24 December 2009

Your backpack

Up in the Air

Crit
Surprised not to see an end-credits thank-you to Alexander Payne for permission to use Omaha geographically and thematically. It is a Payneful film indeed, and a painful one, easily the best and most grownup of Jason Reitman's 3 films to date. Like Payne, Reitman takes us in a direction that seems to forecast one conclusion, then plays it much smarter, and much more true to life. I actually wish I hadn't encountered hints about that reversal (and so have already done you a disservice if you hadn't yet encountered same), because I suspect the surprise would have hit me with all the force with which it hits George Clooney's Ryan Bingham.
A film for recessionary times economic and emotional.
Trailers

2 comments:

Jennie Tonic said...

The movie made me think about hyperinflation: when you have more and more stuff, each thing's value decreases consequentially. And yet that's the very result our more-is-better economic system is bent on pursuing. But it doesn't work with people, who are not reducible, even if the workforce is. Oops!

Unknown said...

After this movie was over, the woman who had been sitting next to me, said "Well that was depressing." Then she said that she had been laid off from her job on December 23 after being at the job for 6 years. I am not sure I would have chosen this move to watch if that had happen to me, but then I started thinking that if this economy does not turn around I may be right behind her.