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Michael Clayton IQ Score 148/200

Michael Clayton has an IQ Score of 148/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Stimulating tier.

thrillerdrama
148/ 200
Stimulating

Consistently challenges the viewer and rewards attention

Michael Clayton poster, IQ Score 148/200, Stimulating tier on TV Intelligentsia

Score Breakdown

Cognitive Stimulation/50
38
Educational Value/50
32
Craft & Quality/50
42
IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4)  · How we score →
What these dimensions mean
  • Cognitive Stimulation: how much the title demands of your mind, its structural complexity, ideas, and sustained intellectual engagement.
  • Educational Value: what you take away, across academic content, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, life skills, and knowledge transfer.
  • Craft & Quality: production excellence in service of the work, its direction, writing, performance, and aesthetic intent.

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Why you should trust this score

Scored under Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH
Physician and founding editor. Maintains the adult catalog against the published rubric and reviews the rubric application.
Formula
round((C × 0.40 + E × 0.35 + Q × 0.25) × 4)
Database scale
2,597 titles, version-controlled

How we stay independent. Editorial scores are not for sale. TVI may take on paid advisory or research work, but no commercial relationship buys coverage, advance access to scores, favorable treatment, or a change to a published finding. We pay for our own streaming subscriptions, and no reviewer sees sponsor data or affiliate revenue tied to a score. More about how we work →

The TVI Take

Tony Gilroy opens at the end and circles back, so the car-bomb and Arthur's breakdown accrue meaning only in retrospect. The film dramatizes moral awakening as arithmetic: a fixer discovering the cost of the ledger he balances.

Clooney's parking-lot stare after the confrontation lands the transfer about complicity. Restrained, precise craft.

People & Production Tony Gilroy · Section Eight Productions · United States 23 connections

Direction & creation

Director

On screen & sound

Selected cast
George Clooney Tom Wilkinson Tilda Swinton Sydney Pollack Michael O'Keefe Tom McCarthySelected in source order; not represented as billing order.
Cinematography

Production & release

Country of origin
Original language

Credits and relationships: Wikidata, CC0. TVI preserves production, broadcasting, and distribution as separate roles.

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Where to Watch

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Where to go next

Cite this score

Michael Clayton scored 148/200 (Stimulating tier) on TV Intelligentsia's published methodology. Source: tvintelligentsia.com/titles/michael-clayton/

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