Wait, so they took interviews with flesh and blood people who have gone through some difficulties in the last year and inserted their stories in the end credits? Am I getting this right?
― Cunga, Sunday, 27 December 2009 02:21 (fourteen years ago) link
strangely ignores protagonist's final-reel realization that up in the air, without family or connection, really IS where he belongs!
I didn't read the ending that way at all. I thought he was considering Natalie's (?) idea that he should just use his miles to fly somewhere cool and actually enjoy it and maybe grow some roots, instead of living in a world of airports, hotels, and trade shows. But anyway, whatever the ending is, I think there's some ambiguity there. But clearly he's sick of being perpetually airborne, and I think his conversation with the pilot speaks to that.
― real bears playing hockey (polyphonic), Sunday, 27 December 2009 02:36 (fourteen years ago) link
I've seen plenty of press about the 'real ppl' interviews (start and finish, and a few in the middle) all over the place.
s1ocki, "laurence-cantet-for-the-usa-today-set" is my favorite line in that!
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 27 December 2009 06:50 (fourteen years ago) link
watching reitman on charlie rose, hes really hard for me to even listen to
if i ever see this it will be a few years from now on tnt
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 23:29 (fourteen years ago) link
Couldn't stand this predictable, trite, perpetually annoying film, but JK Simmons is pretty much always great though. I wish the movie had been about his character.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 29 December 2009 23:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Well, George Clooney would have shot him.
― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 29 December 2009 23:38 (fourteen years ago) link
“New York Magazine: Jason, after just three films you’re already polarizing critics. For example, Armond White of the New York Press opened his Up in the Air review with: “Jason Reitman’s movies come in three forms: Rubbish (Thank You for Smoking), Crap (Juno), and Swill (Up in the Air).”Jason: [Laughs.] That’s a good one.
New York Magazine: My editor wanted me to get your reaction to that.
Jason: Did your editor also suggest you tell me I’m extraordinarily pale and Jewy-looking and I should lose some weight? [Laughs.] What was the name of the guy who wrote that?
New York Magazine: Armond White.
Jason: Well, I don’t think he’s going to like my fourth film any better. My films are polarizing. I don’t want to tell my audience what to think. Thank You for Smoking—liberals thought it was theirs and conservatives thought it was theirs. And pro-lifers thought Juno was theirs and pro-choicers thought it was theirs. Up in the Air has a similar divide, depending on what people think the ending of the movie means. I would be curious to hear what Armond thinks of The Insider, a film that goes [slams down fist]: “Smoking bad! Tobacco people bad!” And for me that’s so boring. But, look, for some that’s the experience they want and those movies exist for them. I want people to talk.”
― who sharted?! (s1ocki), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 05:43 (fourteen years ago) link
hahaha
― AAAAAAH YAH ITS FUSION (Lamp), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 05:57 (fourteen years ago) link
dude is high on his own supply imo
― who sharted?! (s1ocki), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 06:03 (fourteen years ago) link
it's a cute line except that a.) it's laurent b.) cantet doesn't rhyme with set and c.) there really is no such thing as "the usa today set," which is kind of the point of usa today.
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 06:09 (fourteen years ago) link
(ok i just went back to the original and see he got laurent right. still.)
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 06:10 (fourteen years ago) link
also like i said above dude is clearly going for reds/annie hall, not laurent cantet.
― who sharted?! (s1ocki), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 06:10 (fourteen years ago) link
i haven't even seen this yet so i don't know, but yeah it's pretty hard for me to imagine jason reitman going for laurent cantet.
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 06:11 (fourteen years ago) link
But anyway, whatever the ending is, I think there's some ambiguity there. But clearly he's sick of being perpetually airborne, and I think his conversation with the pilot speaks to that.
to me the ending was that he realizes he's sick of it but that he missed his chance to do anything about it. I guess him picking his own destination off the board was sorta "hopeful" but it still seemed like a downer ending to me. in a good way
― dmr, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 07:06 (fourteen years ago) link
I can't imagine jason reitman going for Annie Hall/Reds either. (These "witnesses" reminded me of a TV ad or some crap corporate promo/propaganda piece.) btw JR, Armond hates Michael Mann too.
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 14:47 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah i thought the use of REAL FIRED PEOPLE was pretty disgusting― stupid fruity crazy jag (J0rdan S.), Saturday, December 26, 2009 10:53 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark
what bothered me more than this was how the movie set a lot of these people up as the butt of jokes. these firing montages provided the most consistent laughs in my theater.
as it turns out, the little kid sitting behind me provided my favorite criticism of Up in Air when a minute into the film he said "is this the movie? this looks like a commercial!" i was hoping to hear more of his thoughts after it ended but he left to see "the frog and the princess"
― not really.. (killah priest), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 16:27 (fourteen years ago) link
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, December 30, 2009 9:47 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
i can. it's so obviously where the idea came from.
― who sharted?! (s1ocki), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 16:59 (fourteen years ago) link
first of all, in Annie Hall what is the equivalent? In Reds, mostly well-known writers/public intellectuals recounting events of 60 years earlier not quite the same either.
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 17:02 (fourteen years ago) link
i get the ref to 'time out' but cantet hasn't used inserts of irl people iirc
― Dean Gaffney's December (history mayne), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 17:04 (fourteen years ago) link
no morbs you're right, annie hall is prob pushing it. but reds i think for sure. and i think i just realized what the real influence is... WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
― who sharted?! (s1ocki), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link
he misses the point of 'the insider' + lol at moral ambivalence for idiots.
