Maybe I’m slow on the uptake, but when I saw Up in the Air, I didn’t realize those montages of people talking about what they were going to do after losing their jobs were from actual, fired people and not actors.  I guess I’m just used to actors speaking directly into the camera, documentary-style, from shows like The Office and Modern Family, and from my webcam chats with young Thai boys.  But, uh… yeah.  They were real.  From Daily Beast:

If the individuals who are told they’re being laid-off in Jason Reitman’s film Up in the Air look genuinely devastated, that’s because they’re not acting. Rather than cast actors for those scenes, Reitman instead cast real people who had recently lost their jobs.
To find them, he placed ads in local newspapers in two cities that were hit hard by the Great Recession: Detroit and St. Louis. During auditions, people were asked what it was like to lose their job in a horrible economy, and to reenact their response to being fired, or, if they preferred, to act out how they wished they had reacted.

The Daily Beast does updates on six people from the film.  Out of the six they profile, who were fired from HR, auto companies, ad firms, and otherwise, only three have since found work, which is sort of depressing, and most have sob stories like: Read the rest of this entry »

My first acquaintance with my friend Brendan’s mom came in college, while listening to Brendan’s side of a phone conversation in which he reluctantly promised to wear the protective goggles she’d bought to protect him in the event the toilet bowl bleach she’d also recently bought for the apartment splashed in his eyes while he was using it.  Needless to say, she’s comedy gold.  She also writes movie reviews.  Hence this new feature, “Brendan’s Mom Reviews.”  And no, this isn’t an alter ego of mine.

Up in the Air:
“Up in the Air”  draws you in from the beginning – George Clooney has charisma (at least for us older ladies) and the two main women characters,  who are wonderful,  are unknowns, so they you don’t have any offscreen romance/divorce/rehab issues to  distract from their performances… maybe for those two that remains in their futures… anyhoo, the movie chronicles the Clooney’s character’s smugness with his rootless and relationshipless lifestyle until he has that “AHA” moment, and it’s not what you think….

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I’m not going to pretend I’m qualified to name this year’s best movies (more qualified than most who make these lists, but still) or that I saw every movie, but people on the internet love lists, and I love money.  I find that the strippers object when you try to stuff post-it notes in their vaginas.  On that note, here are the 10 movies of 2009 that I would stuff in my vagina like a $1,000 dollar bill.  KNIVES OUT!

1. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
I need to see this again to truly understand what I experienced, but if I’m honest, it was probably the most fun I had in a theater this year. (I should’ve gone with Alanis Morissette *frownie*) Was it fun because it was really good, or just really crazy and weird?  I don’t really know.  But isn’t it a little unfair to make that distinction?

2.  The Hurt Locker
Definitely the most well-made movie this year.  It was a simple, straightforward plot, but it was well-acted, perfectly shot, and as tense as waiting for your STD-test results.  It really took you to another place, and that’s what it’s all about, right?  (other than being able to sit on your ass and eat nachos).  Every director should study the way this was storyboarded and edited. Especially Brett Ratner, that guy sucks.

3. Anvil! The Story of Anvil
What can I say, there’s just something about middle-aged men trying to live out their childhood dreams while repeatedly getting kicked in the face that does it for me.  It kept making me teary-eyed without feeling like it was trying really hard to do so (like Up). Damn you, you lovable Canadians.

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(“Dude, what’d he say?”  “I dunno, I think he wants you to stuff your wife in a backpack.”  “Why?”  “Because she’s too heavy.”)

Up in the Air is the kind of movie that sneaks up on you.  I reported the award nominations, I felt the buzz, but I could never figure how a film about a yuppie asswipe trying to rack up frequent flier miles could ever be more than a mild amusement — even if he was played by a handsome all-American with great hair and a voice that could charm the panties off a Jehova’s Witness.  Even forty minutes into the movie, the most complimentary description that came to mind was “slick.”  But sure enough, by the time the credits rolled, there I was with my panties around my ankles.  (so to speak)*

In Jason Reitman’s third feature as a director (after Thank You For Smoking, Juno), George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a corporate consultant who specializes in firing people and revels in the kind of single-serving lifestyle that makes Edward Norton’s Fight Club character pray for death.  The ladies in his life are Vera Farmiga (The Departed) — fellow traveler, kindred spirit, F buddy; Anna Kendrick (Twilight), the snot-nosed Cornell grad who wants to lower company costs by having Clooney do his firings via video chat (a proposal his boss Jason Bateman is seriously considering); and the two sisters he never sees, one of whom is about to marry Danny McBride (the horror).

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I don’t remember why I made this picture.

Opening this weekend (trailers after the jump):

Up in the Air
This one’s been sort of overshadowed by all the Avatar hype, but the early buzz is that it’s really good.  Plus, who doesn’t like George Clooney?  Communists, that’s who.

Avatar
Ava-who?  Hmm, I do not believe I’ve heard anything about this movie-film.  Do you guys know anything about it? (Sidenote: I bought a ticket to a midnight screening last night, because you see, no one invites me to press screenings because God forbid a person who writes about movies be honest and make poop jokes from time to time.  I had my press credentials for Sundance denied for the same reason, but I digress.  Long story short, I wanted to have an Avatar review up today, but I got drunk and slept through the alarm I’d set for midnight when I was supposed to see it.  Please accept my humblest, most inappropriately sexual apology).

Did You Hear About the Morgans?
Are city people who have to move to the country ever not funny??  YOU CAIN’T WEAR HAGH HEELS IN THE STABLE, CEETY SLICKER!!  Anyway, if no one gets hit in the nuts in this movie, as God as my witness I will scratch all of my records.  I think this picture sums it up best:

[Courtesy of 5secondfilms]

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