Oscar Preview Review: Up in the Air (2009)

What I said before Cinewise:

Co-written and directed by Juno (2007) helmer Jason Reitman, Air is very much akin to The Graduate (1967) in that it’s quiet, whimsical and contemplative, and filled with strong characters and great dialogue. It’s also a coming of age story, a film about taking chances and finding your place in the world...only this time the hero is a middle-aged George Clooney.

Broken down and isolated by a career spent traveling the country firing people (he’s the guy the corporations bring in to clean up their mess), Clooney’s Ryan Bingham is essentially homeless. The planes and airports and rental cars and hotels are the only things close to providing home comforts, and that’s every bit as sad as it sounds. Only Ryan doesn’t see it that way – he’s empowered by his lifestyle. He believes it’s his “place.” The goal of Up in the Air is to challenge that belief, for Ryan to determine if he’s right or wrong, and to leave room for both possibilities.

Intricate in its simplicity, Reitman’s film is equal parts bitter and sweet, and finds a rare crowd-pleasing formula in that concoction. Clooney’s surrounded by an excellent supporting cast, including Vera Farmiga (The Departed, 2007) as a commiserating traveler and Anna Kendrick (Twilight series) as his reluctant protégé. Combined with the story’s quirky but excellent journey and focus on the pleasures of connecting through humanity, the true brilliance in Reitman’s film can be found in its ability to leverage these characteristics toward building a cinematic “comfort zone” in a film that explores just what that term even really means

The Oscars: An Alternative View

As The Bru recently wrote about how he loves the arguments and endless discussions cinematic awards ceremonies generate, I figured I'd use my first Cinewise posting as an opportunity to fuel that fire and provide an alternative pics column for the most talked about and aggravating award ceremony of them all. Following the same rulez The Bru laid out, we’ll address who should win, who will win, and who the hell cares anyway.

BEST MOTION PICTURE:
Nominees: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up In the Air.
Should Win: I’ll start right off the bat by saying that I, like 90% of the world population, haven’t yet seen The Hurt Locker, so this is likely to change. But then again, maybe not – I didn’t LOVE Avatar, but I respect it for what it is – THE motion picture event of the year. Most people saw it. Most people loved it. And if the Best Picture award should go to the film most endearing to the people, as well as most accomplished in its execution, than this is the film that hits the combo lotto. Now, if Star Trek had been nominated…
Will Win: Avatar, for the reasons stated above.
Shouldn’t Even Be Here: The Blind Side. Even if they expanded it to 20.

BEST DIRECTOR:
Nominees: Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman, Quentin Tarantino.
Should Win: Kathryn Bigelow, if only because she directed a little film about the war that nobody saw and yet everybody loves, and she’s still here, not the least of which because she survived a marriage to ego-maniac Cameron.
Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow. Because damn you, James Cameron! You can’t have EVERYTHING!
It Would Be Neat To See Win: Tarantino. Icon. Legend. B-Movie aficionado. A lifetime achievement award in the making.

BEST ACTOR:
Nominees: Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner
Should Win: Jeff Bridges. Crazy Heart (review to follow) presents an aged fighter in a knock-down, drag out battle with himself, a meaty performance Bridges nails.
Will Win: Jeff Bridges, because sometimes some things go right in this world.
Shouldn’t Even Be Here: Morgan Freeman. Everybody loves you, Morgan Freeman. But that doesn’t mean we have to give you a statue for playing Morgan Freeman. That goes to you too, Clooney. Okay, alright, you’ve charmed me. You can have the statue now. And here’s $200 for Haiti while I’m at it. Should I offer you my wife, or have you already stolen her?

BEST ACTRESS:
Nominees: Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, Meryl Streep.
Should Win: Holy Shit! I just realized I haven’t seen ANY of these performances. Not a single one! How could this happen? By The Bru’s rules I can’t even pick!
Will Win: Sandra Bullock. Because she’s somehow the front runner, and because she’s the only who got her movie into the Best Picture race.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Nominees: Matt Damon, Woody Harrelson, Chrisopher Plummer, Stanley Tucci, Christoph Waltz.
Should Win: Waltz. Because it was the best single performance of the year, male, female, leading or otherwise. Or at least it was the most fun.
Will Win: Waltz.
Would Be Awesome If He Won: Harrelson, because The Messenger was great, and he was great in it. He’s the second best here, and sometimes that’s good enough.
Shouldn’t Even Be Here: Matt Damon. Who was he again in this movie? The guy on the field? What was he asked to do? Look muscle-ly? Wow, great job with that!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Nominees: Penelope Cruz, Vera Farmiga, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, Mo’nique.
Should Win: HA! I saw HALF of these. See? I don’t hate women in strong movie roles! I’d give this to Anna, because she was the biggest surprise of the Up in the Air duo, but Vera’s the steady hand.
Will Win: No idea. Mo’nique? Is that THE Mo'nique?

