, motivating and wholesome classic movie.

Well, move over football, because there's a new beautiful game in town.