I was upset when Slumdog/Crash won Best Picture. So it really doesn't matter how you feel about it winning.

A very well acted and nicely constructed film. A best picture frontrunner? Probably wouldn't have been in another year. Even though it covers the current economic situation, it's still pretty light overall. The base story is not really new either - a guy who never believes in family or marriage suddenly transforms after 20 years because of an event or a person, but using the air travel as the backdrop for it is new, and it's cleverly wrapped in the current context to feel more important.

To some degree, the film is tailor-made for Clooney. He is Bingham, and Bingham is him. Is the performance worthy of winning Best Actor? Again not sure because I don't see the role being that challenging to him, even though he played it very well. Kendrick shines in supporting and has a meatier role than Farmiga (but Farmiga is hot!). The dialogs are more natural than Juno. I did see the twist in the screenplay coming.

A-

UP IN THE AIR

I saw this last night at a screening at Harkins. George Clooney plays a guy who has a unique professional lifestyle that requires him to travel by air and car all over the country terminating people because their bosses/companies just don't want to deal with it. He enjoys that lifestyle because he's not tied down to any one thing or anybody. He likes the frequent flyer perks and status and is trying to reach 10 million in miles. Anyway, later he's called back to the home office because they've hired this new girl out of Cornell and she's come up with an extremely cost saving strategy of firing people via video conferencing. Of course, Clooney is threatened by this and tries to put the new girl in her place about what his job actually involves. His boss forces him to show the new girl exactly what they do and off they go. I thought Clooney was good and so was Vera and the young actress. However, it was a pretty generic dramedy but was well acted. It was cool that Okc and Tulsa got mentioned in the film and Hertz must have paid good money because they are all over the picture. I'm still wondering if there are people who are paid to fire other people. I've never heard of that before. Also, it was interesting everytime they did one of those firing sessions.

Grade - B

a very nice movie! enjoyed it alot.

More Thank You For Smoking than Juno and thats a good thing. I loved it. I'd be surprised if Clooney didn't at least win a Globe, I've seen no acting even remotely better this year. It's a perfect role for him.

And Nghtvsn, there are real companies like that, but they aren't marketed like that, more towards as professional mediators. Though I have read articles on companies that have hired actual actors to fire people.

And I dont know what movie some of you were watching, beneath the really funny moments and smart script, I found it to be a very depressing and engaging movie that didn't butcher people over the head with a social problem.

The most uncomfortable moment was when Kendrick had to fire that old man via video and the guy was in a room across from theirs. I was kinda worried something really bad might happen if he turned his head their direction when he was passing their room. Then she has this list of like 40 more names to go. Ugh.

Excellent movie. Loved pretty much every minute of it, which is saying something because I am not normally a fan of Clooney movies. He was good in this though. Him and Kendrick deserve Oscar nominations.

Thta is how I have been rec'd it to people - if you liked Thank You for Smoking....

UP IN THE AIR - 9/10 (A)

This has replaced INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS as my favorite film of the year. It was wonderful! The script is very smart, funny, and sad. Clooney, Kendrick, and Farmiga all give terrific performances. Though I can't help but feel Clooney was just being Clooney. He does a great job of it though and he'd still make my list of best male performances of the year.

I was certainly not expecting to love this one this much. It seemed good, but I wasn't excited for it. I came out very impressed though. It deserves to win Best Picture.

I'm not even sure that's a great comparison though. I mean, it works, but it doesn't do UP IN THE AIR justice. I enjoyed THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, but LOVED UP IN THE AIR.

Up in the Air is remarkable, the most well-acted movie of the year and one of the most effectively constructed overall. Jason Reitman keeps the tone nicely straddled between comedy and drama throughout without going over-the-top in either direction, and this is his most accomplished film so far (great screenplay from him and Sheldon Turner as well). George Clooney continues to prove that he is one of this generation's most convincing and enigmatic actors, and Ryan Bingham is the latest in a line of great portrayals. He is ably supported by two very talented actresses; Vera Farmiga shares genuine chemistry with Clooney and her performance is sexy and self-assured, while Anna Kendrick is perfect as the green corporate newcomer putting on a front of confidence. Up in the Air has a lot to say about the humanity or lack thereof in corporate America and how the country's employees are treated, but nothing about the movie is preachy or unsubtle. A

Up in the Air is a wonderful take on the present day economy and the turmoil many face still as they get the sudden "boot" from the workplace. George Clooney has built a wonderful resume already but Up in the Air ranks near the top of it. The stabilty he brings to a character that not many would want to pursue is strong and vey believable especially in the film's more dramatic moments. Vera Farmigia does a strong job as Clooney's love interest while traveling. The strongest point of the film though would have to be rising star Anna Kendrick as Natalie Keener who follows Clooney's character Ryan Bingham through his traveling cross country. She never seems to fall flat and at times can outdo Clooney in a couple of scenes. She has promise if she continues down this path and not do more films like Twilight. Director Jason Reitman perfectly captures the distress and anger workers face when they are kicked out. One scene in particualr with J.K. Simmons displays the emotion in just the perfect light. The film does a good job also with not taking the easy way out with the ending and giving one that doesn't satisfy every one of the man characters. It's Reitman's best directorial outing yet and it'll be very close between this and Avatar for not only Best Picture but I think also for my personal favorite of 2009. ****

wow, simply wow that's all i can say after seeing this film

maybe its because i grew up in the corporate world and am now apart of it but i just found the film so relatable.

