Up in the Air Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Well, it's November, which means the awards contenders are steadily coming out of the woodwork, and just as we have the Academy Awards to look forward to, we also have their fine print to tolerate. The first of this year's disqualifications naturally come from the music end of things, the same category that didn't see fit to honor the tremendous original scores composed for The Dark Knight last year and There Will Be Blood the year before that.

According to Kris Tapley over at In Contention, both "Up in the Air" and "Help Yourself" from Jason Reitman's Up in the Air have been pulled out of the Best Original Song race. The former was written by Kevin Renick before he met Reitman (the song is presented in the film as it was presented to the filmmaker, with homemade introduction and all), not to mention that it comes halfway into the credits when only the first song over them can qualify. (Really, AMPAS?)

And a portion of the latter had existed earlier in Sad Brad Smith's career and thus means the song itself was not created in full for the film. It's an earnest and catchy tune, used prominently in the trailers and well in the film (and now available on iTunes, cough), but it now looks like those are two more slots left to be dominated by Disney's latest...

Yahoo! has posted an incredibly cool video of George Clooney acting out his role as Mr. Fox in the freakin' adorable Fantastic Mr. Fox. The video shows cool side-by-side comparisons of Clooney acting out different scenes on a farm with costar Wallace Wolodarsky, who voices loopy sidekick Kylie, as well as just running around pretending to be Mr. Fox, down to rolling around on the ground and doing his super cool whistle.

This behind-the-scenes peek at Mr. Fox also offers mini-interviews with director Wes Anderson, producer Allison Abbate, and Bill Murray (Badger) about working with Clooney on the film. The funniest part shows an argument between Mr. Fox and Badger, which involves growling and swiping, split-screened against the actors themselves doing the voices in an office.

As Abbate notes, "There couldn't be a more perfect Mr. Fox, because he has the Cary Grant suave, debonair sparkle where he can talk his way out of any situation, which is so our Mr. Fox character. He's just got a great voice."

Clooney's got a rather full docket this season, with The Men Who Stare at Goats coming out this week, Fantastic Mr. Fox coming out at the end of November, and Up in the Air out on Christmas day.

Click through to see the video itself, then let us know which Clooney feature you're going to be lining up for at the theaters this season, by cuss!

In Austin, you can set your watch by the fall film festivals. We don't just have SXSW in the spring. Starting around Labor Day, it feels like we have a film festival practically every week, from Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) to the Austin Polish Film Festival, Austin Asian American Film Festival and of course Fantastic Fest. One of the oldest and biggest of these local autumn fests is Austin Film Festival (AFF), which spans eight days and seven screening venues, and includes a screenwriters' conference. In 2009, AFF celebrated its 16th year.

AFF focuses on screenwriters even in its film programming selections, as was evident with the opening-night film. Serious Moonlight is best known as the last script written by the late actress/filmmaker Adrienne Shelly. I admit I wasn't fond of the movie, but director Cheryl Hines was a trip -- mock-vampy on the red carpet (as shown above), and full of excitement about her film. Her screening was up against heavy competition: Matthew Weiner brought an episode of Mad Men to the festival and didn't reveal which one until just before it screened. (It turned out to be this season's "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" episode.) Weiner also was featured in panels during the conference portion of AFF.

There's an interesting phenomenon going on at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Female filmmakers were a big part of the festival's opening weekend. (The fest might be 9 days long, but that first weekend is the time that packs the punch -- the time when the stars descend, the parties commence, and the big films have their premieres.) But this isn't only relevant to festival goers. These fests showcase tomorrow's films, so in some ways, TIFF is a peek into the future. And it's one where women defy what's expected of them.

At the moment, I'm calling it the Anna Kendrick effect. While she might be one of the youngest Tony Award nominees ever, this actress shot into the public eye with a supporting role in that incessant, sparkly piece called Twilight. Her performance was fine, but she really wasn't given enough for a large buzz to commence, especially while under the shadow of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. But now she's got a co-starring role in Jason Reitman's new Up in the Air -- a role where she must hold her own against George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. And she does. In fact, she's so good that her performance has been getting a lot of buzz up here in Toronto -- and it's proved one thing: We might see women and blow them off as nothing more than the crazy jealous friend, but there can be a lot of other talent in there if given a solid role to prove it.

Up in the Air
Juno director Jason Reitman adapts Walter Kim's novel about a human resources administrator (George Clooney) who has just met the woman of his dreams. The trailer is a bit vague, showing a string of unexplained scenes as Clooney's character delivers a corporate speech, but Reitman's presence has grabbed my attention. Watch for this one on December 4.

The House of the Devil
An old school creep-fest influenced by movies from the 1970s. A college student takes a babysitting job to earn cash for a deposit on an apartment, but once she arrives at a creepy house in the middle of the woods she's told there is no baby and that night just happens to coincide with a lunar eclipse. I want to see this one right now. This will be out just in time for Halloween.

Sometimes it seems like one of Hollywood's main goals is to make people without spouses and children feel really bad about themselves. If that sort of thing bothers you, I would recommend passing on Up in the Air, which is as strident about the notion that a life without a family is worthless as any movie I've ever seen. Fortunately, it is also brisk, funny, and not enslaved to genre conventions. Parts of the film, in fact, approach comic brilliance. The reason that the film's message-mongering doesn't grate, I think, is that we really do feel sorry for the protagonist – an obsessive frequent flier who begins to realize that his life is an empty, lonely shell of rationalizations and self-delusions.

In some respects, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) approaches caricature: not only is he wifeless, childless and practically homeless – he has a barren studio in Omaha and spends 320 days a year on the road – but he fires people for a living and occasionally gives motivational speeches urging people to "empty their backpacks" and rid themselves of commitment. But there's a kernel of truth to him, in the sense that there is something compelling, almost romantic about transience. His world of luxury hotels and airline perks – and a hot frequent flier girlfriend (Vera Farmiga) with whom he sleeps with when their paths cross but who asks for nothing more – actually seems kind of cool.

The first teaser trailer for Jason Reitman's Up in the Air has arrived online courtesy of Slashfilm (watch it after the jump), and while it doesn't knock my socks off, it definitely has that "Okay, it's time to turn our brains back on" feeling -- that familiar and satisfying post-summer thinking man's vibe. Ya know, the kind that comes at you with a teaser trailer that features a voiceover talking about life, family, responsibilities and all that other stuff. One thing the teaser has going for it is the fact that Reitman put it together himself (with a little help from his editor at Acme), with intentions of just debuting it online.

So not only do you get a piece of marketing that comes straight from the filmmaker (which makes it pure, honest and devoid of Kanye West remixes and product placement), but this is the only venue with which to watch this particular teaser. In the film, George Clooney stars as a guy whose job it is to travel around and help companies downsize. But when he meets and begins to adore the female equivalent of himself as he closes in on his goal of 10 million frequent flier miles, his own job is threatened and he soon must re-evaluate what's really most important in his life.

Up in the Air hits theaters on December 4. Check out the teaser trailer after the jump, and another clip right over here.

Over the weekend, Jason Reitman's Up in the Air premiered at the Telluride Film Festival to some very positive reactions (Cinematical's review upcoming), with some -- like indieWIRE's Anne Thompson -- already talking Oscar buzz. Now, as the film prepares to head on over to the Toronto International Film Festival, the first clip has arrived online over at Apple in advance of the first trailer. Watch it here.

In the film, which is loosely based on Walter Kirn's novel, George Clooney plays a corporate downsizing expert whose job it is to travel around to different companies to determine who needs to be terminated. However, his own job soon becomes threatened as he closes in on his goal of 10 million frequent flier miles, while at the same time meeting the female equivalent of himself (played by Vera Farmiga). In the scene over on Apple, Clooney and Farmiga meet for the first time in what looks to be an frequent fliers club, where they try to one-up each other with their extensive frequent flier card collection.

Up in the Air will hit theaters on December 4.

So in the midst of all the Avatar hullabaloo, we haven't yet addressed the major move on Friday of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island from this October 2nd to next February. Considering the negative connotations that tend to come with most films pushed back, many were quick to defend the move as a savvy business strategy for a pulpy-looking film that wasn't a primary contender all along.

Fair enough. Plenty of studios made major shuffles to deal with post-strike gaps (Harry Potter, anyone?), and now they're concerned about being more fiscally responsible with what's to come. As THR's Steven Zeitchik pointed out, Paramount/Dreamworks already has two front-runners to work with between Up in the Air and The Lovely Bones, and somewhere between the reportedly sharp comedy and the prestige-heavy drama, a distinctly genre work like a Leonardo DiCaprio thriller does seem a bit like the odd man out.

In the wake of the move, two comedies -- Zombieland and Whip It -- have moved up their own October release dates to fill the void, and if there's any justice, we'll see Woody Harrelson accept a blood-splattered Oscar in DiCaprio's stead. And if Coming Soon and Box Office Mojo are to be believed, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox will now get a limited release on November 13th before going wide on the 25th, where I suspect it will still get crushed by the likes of Old Dogs across the Thanksgiving stretch. Pity.

Hump day is behind us, the weekend is in sight, and here are some casting bites, courtesy of Variety:

We're still waiting to see when on earth The Garden of Eden will hit screens (some, like me, more impatiently than others), but meanwhile, Mena Suvari has picked up a new gig. She (along with Ken Davitian, Kevin Dunn, and Tia Carrere) is joining a new indie project called You May Not Kiss the Bride. The film is said to be a mixture of romance and action (a la Romancing the Stone). IMDb, under the name Wedlocked, says it's about a mobster trying to get his daughter US citizenship by marrying her off to an American photographer. Unfortunately, director and screenwriter Rob Hedden's credits probably won't help you figure out the film's tone. He's responsible not only for Clockstoppers, but also Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Oh, the confidence that instills.

And then we have that little Timothy Olyphant-led remake of The Crazies. The cast now includes Danielle Panabaker (the sweet nature hero from Sky High) and Joe Anderson (the wild brother who gets shipped off to Vietnam in Across the Universe). That cast is just sweet enough to give us a not entirely great but memorable Phantoms phenomenon. Where's Peter O'Toole to top it off?

Finally, Tamala Jones has grabbed a role in the George Clooney-starring, Jason Reitman-written and directed Up in the Air. You might recognize her from gigs like Daddy Day Camp, but she's also part of the annoying girl trio from Can't Hardly Wait who were friends with Amanda. There's no word on who she'll play in the feature, which delves into the life of a man who loves his frequent flier miles.

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