Up in the Air
Avoid normal situations.
George Clooney, after all, and he doesn't come cheap -- but until that
point this is a damn near perfect comedy for misanthropic loners. I can't
remember the last time I laughed this often and this loudly.
--
alt.flame Special Forces
"The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull. That is not always
easy to achieve." -- Dean Acheson
Your Mom
<byend.removethisbityousillyper...@eskimo.com> wrote:
> � The ending is kind of a backpedal -- this is a Hollywood film starring
> George Clooney, after all, and he doesn't come cheap -- but until that
> point this is a damn near perfect comedy for misanthropic loners. I can't
> remember the last time I laughed this often and this loudly.
It was pretty great. I actually liked the ending, I feel like it was
an intentional subversion of those way those feel-good personal growth
movies make it seem so goddamn easy to change a lifetime of bad habits
and become a better person.
Avoid normal situations.
> On Dec 27, 9:27?pm, "Avoid normal situations."
> <byend.removethisbityousillyper...@eskimo.com> wrote:
> > ? The ending is kind of a backpedal -- this is a Hollywood film starring
> > George Clooney, after all, and he doesn't come cheap -- but until that
> > point this is a damn near perfect comedy for misanthropic loners. I can't
> > remember the last time I laughed this often and this loudly.
> It was pretty great. I actually liked the ending, I feel like it was
> an intentional subversion of those way those feel-good personal growth
> movies make it seem so goddamn easy to change a lifetime of bad habits
> and become a better person.
*spoiler warning*
I was actually hoping that Clooney himself would wind up getting laid off
due to his being made redundant by those teleconferencing executioners, and
that he'd use his accumulated free airline miles on his elite card/membership
to spend the rest of his life continuously flying from one destination to
another semi-randomly.
Skipper
<byend.removethis...@eskimo.com> wrote:
> Your Mom <alex....@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Dec 27, 9:27?pm, "Avoid normal situations."
> > <byend.removethisbityousillyper...@eskimo.com> wrote:
>
> > > ? The ending is kind of a backpedal -- this is a Hollywood film starring
> > > George Clooney, after all, and he doesn't come cheap -- but until that
> > > point this is a damn near perfect comedy for misanthropic loners. I can't
> > > remember the last time I laughed this often and this loudly.
>
> > It was pretty great. I actually liked the ending, I feel like it was
> > an intentional subversion of those way those feel-good personal growth
> > movies make it seem so goddamn easy to change a lifetime of bad habits
> > and become a better person.
I think it's a cliche "meaningful" ending that I've seen before with
Bill Murray and Tom Hanks. I'm sure you can name the movies.
Your Mom
> > > It was pretty great. I actually liked the ending, I feel like it was
> > > an intentional subversion of those way those feel-good personal growth
> > > movies make it seem so goddamn easy to change a lifetime of bad habits
> > > and become a better person.
>
> I think it's a cliche "meaningful" ending that I've seen before with
> Bill Murray and Tom Hanks. I'm sure you can name the movies.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
That ought to do it. Did you see Up in the Air? I missed Lost in
Translation but I thought this ending, and the movie in general, was
handled significantly differently (and better) then Castaway (I'm
assuming that's what you're talking about, and I'm sure you'll school
me harshly if I'm wrong). That movie's about what you'd probably
consider a liberal elite pipe dream, that losing everything is
ultimately freeing, while I think Up in the Air is more a subtle
tragedy about being careful what one wishes for. At the end of
Castaway, Tom Hanks can go anywhere he wants to go and be anything he
wants to be. At the end of Up in the Air Clooney's stuck exactly where
he was at the beginning except that his love for his rootless
lifestyle is significantly tarnished, if not completely corroded. The
only hint that anything positive's come of his situation is that he's
giving his miles to Melanie Lynskey and he might maybe connect more
with his family. I thought that was both surprising and true to life.
I called Vera Farmiga's family as soon as he walked off the stage in
Vegas but I figured it'd be followed by another 20 minutes of him
becoming a better person or whatever Oscar-grubbing treacle they felt
like tacking on there.
Alexei
Skipper
<alex....@gmail.com> wrote:
I saw it, and liked it pretty well but it was actually a sucker punch
that she went to the sister's wedding and did a very good job acting
like she DIDN'T have any kind of relationship at all. In real life,
would all that really have happened. Anything is possible, but it rang
hollow to me. Maybe part of it was because she was so hot I felt like
he should have been with her. I think Jason Reitman is about NOT giving
viewers what they actually want, sort of a "see, life isn't like that,
you can deal with it, it's OK, isn't it?"
Your Mom
>
> I saw it, and liked it pretty well but it was actually a sucker punch
> that she went to the sister's wedding and did a very good job acting
> like she DIDN'T have any kind of relationship at all. In real life,
> would all that really have happened. Anything is possible, but it rang
> hollow to me.
Yeah, true. The one thing I can say is that, every time I've been in a
supposedly casual relationship, one of us has overstepped the line and
immediately retreated because the other tried to seize on that and
build it into something more. It was a lot to imagine that she could
spend a whole weekend, but she's an impulsive cheater. I know a guy
who was flying to the other coast to profess his love to a high school
ex once a week while having sex five times a day trying to conceive a
baby with his wife. I just found out about that right before the
movie, so that probably made it seem more reasonable to me.
> I think Jason Reitman is about NOT giving
> viewers what they actually want, sort of a "see, life isn't like that,
> you can deal with it, it's OK, isn't it?"
True. But I feel like Juno and Thank You for Smoking (I think, I'm
straining to remember) have much more traditional happy endings after
the heartbreak. Ellen Page gets with Michael Cera, Aaron Eckhart saves
his career. Up in the air doesn't have that. You're right, it really
was a suckerpunch.
My best friend in the world has an evil but brilliant younger cousin.
One time, twelve years ago, we were interviewing her for some short
video project for school and we asked some idiotic question like "Do
you enjoy being a high school student?" and she said "Yeah. It's a
real spoon up the butt." I texted my friend about Up in the Air's
ending & how it surprised me, his response was "new hollywood trend:
spoon up the butt ending."
Alexei
Skipper
Ovum
> � The ending is kind of a backpedal -- this is a Hollywood film starring
> George Clooney, after all, and he doesn't come cheap -- but until that
> point this is a damn near perfect comedy for misanthropic loners. I can't
> remember the last time I laughed this often and this loudly.
I finally saw this.
I didn't think it was all that funny. I think I laughed once or twice,
but whatever was momentarily funny wasn't memorable.
I spent much more time trying not to cry. The people being laid off
were heart-rending. I also choked up at the newlyweds who couldn't
afford a honeymoon and whose friends and family gave them hokey travel
photos. What a tear-jerker!
It was a good movie, but I was never able to get beyond the George
Clooney-ness of it all. IIRC, there were moments in "Syriana" where he
made me believe his character, but in "Up in the Air," there was not
one minute when George Clooney was not The George Clooney(tm).
He may now be too big of a Movie Star to ever "sell" a character
anymore.
o