Up in the Air
6 Oscar Nominations
Rent/Purchase
Corporate downsizing expert Ryan Bingham spends his life in planes, airports, and hotels, but just as he’s about to reach a milestone of ten million frequent flyer miles, he meets a woman who causes him to rethink his transient life.
What critics thought
Broadly acclaimed on release, Up in the Air won over most critics with Clooney's effortless star turn, Kendrick's scene-stealing energy, and Reitman's ability to smuggle real economic anxiety into a sleek, commercially palatable package. A dissenting minority argued that the film ultimately flinches from the darkness it peers into — that its tidy romantic and existential resolutions betray the very themes of dislocation and mass unemployment it invokes.
“Its cynical wit almost places it in the Billy Wilder bracket: Up In The Air is as eloquent about today's executive culture as The Apartment was about that of 1960. It is a brutal, desolate film – but also a superb existential rom-com, and the most entertaining lesson in contemporary socio-economics that you could hope for.”
Jonathan Romney·The Independent
“Up in the Air is a slickly crafted disappointment. [It] feels tailor-made for George Clooney, who is very good. But the stakes remain frustratingly low and it's one of those contemporary middlebrow projects that asks us to root for a genial, shallow individual as he learns to be a little less the man he was.”
Michael Phillips·Chicago Tribune
“Like Juno, Up in the Air conjures a troubling reality and then wishes it away. The filmmakers have peeked into the abyss and averted their eyes ... [the film] warns that you can't go home again – and then, full of false cheer and false consciousness, pretends you can.”
J. Hoberman·The Village Voice
“There are two movies in Up in the Air: one about a guy who's flying around the country firing people, and one about a commitment-phobe who's flying away from responsibility and a shot at true love, as embodied by Farmiga. There is no attempt to braid these two threads together, and that's where the movie feels unsatisfying.”
Julian Sancton·Vanity Fair
“Clooney owns his role in the way first-rate film stars can, so infusing the character with his own persona that everything he does seems natural and right. The timing in the Clooney-Farmiga scenes is like splendid tennis.”
Todd McCarthy·Variety
Genres
Drama, Romance
Cast & Crew
DirectorJason Reitman
StarringGeorge Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Sam Elliott, Amy Morton
ComposerRolfe Kent
Up in the Air
6 Oscar Nominations
Corporate downsizing expert Ryan Bingham spends his life in planes, airports, and hotels, but just as he’s about to reach a milestone of ten million frequent flyer miles, he meets a woman who causes him to rethink his transient life.
What critics thought
Broadly acclaimed on release, Up in the Air won over most critics with Clooney's effortless star turn, Kendrick's scene-stealing energy, and Reitman's ability to smuggle real economic anxiety into a sleek, commercially palatable package. A dissenting minority argued that the film ultimately flinches from the darkness it peers into — that its tidy romantic and existential resolutions betray the very themes of dislocation and mass unemployment it invokes.
“Its cynical wit almost places it in the Billy Wilder bracket: Up In The Air is as eloquent about today's executive culture as The Apartment was about that of 1960. It is a brutal, desolate film – but also a superb existential rom-com, and the most entertaining lesson in contemporary socio-economics that you could hope for.”
Jonathan Romney·The Independent
“Up in the Air is a slickly crafted disappointment. [It] feels tailor-made for George Clooney, who is very good. But the stakes remain frustratingly low and it's one of those contemporary middlebrow projects that asks us to root for a genial, shallow individual as he learns to be a little less the man he was.”
Michael Phillips·Chicago Tribune
“Like Juno, Up in the Air conjures a troubling reality and then wishes it away. The filmmakers have peeked into the abyss and averted their eyes ... [the film] warns that you can't go home again – and then, full of false cheer and false consciousness, pretends you can.”
J. Hoberman·The Village Voice
“There are two movies in Up in the Air: one about a guy who's flying around the country firing people, and one about a commitment-phobe who's flying away from responsibility and a shot at true love, as embodied by Farmiga. There is no attempt to braid these two threads together, and that's where the movie feels unsatisfying.”
Julian Sancton·Vanity Fair
“Clooney owns his role in the way first-rate film stars can, so infusing the character with his own persona that everything he does seems natural and right. The timing in the Clooney-Farmiga scenes is like splendid tennis.”
Todd McCarthy·Variety
Genres
Drama, Romance
Cast & Crew
DirectorJason Reitman
StarringGeorge Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Sam Elliott, Amy Morton
ComposerRolfe Kent
Rent/Purchase