― Dean Gaffney's December (history mayne), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 17:22 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah he sounds dumb
― horseshoe, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 17:27 (fourteen years ago) link
interview reads better if you add ", man" to the end of all his sentences
― max, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 17:34 (fourteen years ago) link
these firing montages provided the most consistent laughs in my theater.
Hate to give Reitman a break here, but I think this can be chalked up to a large minority of moviegoers being assholes.
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 18:12 (fourteen years ago) link
(didnt put "majority" bcz it's Christmas)
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 18:14 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't get how that interview is supposed to prove Reitman dumb (or Armond not-dumb) besides his disinterest in the content of The Insider, which I think is a valid point (not to touch on Mann's style, which, if I recall, is 90% of why that movie is at all memorable.)
― Simon H., Wednesday, 30 December 2009 18:33 (fourteen years ago) link
the claim that the fact that his movies play it both ways ideologically is a virtue is what makes him sound dumb there to me. i guess that was bitchy of me. i've only seen juno, and i liked that movie but i think it's gross that he's being coy about pro-choice/pro-life. i guess this is morbs of me but the previews for up in the air make it seem worthless.
― horseshoe, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 18:49 (fourteen years ago) link
But Diablo Cody wrote Juno. Isn't this the first of his films where he has primary script credit? (also it seems agreed there's very little of the source novel left in the film)
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 18:51 (fourteen years ago) link
I can't think of a more rudimentary, uninteresting examination of duality w.r.t political issues than Thank You for Smoking.
― queen frostine (Eric H.), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 18:54 (fourteen years ago) link
The tobacco industry is pretty fucked up and villainous imo.
― real bears playing hockey (polyphonic), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 18:59 (fourteen years ago) link
I know that's a bold claim but goshdarnit it's how I feel!
also his complaint abt the insider is stupid because smoking is bad for you, and what the tobacco companies did was wrong, like idk how he thinks mann couldve shoehorned in some phony ambivalence into that movie to make it less "boring" w/o making a completely different (and more retarded) movie
lol xpost
― AAAAAAH YAH ITS FUSION (Lamp), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 19:01 (fourteen years ago) link
― Simon H., Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:33 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
the implicit argument that his movies are much more interesting and nuanced than the "boring" insider—a movie that his pedestrian garbage will never, ever come closing to TOUCHING—is what makes that quote noteworthy
― who sharted?! (s1ocki), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 19:33 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah if you're jason reitman maybe don't so much disparage michael mann
― horseshoe, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 19:36 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't think me meant to disparage Michael Mann.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 30 December 2009 19:43 (fourteen years ago) link
*he
More to the point, while I think a lot of his remarks here and elsewhere are sometimes dubious, he's hardly the only director w/ foot in mouth syndrome. I can only account for the movie, really, which I liked.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 30 December 2009 19:53 (fourteen years ago) link
i can only account for the movie which i thought sucked a big bag of donkey balls
― who sharted?! (s1ocki), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 19:58 (fourteen years ago) link
also he has no idea what hes talking about
― max, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 20:59 (fourteen years ago) link
"my film was polarizing--thats why both pro-choicers and pro-lifers agreed with it"
― max, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 21:00 (fourteen years ago) link
like what did his film polarize in those situations
he makes it sound like everyone liked it
Haha!
― queen frostine (Eric H.), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 21:07 (fourteen years ago) link
"My films are polarizing. I don’t want to tell my audience what to think. Twins -- Austrian bodybuilders thought it was theirs and Italian midgets thought it was theirs. And quirky fringe scientists thought Ghostbusters was theirs and phantasms and ectoplasmic goo thought it was theirs. Legal Eagles has a similar divide, depending on what people think the whole plot of the movie means. I would be curious to hear what Armond thinks of Raiders of the Lost Ark, a film that goes [slams down fist]: “Booby traps bad! Nazi people bad!” And for me that’s so boring. But, look, for some that’s the experience they want and those movies exist for them. I want people to talk.” - Ivan Reitman
― leave garbage snickers eat snickers leave garbage (jeff), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 21:11 (fourteen years ago) link
bravo
― things that make you go (hmmmm), Thursday, 31 December 2009 05:32 (fourteen years ago) link
kudos, sir
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 31 December 2009 15:03 (fourteen years ago) link
(also it seems agreed there's very little of the source novel left in the film)
Haven't read the source novel, but after reading this I'm glad most of it was left in the can.
Didn't really care for this movie at all and much like Thank You For Smoking it got lost in it's own attempt to Make A Statement. At least Charles Atlas made some scratch.
Note to Hollywood: we do want movies of "sexy, satirical amorality with Vera Farmiga" not the promise of one.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 5 January 2010 00:25 (fourteen years ago) link
we do want movies of "sexy, satirical amorality with Vera Farmiga" not the promise of one.
AMEN!
― Clerk all KNOWIN (B.L.A.M.), Tuesday, 5 January 2010 00:44 (fourteen years ago) link
This fucking movie.
― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 January 2010 00:46 (fourteen years ago) link
I would be curious to hear what Armond thinks of The Insider, a film that goes [slams down fist]: “Smoking bad! Tobacco people bad!” And for me that’s so boring. But, look, for some that’s the experience they want and those movies exist for them. I want people to talk.
i don't think he ever saw 'the insider'
― A™ machine (sic) (omar little), Tuesday, 5 January 2010 00:57 (fourteen years ago) link