Up in the Air

Directed by: Jason Reitman
Written by: Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner
Full credits at IMDb

So Ben, the director of Juno strikes again! This time, with perhaps the most vexing and offensive film of the Oscar season. (Hey, just like two years ago!) Not the worst—I still love Clooney, even if this is his blandest and most forgettable work in years—but Up in the Air easily sums up what’s wrong with the Oscarbrow: it’s a dumb movie cloaked in respectability, quirky enough—even if it doesn’t have a hamburger telephone—to seem Original without ever actually being unique. Or, you know, smart.

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The movie’s dripping with zeitgeist and yet already feels dated. (For starters, its airline check-in scenes seem soooo pre-underpants bomber.) Worst of all, like Juno and Reitman fils’ first film Thank You For Smoking, it’s smugly conservative but hides its politics behind the hipness of cynicism and alienation...

Keep reading my (lengthy!) discussion with Benjamin Sutton at The L Magazine


Watch the trailer: