Clayface Spoiler Review: The Wink, the Nightclub Kills and the Student Film Feel

Clayface is a movie I think few would argue is perfect, but many would say is better than you would expect. I think it benefits from two potent fan bases rallying behind it: comic book fans and horror fans. This is my full spoiler take, covering my favorite moments, the flaws, the powers, the kills and that ending. And yes, he really did feel like he was made of clay, which I thought was cool.

Matt Hagen's wink is the signature move that won me over

I'm surprised how much I liked the wink. It became his signature move once he started his revenge tour. I loved it because of the bravado. You didn't know that wasn't the real person in front of you, but when he looks at you and winks, he knowingly gives away that he's there, because he feels there's nothing you can do about it. He's very good, as we learn, at disappearing into a crowd. You'd think a shape shifter would never want you to know they were there, so for him to wave at you was unique to the character.

The wink also changed my mind about one performance. Up until that scene I had not been fond of the actor Matt impersonates. I've said this movie had student film vibes, and he was one of the culprits. But when Matt Hagen shapeshifted into his form, he seemed like a different person. I don't know if he felt like Matt Hagen, but he had more confidence, more purpose and calm. I was impressed with the switch.

I also got the Donald Sutherland joke and appreciated it. He was made up with the hair and outfit to look exactly like 1970s Donald Sutherland, from Klute or Ordinary People. Most people know Kiefer Sutherland or Hunger Games Donald Sutherland better. You had to know your stuff to get it, and it made me feel the people making this movie loved film. That's another reason it felt like a student film. The film has major issues, but it feels like the makers are only getting started, even though they're fully fledged adults. I think Mike Flanagan's script and star Tom Rhys Harries are doing most of the heavy lifting.

The third act nightclub sequence is where I started to love Clayface

I loved the nightclub sequence in its entirety. At first I wondered if Matt was hypnotizing everybody. The way he got the whole crowd to dance with him was hypnotic. The crowd would move as one, dip, and in that split moment he shapeshifted into somebody else. It was great sleight of hand and an amazing visual. He looks right at his victims as if to say he's coming for them. It's almost like a shark fin: you can see it coming and there's nothing you can do.

I was particularly impressed when he impersonated the other woman at the club, not Mia Torres. The smile was fantastic, though someone had posted a picture online and I thought it was AI. That grotesque twisted smile showed you were dealing with something that wasn't human. Then they fell down the stairs and her broken body got back up as if it were no problem. You cut to her mid drink, slack jawed, then back to Matt in her dress and jewelry, shrugging. To me that was the standout moment in the movie.

This movie has hidden depth, and I wonder how much of Mike Flanagan's script remained. You only see shadows of it, but maybe that's one reason people are enjoying this more than the Sony villain standalone films. Matt impersonates people nobody sees as a threat, using their assumptions and prejudices against them to get direct access. I was sure he would duplicate Mia, but he became the other bodyguard. I felt a little bad when Mia tried to save that bodyguard, saying "He just had a kid," but then I remembered how she left Matt in that bedroom to be disfigured. Karma.

The scariest moment was a power of attorney handover

The scariest moment for me came in the hospital, when his financial advisor said he'd need power of attorney and Matt said sure, no problem. I gasped out loud. I couldn't believe he would be so stupid. He's talking to the man right there; if permission is needed, come back to the hospital or call. It's one of the things that made this feel like a student film, because it's unlikely someone that far along in his career would do something so dumb.

To be fair, this does happen to stars, just not this quickly, and it reminded me a bit of Johnny Depp. I think they could have done more with it. They made Matt pretty squeaky clean except for his ego, and he wasn't friends with his business manager. If they had cast someone slicker and friendlier who blurred the line between professional and personal, maybe I would have believed it more.

Two supporting performances brought the production down

The actor who plays the mob boss has an impressive resume, so I don't understand why he was so bland. Maybe he was seriously miscast, or maybe they didn't want to go cliche, but he acts like a total cliche anyway. I didn't believe anybody would be afraid of him or respect him, though I guess he was effective.

Then there's Max Minghella, who comes from a big Hollywood family: his father was Anthony Minghella, and his sister is a successful executive who has been at a couple of studios. He's not a great actor. With both of them, I kept thinking they could have done better. I think they would have been better off with actors who have hardly worked.

Clayface is low budget and doesn't seem to realize it

The film came across as naive and ultra low budget without realizing it, a common mistake for film students. Locations rarely felt real. A money manager's office, a science lab, a police station, a big movie premiere: none of them sold me. When I was in film school I saw fellow students write scripts they had no hope of filming at their level. You should figure out the locations you can get and write a story that works with them. Sometimes this got close enough that I thought it could have been even better with the budget it wanted, but for a professional movie these mistakes were odd.

The logic also felt inexperienced. Matt's fall happens in a sloppy montage, and nobody falls that quickly or that far. You'd lean on friends or couch surf. Maybe the mob angle explains it, but when everybody took him back once his face was fixed, I thought they were supposed to be scared of the mob. I believed him living in the sewers by the end, but not that fast for someone so famous and wealthy.

A smaller thing: a former movie star coming back from a meeting with offers wouldn't fly coach. I've gotten over the cuticle scissors. He'd be in premium economy or business; I recently saw a big movie star from one of the biggest movies of the year in business. Or he could borrow a ride on a friend's private jet. Where was his assistant? There are many branches to hit on the way down when you've climbed that high. I guess the director doesn't work with a lot of big stars.

The opening sells a Hollywood star fantasy for straight guys

I loved the opening. When the Clayface title came up over Coast City in yellow 1970s letters, it felt like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Adventures of Cliff Booth or Wonder Man. It didn't match the trailers at all, and it told me right away we were in for something different. I'll always remember that moment. The beginning reminded me of Marvel's Wonder Man and Simon Williams, and the reality of the movie business on the ground. Poor Wonder Man. I would have liked to see its second season.

Why Coast City, though? That's Hal Jordan's home, not a stand in for Los Angeles. Marvel uses real cities and DC uses fake ones, but I always felt Coast City was more northern, maybe like wherever they filmed Big Little Lies, and more down to earth. Still, I liked the day in the life: being driven to the studio going over lines, sweetly trying to set his friend up with a makeup artist, not wanting the day to be about him as Oscar nominations came out, and telling his late mom, "We made it, mom."

Hollywood glamour, at least in the media I consume, is usually aimed at female and LGBTQ audiences. Seeing an idealized Hollywood star for straight guys who isn't Jason Statham was interesting, and I think it's one of the reasons many comic book fans who are against Hollywood still like this. He even puts his face in ice, like Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, an old trick to depuff. The Oscars were another budget dodge. Nominations are announced around 5 a.m. West Coast time to hit East Coast morning shows, so he wouldn't be on set, and he could have gotten the news asleep.

Gotham shows no sign of Batman

When he took a private jet to Gotham, my first thought was don't jinx yourself. It needs Batman and has all these villains, none of which you see. Peter Safran said in an interview that Batman is already operational in Clayface, and I have to ask where. This felt pre Batman or very early Batman. The trip made sense once it was a TV appearance, which felt realistic. But he should have had a hotel and a studio PR representative to handle and protect him, not only his best friend.

I liked the mysterious Gotham background emerging. He came from a rough family, and the people dredged up to say bad things weren't apparently lying; Matt felt he'd left them behind, and his friend told the media who to ask. I liked the idea that Matt was never always nice, that he slipped when things went bad, and they implied his father had that problem. I wish they'd done more with it. I feel the Flanagan script probably explained these things, and maybe this works better as a series. I wish The Penguin had been followed by another HBO series, then Poison Ivy.

The club was a wasted opportunity: how is Zatanna not there? And with Batman supposedly active, there was nothing. I'd take a silhouette, people talking about him, or Bruce Wayne on the fringes, the way the animated series worked.

Mia Torres and the mob boss set the tragedy in motion

Mia was her own honey trap: upset her boyfriend was cheating, she decided to bag a movie star. She didn't even like Matt. Her introduction was great, with fantastic slow motion and a perfect dress, and she looked a lot like Cecily Strong. The Portuguese actress playing her did a nice job. Roles like this often go to models who aren't good actresses, case in point Jerry Hall in the first Batman. I don't know why they gave her that nude moment in bed. This is a comic book movie; you want kids in the audience, and American audiences will object to that before violence.

Matt felt untouchable. When his friend warned him she was a gangster's girlfriend, he replied, "Not tonight, obviously," and signed his own problem. He apparently only wanted women who were taken, later hitting on the doctor engaged to someone else. Waking up surrounded by goons, with the camera pulling back, was threatening and well done. Mia simply left without seeking mercy. It was realistic, and you don't usually see that. I loved the mob boss's line about playing the role of big bad gangster. I think Matt should have offered a ton of money instead of ignoring the consequences.

AI nanites give this Clayface his new powers

The powers changed from a chemical injection to AI nanites acting like cells, which is timely given mRNA vaccines and AI advancements. I thought the doctor would get a military contract, and a smart sequel tease would have someone grab the nanites for Deathstroke. AI also isn't controllable, so I wondered if it would develop its own ideas. We didn't totally go there. His face melting, getting hit by a car, then injecting all the nanites was believable. The nanites needing electricity, and a jolt stopping them, gives Batman something to work with.

I never thought of Clayface as having a healing factor, and this isn't a regular one like Wolverine or Deadpool. Instead of goo reforming, blood drops crawl back to him in the sink, a new and fun visual. The overnight test was pretty sexy: while he slept, he shifted into the doctor but kept Matt Hagen's hands. These days it's hard to shock us, so that's impressive. In the nightclub, fighting him was like fighting Gumby. He also made blades, the shadow of a mace, and shark shapes that cut off fingers.

Ranking the Clayface kills

The one that surprised me was the henchman tailing the doctor to the subway. I expected Matt to jump out, but the henchman was Matt, and he said, "Boo." The mob boss death was inventive: Matt let his blood drip into him, then the nanites tore through the man's face to come home. Maybe that's how he grows. In the nightclub rampage, I've never seen Mystique, even when Rebecca Romijn played her, do multiple kills like this in a single room; I loved his improvising, like "Worst day of my life." He smothered his best friend in a hug, Mia suffocated on expanding clay she bit, which was the most clay of them, and the business manager kill was disgusting. The fiance's death was sad. He was a nice guy, and I think he even suspected Matt.

The ending leaves Matt Hagen making his own company

Matt tells the doctor, "I just wanted to see what it looked like when you looked at him," but she doesn't really look at her fiance that way. I didn't feel Naomi Ackie had chemistry with either actor. She disables the nanites on an iPad in the rain, he looks like comics Clayface for a second, and oozes into the sewers. A homeless man's bow makes her suspicious. In his lair she appears to say she wants to be with him, but it's all him, playing both. The idea that he'd never be alone because he can create his own company was interesting, and it being him made sense, because there's no way she'd want to be with him after what he did. It isn't a perfect movie, but it's good in certain areas, and I think it plays very strongly to the horror and comic book fandoms.