In Contention

Tag: Jason Reitman

  • Keeping score with ‘Up in the Air’

    Jason Reitman is proving very forthcoming when it comes to sharing details of his progress on “Up in the Air” via Twitter. Earlier today, he divulged the film’s running time as 108 minutes — surely music to the ears of those of us weary of Hollywood’s increasingly bloated productions.

    And speaking of music, he just posted this cute pic of composer Rolfe Kent barefoot at work. “The score is coming to life,” apparently. Apropos of nothing, really, but it’s a slowish day and I’m really starting to look forward to this film. Are you?

  • Test screening adoration for Reitman’s ‘Up in the Air’

    George ClooneyYesterday’s Oscar update featured a number of prediction hikes for Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” including firm placement among the predicted Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress nominees.  As I wrote in the column, the film has been getting great notices out of test screenings and the studio seems to be pretty invested in an awards run.

    Today (and I never do this, but it’s positive, so I’ll go for it) Jeff Wells has received a test screening review of the film and posted it up at Hollywood Elsewhere.  It’s a giant gusher.  The guy calls George Clooney’s leading performance “Cary Grant crossed with Warren Beatty” and the role one the actor “was born to play.”  Even though it was a test screening, the reviewer calls it a “near perfect film” and describes a trippy dream sequence that sounds creatively intriguing and narratively fascinating.

    In a nutshell, the guy is head over heels for the flick.  Take it or leave it, but it sounds mostly legitimate to me.

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  • PAGE TO SCREEN: “Up in the Air” by Walter Kirn

    Cover of Up in the Air by Walter Kirn“Airworld” is novelist Walter Kirn’s term for the impermanent realm of regional American air travel, a sleek network of bland local airports and adjacent beige hotel rooms, linked by the plush grey trails of business-class flights. It forms the scattered but otherwise constant home to thousands of American corporate drones, and is the simultaneously alien and mundane setting for “Up in the Air” – soon reaching your screens courtesy of writer-director Jason Reitman and star George Clooney.

    Droll, dry and ultimately rather heartless, it’s clear that Kirn (“Thumbsucker”) positioned his novel as a kind of “Bonfire of the Vanities” for post-millennial readers, a work that diagnoses the ills of corporate America and chimes in with a wider sense of social malaise.

    The novel, however, had the misfortune of hitting the shelves shortly before the events of 9/11 forever shifted the rules of his own Airworld. By the time it appeared in paperback, not only had Kirn’s milieu rapidly dated, but few readers were keen to enter that territory, and “Up in the Air” never took off as was perhaps intended.

    Whether by accident or design, Reitman’s adaptation of the novel also comes along at a time when the material couldn’t be more touchily topical, albeit for different reasons. Its anti-hero of sorts is Ryan Bingham, a 35 year-old human resources exec and first-class Airworld citizen, whose field of expertise is “Career Transition Counseling” – in other words, someone brought in by companies to tactfully fire employees, a self-proclaimed Grim Reaper to white-collar America.

    It’s a nervy subject for a feature film in the midst of a global economic recession that is providing plenty of business for men like Bingham, if few others; but whether audiences will be any more willing to embrace this than they were Kirn’s novel remains to be seen, and will largely depend on the warmth and lightness of touch Reitman and his universally liked leading man can bring to the material.

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  • Is Vera Farmiga about to go big?

    I love Vera Farmiga.

    I realize that means nothing to you, and I should remain more analytical and level-headed on this site. But we all have our favorites, and Ms. Farmiga is one of mine. Whether cheekily stealing scenes in “Breaking and Entering” or fearlessly carrying the searing “Down to the Bone,” she has an unusual onscreen empathy and intelligence that has long reminded me of pre-stardom Cate Blanchett, which is about the highest compliment I can pay.

    Since surprising virtually everyone by taking the 2005 LA Critics’ Best Actress award for “Down to the Bone,” she has seemed on the cusp of big things, but things haven’t quite clicked into place. She should have been an Oscar contender the next year for her precise, sexually calibrated turn in “The Departed,” but she somehow slipped by unnoticed amid the testosterone-charged ensemble. Oscar rumblings have been heard again this year for “Nothing But the Truth,” but the film doesn’t seem to be generating much heat.

    So I was excited to learn today that she’s landed her most mainstream lead role to date: a romantic comedy opposite George Clooney, no less. “Up in the Air” will be the third feature from this year’s surprise Best Director nominee, Jason Reitman, which makes for an intriguing match-up of talent all round. Variety reports as follows:

    Story centers on a human resources exec whose only joy in life comes from the prospect of notching his millionth frequent-flyer mile, a goal he pursues with zeal as the rest of his life falls apart because he is constantly on the road.

    Farmiga will play a businesswoman who develops a romantic relationship with Clooney’s character through meetings in airports and hotels around the country. Reitman adapted the screenplay from Walter Kirn’s novel of the same name.

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  • What do we learn from film festivals?

    Mr. Lodge was quick to cover the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival, perhaps the most elite in all of cinema, and one that was a springboard for several 2007 Oscar films, “No Country for Old Men,” certainly (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” was shamelessly excluded from Oscar consideration, although it won the top prize at Cannes). The Tribeca Film Festival, a result of Robert De Niro’s vision, recently wrapped in lower Manhattan. Sundance, the hot spot for indy cinema, concluded months ago.

    And while these marquee festivals dominate the news (the chic New York Film Festival takes place in autumn) it’s the wealth of smaller festivals, from Nashville to Connecticut to Tupelo, that allow for muchof the years best independent cinema to find an audience (and in many cases a distributor).

    A few weeks ago, I wrote about a fine independent film made in Arkansas. “Shotgun Stories” found its audience on the film festival circuit, traveling the world screening, practically, in front of anyone that would see it. It was buried in the wealth of offerings at Tribeca, although New York magazine managed to note it (this was almost a year before the film was reviewed favorably by critic David Edelstein). In 2007 it was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.

    Tomorrow, the Little Rock Film Festival begins its second season. It was founded by documentary filmmakers Craig and Brent Renaud (along with their good friends Owen Brainard and Jamie Moses) who were recently nominated for Director’s Guild Award for their elaborate and compelling documentary “Off to War.” They recently completed a film for HBO on Little Rock Central High School. It was released in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the desegregation crisis last September.

    By virtue of their background, the festival brings a wealth of documentaries to town. Last year, “War/Dance,” a festival entry, was nominated for an Academy Award. This year, several documentaries may be worthy of Academy acclaim, including one in particular, “Silhouette City.” It is a film about the rise of religious extremism in the United States. Several notable religious figures appear, including former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, James Dobson and Rick Scarborough. The film is directed by Michael Wilson.

    On the feature film front, it’s hard to overlook “War Eagle, Arkansas,” a film written by Graham Gordy (the upcoming “The Love Guru”). It stars Brian Dennehy, Mare Winningham and Dan McCabe who recently appeared in “The Namesake.” You’ll hear more about him. Like “Shotgun Stories,” this film could find its way up the independent awards chain, maybe all the way to California on the eve of the Oscars.

    In 2000, an up-and-coming director named Jason Reitman directed a short film called “In God We Trust.” It won an award at the Austin Film Festival. Last year, he was nominated for an Oscar for his stunning and hilarious film “Juno.” Filmmakers, actors and writers benefit greatly from these festivals. And so do moviegoers along the communities that support them. Fortunately, we’ve got a gem of a festival right here in Little Rock.