Here’s a great chat between Anne Thompson and “Up in the Air” director Jason Reitman from Telluride (literally five minutes before I sat down to talk with him for my interview). Part one here, part two after the jump:
Tag: Up in the Air
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9/15 Web Round-up
• James Rocchi sits down with Jason Reitman to talk “Up in the Air.” [AMC TV]• Jeffrey Wells bangs the Best Picture drum for Rodrigo Garcia’s as-of-yet un-acquired “Mother and Child.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• Michael Douglas talks “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” [Empire]
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TORONTO: ‘The Informant!,’ ‘Jennifer’s Body,’ ‘Up in the Air,’ ‘Hugh Hefner’
(Please note, as opposed to Kris and Guy, I tend to grade films on a 5-star scale.)Day two of the festival is always among the busiest because the major studios are here and they want you to see their films. Movies with buzz coming out of Toronto quite often end up in the Oscar race.
“Slumdog Millionaire” exploded out of this festival last year and went all the way to eight Academy Awards. Who would have thought coming in to Toronto that Danny Boyle’s film would rock the fest? So which film will it be this year?
If Venice and Telluride can tell us anything it is that Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” is winning critics over and should land George Clooney in the Oscar race once again for Best Actor. Kris certainly loved the film when he saw it, and frankly, so did I.
But Clooney will not be alone here in the race for Best Actor. One of his good friends will be right there with him: Matt Damon for his amazing work in “The Informant!.” Today was one of those good days when I bounced from good film to great film back to good film, to great documentary. I may have seen the best of the fest on Friday.
Let’s get into some reactions…
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WEEKLY WRAP: Festivals, festivals and festivals
• After weeks of hype, “Up in the Air” landed in Telluride, and delivered. (And finally got a trailer too.)• Meanwhile, as some compare director Jason Reitman to Billy Wilder, we interviewed him at the festival.
• We also got chatty with possible awards contenders Paul Schneider and Venice prize-winner Mark Boal.
• On the other side of the Atlantic, our Venice coverage continued, including a first look at Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story.”
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‘Up in the Air’ wowing press in Toronto
I’ve been keeping a steady eye on the reactions to a press screening of Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” this morning via Twitter. The film will play to the masses tomorrow night, but so far, it seems to be landing just right across the board.ComingSoon’s Ed Douglas noted swiftly, “Believe the Hype. This is a very special film. Loved it!” MSN’s James Rocchi, meanwhile, chimed in with, “Up in the Air: Don’t believe the anti-hype. Funny, tough, real; a big step up from all involved, and a touch of The Music Man, too.”
Finally HitFix’s Drew McWeeny seemed almost speechless, offering, “Just out of ‘Up In The Air.’ Devastated. Didn’t expect that emotional response at all” and “I walked ten blocks to the hotel, unable to look a single person in the eye. I am shredded.”
All of that was fine and good and, to a large extent, expected. But who would have anticipated a crotchety soul like Jeff Wells to call it the year’s best film and fawn over it like so…
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INTERVIEW: Jason Reitman
Telluride Film FestivalFour days ago, Jason Reitman finalized his latest film, “Up in the Air,” by making one final song change. Two days ago he unveiled it to its first-ever first audience, his nerves shot. Today, somewhat more relaxed in the wake of a warm reception to the film, he’s sitting outside at a cafe on a sunny day, the famous gondolas of Telluride swinging around and up the hillside to Mountain Village behind him as he thinks back on the experience.
“It felt really good,” he says. “I’ve never had that short a period of time between finishing a film and it showing for the first time. I’m used to having a few weeks to get nervous, but I was really making creative choices up until the last second. It was almost surreal, it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m watching it with an audience.’ And there’s this moment when you give up the movie. It stops being yours and starts being everyone else’s. It’s unusual. People laugh at a certain point or they’ll find something moving that you didn’t expect. They start telling you what the movie was. I didn’t expect that emotional experience for myself. A lot came together Saturday.”
Reitman began conceiving the story of “Up in the Air” — which strays considerably from the film’s source material, a 2002 Walter Kirn novel — six years ago. (Sheldon Turner, who shares screen credit on the adaptation, penned a draft early on, but Reitman came from his own place on things.) He began turning over its themes in his head, considering them in their barest form.. “They started coalescing further a few years ago,” he says, “and then, really in the year leading up to the movie, right after ‘Juno,’ it suddenly felt like, you know, this was a question I really needed to ask. I go through the same questions that the main character does.”
In the film, George Clooney stars as career transition specialist Ryan Bingham, a hired gun terminator. It’s an element of the film that skims the zeitgeist but its the personal journey of the character that Reitman wanted to dig at, notions of one’s responsibility to engage with the world around you, with one’s family, and the idea that no man is — or at least no man should be — an island unto himself.
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 2 — ‘Up in the Air,’ disagreeing on ‘The Road’ and Toronto looms
Welcome to the second installment of Oscar Talk with yours truly and indieWIRE‘s Anne Thompson. We tried to set aside some time in Telluride to do one of these, but time never seemed to permit.Anne is in Toronto this week, and, at the time of this recording (yesterday, so all “todays” and “tomorrows” should be re-purposed accordingly), was gearing up for a screening of Jon Amiel’s “Creation.”
We tightened things up slightly this time, clocking in at just over 25 minutes. Here are a few of the topics we discussed:
• Which films are going to be tested by their exposure in Toronto (John’s coverage begins this weekend)?
• The story out of Telluride, “Up in the Air,” and the awards prospects for the film across the board.
• The dueling Best Supporting Actress hopefuls from the film, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga.
• The cool reception Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” is receiving in some quarters and how that could work against its major Oscar potential, despite exquisite craftwork.
• By popular demand, Anne and I disagree on something: John Hillcoat’s “The Road.”
• The “schizophrenic” marketing of the film, moving from genre/suspense to the love/warmth at its center.
Have a listen below. And by the way, these should be filtering in through iTunes now, so you can subscribe to the podcast here.
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‘Up in the Air’ gets a release date
FYI, Paramount has lined Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” for a November 13 limited release with an expansion to come on November 25. The Thanksgiving corridor is a nice place for this film to settle. We’ll see how it plays against other awards contenders in “The Road” and “Nine.”
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Two ‘Up in the Air’ tracks join the race for Best Original Song
We’ve been getting you up to speed on the Best Original Song situation over the last couple of weeks. After putting together a rough early look at some contenders, we revealed yesterday that Mary J. Blige would have a song in Lee Daniels’s “Precious.” Today we’ve got the skinny on the music from one of the season’s most anticipated films.“Up in the Air,” which played like gangbusters in Telluride, will have two original tracks. The first is a title song which runs over the closing credits and, like Blige’s “I See in Color,” it has an interesting backstory.
After “Juno” was released in 2007, with its use of pre-existing songs and a hit soundtrack, director Jason Reitman told the first ever audience of “Up in the Air” at this weekend’s fest that he began receiving tons of music from people. One night he was approached by a man who had recently lost his job and had written a song he thought might go well with the director’s latest film.
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‘Up in the Air’ trailer
I guess it’s landing a little early. /Film has the exclusive teaser for Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” which the director conceived himself exclusively for the internet. It’s a beautiful piece that really captures the tone and spirit of the film.
I generally prefer trailers put together by filmmakers (Paul Thomas Anderson does it a lot) because they tend to be free of the usual marketing tropes and have an artistic value unto themselves. Reitman didn’t do the actual editing (he gives credit there to the folks at Acme, who also do his opening credits sequences). But still, it clearly comes from the same mind that conceived the film. You don’t get that very often. There will be another trailer down the line, something geared toward the masses, I’m sure (and there’s obviously a necessity for that), but I’m glad this one’s out there:
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London fest adds awards, goes heavy on Clooney
While still ensconced in Venice, I must admit that the thought of diving into another festival makes me slightly dizzy — but the London Film Festival doesn’t care about that. LFF artistic director Sandra Hebron unveiled a strong lineup this morning, but the real news is that they have added a bevy of awards to their trophy cabinet.In addition to their existing honors, including the Sutherland Trophy for best debut feature and the Grierson Award for best documentary, the festival will, for the first time, hand out an overall Best Film award, as well as an honor for Best British Newcomer. Meanwhile, the British Film Institute will award writing and directing fellowships. Compounding these changes, the festival will, for the first time, hold a formal awards ceremony on the final day.
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‘Up in the Air’ clip
See it in HD at Apple. A trailer link made the rounds; somehow it got out early. I thought /Film was going to have the exclusive on that Thursday but who knows.
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More on Reitman/Wilder
Friday I posted a piece asking whether Jason Reitman might be on track to becoming the new Billy Wilder (an idea first put forth by USA Today writer Anthony Breznican). The notion was met with some wicked vitriol from those who felt it a silly comparison or, at the very least, too soon to discuss.Fair enough on the latter, as I mentioned in my piece to begin with and in the ensuing discussion. But three days later, Stephen Farber invoked Wilder’s name in his Hollywood Reporter review of “Up in the Air” and compared the film’s protagonist to the “corporate pimp” of Wilder’s “The Apartment.” And today, in going back and forth on the idea with Breznican, he has offered a clarification but isn’t backing off on his point:
“My comment is bound to provoke that sort of thing,” Breznican wrote of the reaction. “I think you got what I meant, but I probably should have been more precise. Obviously Reitman, at the start of his career, does not add up to Billy Wilder’s entire output. But of course, that wasn’t what I was saying. Rather, I meant Reitman is working with Wilder’s toolbox, and telling the kind of stories that incomparable veteran once told.
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REVIEW: “Up in the Air” (****)
Telluride Film FestivalJason Reitman began adapting Walter Kirn’s novel “Up in the Air” five or six years ago (in the wake of an earlier draft by Sheldon Turner). The country was on better economic turf, he wasn’t married, he didn’t have a child. He was drawn to a book jacket with a quote from his friend, “Thank You for Smoking” author Christopher Buckley, enchanted by a lead character obsessed with collecting frequent flyer miles who lives a single-serving lifestyle from airport to airport.
Today, unemployment rates are skyrocketing, tangible human connectivity is becoming a relic of another century, Reitman has settled down with a wife and daughter and futures all around are uncertain. But in some ways, there is hope, a sense of turning an all important corner. By the end of “Up in the Air,” that is just where Reitman has left his protagonist.
Meanwhile, Kirn’s novel has been transformed from an otherwise unremarkable example of corporate comedy into a piece at once deeply personal and serendipitously relevant. This is one of the year’s finest films.
George Clooney stars in perhaps the role of his career (one certainly drawing parallels to his own lifestyle) as Ryan Bingham, a career transition counselor who zips from hub to hub 270 days a year. In a nutshell, he is part of a third party firm hired out to corporations for the purposes of firing discontinued clientele. He lives a life of isolation, a stranger to his Midwest family, who sees him rarely and kills his commitment-less buzz anytime they call with an update.
He has airport check-in down to a science, stereotypically zeroing in on those who are quickest to follow behind at security, Moonwalking out of his shoes as he does so, his luggage immaculately packed, his system a work of streamlined art. When he isn’t letting people go in the name of other companies, he gives motivational addresses meant to steer attendees clear of the extra baggage in their life, their commitments, extraneous relationships, anything that keeps them from living a life as he believes it is meant to be lived: in motion.
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‘Up in the Air’ sings in the Colorado mountains
I wouldn’t dare review Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” via iPhone from an in-transit gondola, but I’m compelled to write something immediately.
The film is a triumph. It drips with Reitman’s passion, his love for his wife and child, his assessment of his own journey into adulthood. He just finished telling the audience at the Chuck Jones Theater that it’s probably the most personal film he’ll ever make. One can certainly understand the sentiment.
I’ll get into this more later, but I consider it a four-star knockout that couldn’t have hit the country and, to speak personally, me, at a more perfect time.
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Is Jason Reitman the new Billy Wilder?
That USA Today profile on Jason Reitman, penned by IC friend Anthony Breznican, was still simmering in my mind recently when an acquaintance mentioned an intriguing comparison Breznican made on his Facebook page. “To me, this guy is the next Billy Wilder,” Breznican wrote of Reitman. “His films are hilarious, but also peer uncompromisingly into our darker sides.”I turned it over in my head a few times and, ultimately, I couldn’t think of a reason to disagree. One of Wilder’s most defining characteristics was his versatility, so it’s a bit early to draw a parallel there. That having been said, “Thank You for Smoking” is an entirely different film with drastically different themes than “Juno,” and “Up in the Air” looks to take things in a new direction yet again.
Wilder may have exhibited less flash than Reitman, but he also placed a considerable emphasis on the screenplay. Despite Reitman’s panache (which is by no means overstated), his films, so far, have been very much made in the writing. And I’m with Breznican. It’s hard to argue that Reitman isn’t in some way interested in what lurks beneath the surface of daily niceties.
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Previewing the 34th annual Toronto fest
In less than a week I will kiss my wife and kids goodbye and head into Toronto, about 50 miles away, for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Twelve years ago my wife and I found it makes no sense for me to attend the festival for 16 to 18 hours and then try to drive home; beyond the danger of driving exhausted, arriving home at three in the morning tends to wake them up because our stupid, stupid dog begins barking the moment anyone pulls into the driveway. So for 10 days I live in the Delta Chelsea Hotel on Gerrard Street.This year I am finding leaving for the festival easier. Last year my wife Sherri was diagnosed with brain cancer and dealt with the removal of part of a considerable brain tumor. We went through radiation last summer, the loss of her beautiful, lush red hair, and the constant exhaustion she had to deal with. Cancer, sadly, is a family affair, and not something anyone should go through alone. But this year we are in a good place. The monster seems to be at bay, for now.
So what I am looking forward to seeing? Well first let me state that I’m shocked “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Amelia” and a handful of other films are not here. They seemed like good fits for the festival, their filmmakers have been here before, etc. That said, it looks like one of the best festivals in recent memory, though I am not sure anything will ever beat out 2007, which presented a bounty of great pictures. I was leaving screening room after screening room giddy.
This year looks like a challenge for even the toughest film fester. Choosing the films to see is the toughest part because there is no chance you’ll see everything you want to see. There are generally three of four press/industry screenings at the Varsity, Cumberland or new AMC Theatres, as well as the public screenings which the press have limited access to. Our press pass allows us access to six (I think) Gala performances in the evening, but they sell out quickly. There is also a DVD library where you can watch the films in the rooms provided on your own, but films are meant to be seen on the big screen.
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Prepping for Telluride
Tomorrow morning I’m on a plane at 10:30 to the mountains of Colorado and the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival.This will be my first trek to the fest, which has always been, by many accounts, the most coveted detour of the fall festival season. They keep it small. The vibe is meant to be intimate, definitely an antidote to Cannes or Toronto, where the media frenzy stretches on for a week and a half. Here we get four days in the refreshing thin air, and there are a number of films I’m looking forward to.
The line-up used to be a tightly guarded secret. It was a leap of faith. You land, get the schedule, and then you know. But news travels fast in a town like this, so more and more, the secrecy of Telluride’s schedule has leaked out over the years. This year is no different on that front.
“Up in the Air” from director Jason Reitman is way at the top of my list. Something about the project is tugging at me, and that USA Today interview with the director yesterday did a lot to fan the flames. Reitman had great success with “Juno” when he took it to Telluride in 2007, so he’ll be looking to duplicate that again as Paramount primes its Oscar pony.