Clay Pigeons

Clay (Joaquin Phoenix) seems to have an unnamed enemy who's framing him for the deaths of several women. He did know of the first killing, by a spurned lover, where Clay in a panic gets rid of the body.

He meets puppy dog-friendly truck driver Lester (Vincent Vaughan) and while fishing with him, a body floats up in the lake, terrifying Clay. The body, though, was not killed in the same manner as the first killing, which puzzles him. When another body is found, the FBI are called in (Janeane Garafalo, Phil Morris) to help the obviously bewildered and incapable small town police.

Clay needs to find the real killer, as the police keep finding that he has connections to the women.


The beginning half is good as a suspense picture, less so about who the real killer is (it's revealed to us about a third of the way in) and more about whether Clay will be framed or not, and what he's going to do once he finds out who the killer is.

Phoenix is good as the nervous, brooding innocent. Garafalo's character is a little too snarky to be the senior investigator of the duo and her finally figuring out who the killer is (through no real investigation of her own) was manufactured and her believability as a smart investigator is diminished at this point. Vaughan of course plays himself with a streak of menace and unpredictability but his character and performance becomes annoying and two dimensional. Scott Wilson is pretty good as the sheriff, at first a little small town-y but growing more into a sympathetic friend to Clay. Otherwise the small town citizens are portrayed as hicks.