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
Nominees: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells, Up.
Should Win: Mr. Fox. A clever and unique film with a tangibility traditional animated flicks can’t shake a tail at.
Will Win: Up. ‘Cause Pixar is bordering on dangerously untouchable.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Nominees: Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman (The Messenger), Joel and Ethan Coen (A Serious Man), Peter Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy (Up)
Should Win: Camon and Moverman, for tackling a tough subject with barebones authenticity. Powerfully moving, and wholly underrated.
Will Win: Boal, because Locker’s gotta win something.
Maybe Possibly Shouldn’t Even Be Here: Tarantino. His script was a mess. Great scenes, great dialogue, great characters. But messy, messy script. Same goes for the Up folks.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Nominees: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (District 9), Nick Hornby (An Education), The Dudes who wrote In the Loop, Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious), Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air).
Should Win: Reitman and Turner. Up in the Air may not be a GREAT flick, but it’s a really nice, surprisingly grounded story.
Will Win: The Loop guys? Maybe?
Shouldn’t Even Be Here: The District 9 boys, not because they don’t deserve it, but because a feature length version of your own short shouldn’t necessarily be seen as an adaptation. Bad, Oscar, bad.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Nominees: Ajami, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, The Milk of Sorrow, Un Prophete, The White Ribbon
Should Win: Whatever The Bru says.
Will Win: Whatever The Bru wants.
Shouldn’t Be Here: The Milk of Sorrow. The Milk of Sorrow? What kind of title is that?

EVERYTHING ELSE:
Avatar. Damn you, James Cameron. Damn you.

Up in the Air (2009)

Perhaps it's a generational thing, but when I see the name 'Reitman' in the opening credits of a film, I expect a film that will either be pure genius (any one of the Ghost Busters will do) or pure tosh (pretty much anything else, really). So, the son Reitman has a lot to live up to or he can only get better and better. I'm still not certain where Jason "Juno" Reitman fits in all of this.

Up in the Air has a lot to live up to, considering that it is following up the immensely popular and ridiculously overrated Juno. So far, the monetary returns have been pretty lukewarm, but the critical acclaim has been bestowed liberally from all fronts. So much so that it is one of the frontrunners for the upcoming Big Awards season. It is likely that it will get lucky tonight at the Globes. As for me, well ... I didn't really care for it that much.

Clooney plays Clooney, who is going for the coveted 10-million-air-mile mark to be the 7th man in history to do so (for American Airlines, it seems - who holds the record for Air France, Singapore Airlines, or Qantas is still up in the air - see what I did there?) He travels across the country to fire people, whose bosses lack the balls to do so. He spends his life up in the air (see what I did there?), meeting and bedding fellow air-mile-hoarders, like the effortlessly sexy and fantastic Vera Farmiga (Vera, call me). But his job is also on the line - actually, not his job, but the method with which he performs it. New graduate wunderkid Anna Kendrick (easily the best thing in the film) has plans to modernise the business model to cut costs. Will Clooney be able to reach the 10 million mark and have a chat with Sam Elliot's cow-pilot? See what I did there?

No, because somehow the film takes a fifteen-point turn and becomes increasingly sappy. And you know where you have to take your cynical, career-driven people to realise what real life is all about: somewhere in Midwest. Oh, and how come you can have Jason Bateman, Danny McBride and Zach Galifianakis in the same film and only give them a total of one funny line ("Today is the first time I took a crap in 12 days")?

I understand how topical the film is, but does it really bite instead of just bark like a sheep groomed like a poodle? I guess it was inevitable considering the theme, but I'm not too hot on watching a 100+ minutes infomercial of American Airlines and Hilton Hotels - at one point I was expecting Paris Hilton and her bffs to show up with their pets and acting chops.

If there's one thing to take out of this, it is that I can't wait to watch Anna Kendrick in a meatier role. Oh, and Vera - the offer still stands.