Clay Pigeons is a 1998 black comedy film written by Matt Healy and directed by David Dobkin. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, and Janeane Garofalo. It is the second film on-screen collaboration between Vaughn and Phoenix, the first film being Return to Paradise, released in the same year. Plot In a field in Montana Earl, the best friend of young man Clay Bidwell, shoots himself dead after confronting Clay over the ongoing affair he had been having with Earl's wife Amanda. Having just found out, he was distraught and wanted to make it look like Clay had murdered him. Rushing back to town, Clay seeks help from Amanda to cover it up but she refuses to help as she doesn't want everyone knowing about the affair. With difficulty he manages to get the body into his pickup and get it to seem like Earl drove it down the incline, where it crashed and burned. A short time after the funeral, Clay arrives home to find an unapologetic, half-naked Amanda pressing him to continue with their affair as if nothing has happened. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists Amanda's advances when she throws herself at him. Lester Long, who he inadventently befriends in the bar witnesses Amanda's behaviour. After a jealous Amanda kills Gloria, a waitress Clay briefly dates, while they are making love she convinces him not to report it. He dumps the body in the lake, the next day Clay and Lester go fishing. A body floats to the surface which Clay can only assume is Gloria. Lester asks him to report it on his own so he isn't late to work. Later on Clay comes across his Lester at his ex's place. Lester spends the whole day with Amanda, at the end of which he stabs her several times. Unbeknownst to Clay, he happens to be a serial killer. The following morning, Clay follows police cruisers to Amanda's and finds out she's been stabbed to death. Soon enough, FBI agent Dale Shelby and her partner Reynard come to town and examine the unprofessionally controlled crime scene. They zero in on Clay as the prime suspect as they have video footage of his affair with Amanda, he was dating a now missing Gloria and he reported finding a third. Lester has Clay meet him by the lake. He tells him he murdered the nagging Amanda in an attempt