The film was able to switch from drama to comedy back to drama fairly easily and told a heartbreaking but realistic type story.

The entire cast was fantastic.

I really dont have much to say but this is probably the best film of the year.

A

6/10.

Actually they are both very similiar

Strong male character who are spokespeople for a profession general public look down on. Both are great at what they do, even if they don't necessarily believe in it.
Both have female relations that end up messing their entire life up
Both have relationships with naive peole (TY was his son, here it was the new girl)
George Clooney has to deal with the fact that he might not be able to fly, Aaron that he can't smoke

Add JK Simmons, same director, I'm actually quite shocked at how similar yet awesome and different both are. I think the recommendation works though.

One of the best movies of the 00s decade. I am stunned.

I couldn't disagree more with the people who say it lacks dramatic weight. This is dark, heavy hitting stuff that has as much to dissect and toss over as any movie since No Country for Old Men. I am still processing it and will probably write some stuff later but yeah... this is a deep film folks. Not what I expected at all (I thought it'd be some cutesy feelgood character arc where Clooney ''learns'' the secret to life - I'd say this goes completley the other way)

ok, friend-o.

Family's important, mkay?

A-, reminds me of About Schmidt.

It's... good, but I don't really buy the "it has depth! srsly!" comments. It works a lot better as an off-beat comedy than as some sort of existential drama. The whole thing is infused with melancholy, true, but there's nothing there that you couldn't get from reading the plot synopsis.

Still, Clooney et al. are great, and the script is sharp and witty and smart, if not necessarily deep. It's no Juno, to be sure.

I dunno, I thought it captured the uniquely isolating nature of communication via technology-- text messages, video conferences, etc. It didn't criticize or get on-the-nose about this; it just illustrated it. The whole enterprise felt very successfully in-the-moment, so to speak, without being overly didactic about any of it. It's a nice picture.

To me the main thrust of the film is Bingham's view/"philosophy" on life vs Kendrick vs Farmiga, but particularly the first two. What I like is both Bingham and Kendrick are 100% convinced their way is correct, and the film takes neither's side. The only side it takes is proving both are wrong in their utmost belief that they are right. By the end both have their unshakeable confidence in their way of life shattered, thus leaving them rather lost. This fits in nicely with the firing theme... the employees get their belief system similarly shaken up. The structure of the film cleverly mirrors this too - The first half is cutesy and together, then it shatters in the 2nd half... when the film ends Humpty Dumpty is not remotely put together again

It's easy to assume the film is one-sided towards Kendrick's/the 'real' way being right and Bingham learning he's wrong, but to me the real side has equal negatives. Notice how every relationship fails - Kara Bingham's, Farmiga's, Kendrick's, Julie Bingham's has a "doomed!" neon sign on it. Secondly, Kendrick's belief system gets smashed twice - first by the boyfriend thing and her married by 23 vision getting ruined, 2nd when the suicide comes and breaks her confidence in her job and challenges her morally. Farmiga's character likely had the same mental shake-up happen after her marriage got boring. Furthermore, every Bingham on the road scene is paradise - The Farmiga relationship on the road, the yacht party, the airport stuff, etc. It's a real party. The real world scenes are much more bleak - from the strained relationships to the firings. No, this isn't "The Family Man"... the script is too smart to take a baseless one sided conservative view like that. At least to me, the message is not so much promoting one side or the other, it's examining people's beliefs in them and how events can make them break. Reitman's quote "The movie is about the examination of a philosophy" seems to back this up as well

Obviously Up in the Air is also as well executed as you can get. The script and acting is terrific, and I found Reitman's work to be understatedly great - his pacing, editing, etc. is perfect, he does a great job with the airport/plane, the hotel room. He had exceptional little moments like the naked Farmiga walking. Reitman has big things ahead of him I think. Seems like a star of the future

Most importantly the film is fun. It's a really entertaining film and it just moves briskly. You can't not enjoy these actors and this script

I def. think this is a classic/one of the best of the decade. Ironically the one year they're going to give BP to a non-Oscary blockbuster in Avatar, is the year the "safe" film Up in the Air deserves it. Whatever Academy

Why are the ends of your paragraphs lacking periods, Mr. Kerouac?

8/10 -> B

Clooney, Farmiga and Kendrick are all great in their roles. But the film is a bit lightweight. It's maybe too passive in everything it does for its own good.

It's funny, charming, sad. But in the end it didn't really left a big impact on me.