What's Different?

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This Up In The Air trailer was posted yesterday, and it seems to be precisely the same one I was watching a month or so ago. The release-date shifts have thrown me off, so this is an opportunity to reiterate that the presumed Best Picture front-runner opens on 12.4.

Scott Foundas has written an eloquent opening for his Up In The Air review in the November/December issue of Film Comment:

"Contemporary Hollywood has steadfastly avoided the workplace -- unless the jobs are particularly glamorous (Broadcast News, The Devil Wears Prada), or the workers unfairly exploited (Silkwood, North Country) or the fodder for gallows humor (the Mike Judge oeuvre). And so there's an immediate and ingratiating novelty to the fact that so much of Jason Reitman's Up in the Air unfolds in cubicles and conference rooms in nondescript office buildings in Wichita, Kansas City, and other outposts of the great American in-between.

"Likewise, the people Up in the Air are neither the laugh-tracked eccentrics of TV sitcoms nor Michael Moore's congenitally oppressed proles. They are, rather, the white-collar career middle-managers, useful but ultimately inessential to their employers, who believed they had jobs for life -- until a tough economy rendered them expendable. They may not be the stars of Up in the Air, but they are what gives the movie its soul."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 11, 2009 at 5:50 AM

comment #1

Ryansi51 says ...

my pops worked for united for 35 years, and my youth was spent in airports with write-your-own tickets to destinations of my own choosing, so i've spent many a night in airports. They have a special place in my heart, and I can't think of too many places where i feel more comfortable. odd, i know.

UP IN THE AIR looks like they capture that brilliantly, can't wait for this.

Posted by Ryansi51 at November 11, 2009 6:57 AM

comment #2

Ryansi51 says ...

UP IN THE AIR looks like they capture that brilliantly, can't wait for this.

Posted by Ryansi51 at November 11, 2009 6:57 AM

comment #3

Kristopher Tapley says ...

I believe the only difference is they threw in the critics' quotes toward the end there.

Posted by Kristopher Tapley at November 11, 2009 9:21 AM

comment #4

Colin says ...

Can't wait for this film. Maybe do a double-feature with this following Precious.

Which film is the best pic winner?

Posted by Colin at November 11, 2009 11:32 AM

comment #5

qwiggles says ...

In addition to mangling Sad Brad Smith's song, this trailer also adds weird whooshing sounds to Clooney/Kendrick's turns to the Asians in the airport. The end is completely different: instead of his sister worrying he's isolated, and his speech about how "moving is living," we weirdly get his pep-talk and one-liner with the brother-in-law. Much more of a jokey effect.

Posted by qwiggles at November 11, 2009 11:45 AM

comment #6