Up in the Air

 

Up in the Air 2009

• Director: Jason Reitman
• Seen by this director: Juno
• Based on the book by Walter Kirn
• Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Amy Morton, Melanie Lynsky, Danny McBride
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• George Clooney – Hail Caesar, Tomorrowland a World Beyond, Gravity, The Descendants, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Burn After Reading, Michael Clayton, Good Night and Good Luck, Intolerable Cruelty, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Solaris, The Perfect Storm, O Brother Where Art Thou?
• Vera Farmiga – Skin, The Conjuring, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Breaking and Entering
• Anna Kendrick – Into the Woods, Pitch Perfect, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Twilight
• Jason Bateman – Paul, The Invention of Lying, Juno
• Melanie Lynsky – The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Ella Enchanted
• Why? Good reviews. George Clooney
• Seen: 18 November 2022 

       Ryan Bingham (Clooney) works for a company who help other companies to fire employees. He flies from city to city ruining people’s lives, finances and self-esteem. He gives lectures on how to unload your personal baggage, both things and people.

       He meets Alex (Farmiga) in a hotel bar. They flirt by boasting about their high status lives and start a fly-around-the-county-trying-to-be-in-the-same-city-at-the-same-time affair.

       He has a sister who’s getting married but he tries to have as little to do with his family as possible.

       Then Ryan himself is booted when his company takes on a hotshot newcomer Natalie Keener (Kendricks) who proposes firing all the fliers and doing the firing online. He’s given the job of teaching her how he does it in person.

       I really hate the corporate world. Clooney shows us why we should.

       It has its humorous moments but it’s a serious film. My rating below will reflect if it has a good ending or not. 

4* of 5