Jason Reitman is fast becoming one of my favourite directors. You may have seen some of his previous works, such as 'Juno' and 'Thank You For Smoking' both of which, are bloody amazingoid films, tackling subjects that could be hard and uncomfortable with witty dialogue and some dark ass comedy. So when I first saw that his newest film would be starring Mr Clooney I almost shat myself I was so excited, because I, much like all of you, have a soft spot for the Cloonester. And whilst Up In The Air doesn't have the same weight as TYFS or Juno, it is still a great watch in it's own right...
Up In The Air follows Ryan Bingham (Clooney), who ruins peoples lives for a living; well thats a bit much, he basically has to go around the U.S firing batches of corporate employees as their bosses are too chicken shit to do it themselves, Clooney is like the corporate Terminator, using his charm and charisma to calm and reason even the most erratic soon to be former employees; and in his spare time he gives "inspirational" talks, telling people how to live their lives like he lives his (mostly like a damn badass). Bingham spends his time in the air, well in aeroplanes anyways; airports are his porch and the 1st class section his sanctuary. All is swell and business is good, with the recession forcing more and more companies to downsize, resulting in Clooney waltzing in on a carpet of balls out awesome, and promptly telling the masses "pack up your shit, you've just been pwned". The plot gets going when Bingham's company hires a young hot shot out of grad school to bring their workplace into the 21st century. Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick, that annoying lil bint from the Twilight film who you wanted to punch in the face?! Yeah well now you want to get on that) is that woman, and she proposes computerizing the entire process, firing punks over the tinternets. Whilst Bingham's colleagues and bosses may love the idea, as they would get to spend more time at home with their boring families and it would save bare monies on plane tickets; Bingham is thinking he has to sink this bitch before she pisses all over his cool reclusive lifestyle and halting him in the middle of his quest to rack up 10 000 000 airmiles; The Cloonester cannot be having that. This is when Bingham convinces his bos to allow Miss Keener to accompany him on a trip to show her how he gets shit done, and how full of whore logic her idea is in the process, all whilst balancing a very business like relationship with the MILficious Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) at the same time; and so our story begins.
Reitman handles a hot topic brilliantly, in the current economic climate, companies downsizing is effecting thousands of people the world over; and Reitman uses this to his advantage for the film, interviewing recently fired employees and snipping them into the film as fictional characters, this makes the reactions as they are fired incredibly real (he asked them to say to him what they wanted to say at the time they were fired by their real life employers) and with this bit o' triv in your belt the sections when he shows us these folks are as heavy as my ego is big and far more hard hitting compared to what it would have been if he simply employed actors for the parts. the chemistry between Clooney and Farminga fills every scene they are in, probably because it is George Clooney, and Farminga genuinely want sto jump his ass right there on set, but none the less the theme of romance that flows through the film, the romance that is meant to drag Bingham out of his super bachelor lifestyle, is believable and comedic at the same time. Farminga has this great "lived in" feel to her (I must sounds like a nutter right now but watch this film and you may get where I am coming from), making her a truly life like character, and one we can imagine Bingham falling for in reality. Kendrick is also wonderful as Keener, her highlight being a spasmodic breakdown in the middle of a hotel lobby, which genuinely made me have a coughing fit, mostly because it reminded me of my sister, but still. What is great about the way Reitman handled this film, is how he avoids the temptation to make it into some pretentious mad ramble on his views concerning the recession, or trying to make it some shitty 'think piece', he simply takes his themes, and softens them with hugely likeable characters, and dialogue that makes Tarantino weep blood; not that this takes away from the weight of the film, it just stops it being an egotistical bunch of horse shit.
Farminga and Kendrick are great But no matter how great they are, neither of them comes close to the performance Clooney gives. He captures Bingham perfectly, a masochistic, quick moving bachelor supreme, who stereotypes "because its faster" (best line in the film) and yet he has this soft sensitive man waiting just under the surface; and it shows through his acting. We can see, even when he is being his most dickish, that just behind his front there is somebody else telling him that he should change his ways, stop what he is doing, maybe be nice to people, but fuck that right?. So much of Clooney's performance is silent; Im not saying he doesn't have any lines, what I mean is that we learn so much about his character without anything having to be said, anything having to physically happen, we can simply see it in George's face, which is a true talent if I have ever seen one. Plus we have Clooney voicing over parts of the film, which is awesome (i think I mentioned in an earlier review about hm having a great voice). Actually thinking about it this film has possibly 3 of the best 4 voices in Hollywood in it; we have Clooney, then J.K Simmons, who has a badass voice, and finally my favourite, we have Sam Elliot, who sounds like a cowboy who swallowed a gallon of petrol and had somebody stab him repeatedly in the throat, but it works somehow.
Anyways I will try not to go rattling on and ruin any of the story for you so I will just end by saying GO SEE THIS FILM, and pen Reitman into your notebooks and diaries, because I think he is going to be huge, and what I say is gospel bitches.
Till next time (which probably won't be that long)
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment