Up in the Air Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Stars in Rewind: Jason Reitman's First Kiss
Filed under: Classics », Family Films », Stars in Rewind »
Blogger Kristopher Tapley, of the movie awards site In Contention, shares a humorous video spotlighting one of this year's Oscar hopefuls, Jason Reitman. The young filmmaker, who already received an Academy Award nomination for directing Juno, is a front-runner this year for helming Up in the Air, which opens in limited release next week and opens nationwide on Christmas.
Before he was a success behind the camera, though, he was simply the son of Hollywood director Ivan Reitman. And like many filmmakers' kids, he was employed in minor roles in his father's films, including Ghostbusters II, Twins and Dave. The funniest of his cameos is in this make-out scene from Kindergarten Cop, mainly because it's his most embarrassing.
Jason Reitman's Interview Pie Chart
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », New Releases », Paramount », Fandom », Movie Marketing », George Clooney », Images »
Jason Reitman, whose next film Up in the Air comes out on December 4th, posted a very funny image on Twitter recently – a pie chart detailing the different things that people have asked him in recent interviews. The top three were about George Clooney (111 people), the economy (96 people), and his next project (78 people). The fourth is a little more confusing, as it just reads "Real People," so apparently 77 people asked him about real people. Maybe they wanted to know if the people being laid off in the movie were real people? Who's to say what goes through the murky depths of the mind of a journalist?
I humbly ask Jason Reitman to make a pie chart of his answers. Here's what I picture it to look like.
111 people: "Clooney is such a prankster! But he's also a great serious actor. He's the Cary Grant of our times. Sometimes we have moustache contests."
96 people: "The economy sucks. Seriously though, I've never been laid off, but if I had to be laid off, I'd hope George Clooney would do it."
78 people: "My next project will be with George Clooney. Actually, it will be catching up on all the sleep I lost talking to you people and answering the same damn questions over and over again."
In one jpeg, Reitman manages to sum up the exhausting paces that filmmakers, actors, musicians, et al are put through to get their names and faces and projects out there, the laziness of some journalists, and the terror that faces every journalist that wants to be good at what they do and engender an interesting discussion that is hopefully pleasant and/or illuminating (but at the very least not boring) for everyone involved, including the reader.
If you could ask Jason Reitman anything, what would it be?
'Up in the Air' Songs Pulled from Oscar Race
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Awards », Paramount », RumorMonger », Oscar Watch »
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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...
A Peek at George Clooney Voicing 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'
Filed under: Action », Animation », Comedy », Fox Searchlight », Family Films », George Clooney », Trailers and Clips »
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!
Austin Film Festival 2009: The Wrap-Up
Filed under: Festival Reports », Austin »
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.
Girls on Film: Women, TIFF, and the Future
Filed under: Festival Reports », Fandom », Exhibition », Toronto International Film Festival », Girls on Film »
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.
Trailer Park: Planning for Dynamite Frogs
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Drama », Horror », Independent », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Trailer Trash »
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.
TIFF Review: Up in the Air
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Telluride », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Toronto International Film Festival »
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.
'Up in the Air' Teaser Trailer
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Fandom », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
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.
First Clip from Jason Reitman's 'Up in the Air'
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
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.
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