UP IN THE AIR / ****

Distributor: Paramount
Release Date: December 4, 2009
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Running Time: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

Many years ago, William Shakespeare wrote “to thine own self be true.” Ryan Bingham, the hero (or anti-hero?) of Jason Reitman’s latest and finest film, “Up in the Air,” seems to have taken that advice.

Ryan Bingham fires people for a living. When bosses don’t have the temerity to fire their own employees, Bingham flies in from his home base of Omaha to deliver the bad news. In today’s harsh economic times, Bingham is a very busy man. “Last year I spent 322 days on the road,” he says, “which means I had to spend 43 miserable days at home.” He certainly does not like Omaha (a sentiment to which I can relate), but Ryan Bingham seems like the kind of guy who would hate home no matter where home is. His ultimate goal is to reach 10 million miles, a plateau that only six other people have ever achieved.

However, with things changing so rapidly in every other profession, the business of firing people is no exception. Bingham’s boss Craig Gregory (the versatile Jason Bateman) introduces a young firebrand Cornell graduate named Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick of “Rocket Science”), who has the idea of firing people over the internet via video screen. Bingham of course objects to this idea. Does he hate it simply because it will keep him grounded in Omaha and stunt his goal of 10 million miles, or does he really care about the people he’s firing? A strong argument can certainly be made for both.

Before the internet firing process can be rolled out, Bingham takes Keener on the road with him to show her the ropes. On one of his trips, Bingham hooks up with Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga), who doesn’t travel quite as much as him, but is interested in the same Gold Clubs and Perks Rewards Bingham is. They are almost instantly on an even plain – Alex seems like the one woman in the planet who is as witty as Bingham, and their chemistry is palpable from the moment they’re on screen together. She seems to love life on the road as much as Bingham, but she might be ill-equipped to handle the complexities that accompany such a venture.

Throughout his years of firing people, Bingham has become detached from what most people would call “real life.” His family barely knows him, and when someone on a plane asks him where he lives, he responds with “here.” Clooney plays Bingham with a subtlety that few actors could pull off. He’s so good at this point in his career that it hardly even looks like he’s trying. Unlike Reitman’s previous film, the wildly overrated “Juno,” all of the characters speak and act in a way that doesn’t betray their own nature, or feel forced for the sake of being clever.

In addition to the three leads, the pitch-perfect casting presents several memorable characters, most of which only appear in one scene. Amy Morton and Melanie Lynskey play Bingham’s estranged sisters Kara and Julie; Danny McBride plays Julie’s fiancé Jim Miller; Sam Elliot pops up as pilot Maynard Finch; and Zack Galifianakis is Steve, one of Bingham’s victims. The venerable J.K. Simmons has perhaps the film’s best scene as another man Bingham fires, but manages to give hope to.

Besides his duties relieving people of theirs, Bingham delivers motivational speeches using a backpack as a metaphor for unloading all of the things that weigh you down in life, particularly relationships with people. He has a philosophy of not getting attached to anyone or anything that he rigidly sticks to until he meets Alex, who threatens to turn his entire world upside down. The results of this relationship I will not reveal, but I refer back to the Shakespeare quote from earlier in my review.

“Up in the Air” is a remarkable film, one that is both timely and timeless, no less than an American Classic. This is one of the best films of the year.

Theater: RDM Westroads 14, Omaha, NE
Time: 345 pm
Date: January 15, 2010

FANTASTIC MR. FOX / ***½

Distributor: Fox
Release Date: November 13, 2009
Genre: Animation
Running Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with filmmaker Wes Anderson over the years. The first time I saw his “Rushmore” and “The Royal Tenenbaums,” I became a big fan of his. He got great performances from actors I love, like Bill Murray and Gene Hackman. Then along came “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” I was confounded by how much I disliked a film with so many actors that I liked in it. After that he unveiled “The Darjeeling Limited,” which was even worse. So I went back and watched “Rushmore” and “Tenenbaums,” and even went back to his debut film, “Bottle Rocket.” It finally struck me that his films were trying so hard to be quirky and offbeat that they stopped feeling real.

So how ironic is it then that I find his most honest and real film to be his latest, the stop-motion animated “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” The inimitable George Clooney plays the title character, a fox that has spent the majority of his adult life as an outlaw. When he meets his mate Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep, only the greatest actor of all time), and they have a cub, Ash (Anderson vet Jason Schwartzman), he promises to settle down.

Like most life-long bandits, Mr. Fox desires one last big score. He sets up a scheme to raid the farms of the three most prolific farmers in town – Franklin Bean (the deliciously vile Michael Gambon), Walter Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), and Nathan Bunce (Hugo Guinness).

From there the story follows a tried and true formula – hero messes up his big score, gets everyone else in trouble, has to think of a way to get everyone out of trouble, and is forgiven in the end. I wonder why more people didn’t complain about the recycled nature of this story the same way they complained about that little move James Cameron made?

But I digress – I care not about whether stories are recycled or not, as long as they are presented in a fashion that is engaging and entertaining, and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is certainly both of those things.

Theater: RDM Westroads 14, Omaha, NE
Time: 735 pm
Date: November 29, 2009

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS / ***

Distributor: Overture Films
Release Date: November 6, 2009
Genre: Comedy
Running Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

As a journalist, watching the opening minutes of “The Men Who Stare at Goats” was a tad upsetting. Ewan McGregor plays Bob Wilton, a journalist for the Ann Arbor News, which shuttered its doors over the summer. It was yet another sad reminder of the state of the profession I love.

From that point forward the film took on a much lighter tone, and can best be described as amusing. Like many men before him, Wilton has been jilted by a woman, and thinks he can impress her into taking him back. To that end he travels to Iraq to try and get some kind of combat experience. While there he encounters a story that may seem too good to be true, but Wilton assures us that “more of this is true than you would believe.”

Wilton encounters a man named Lyn Cassady (Oscar winner George Clooney), who was a member of the New Earth Army, which was a top secret branch of psychic soldiers, or “Jedi Warriors.” Oscar nominee Jeff Bridges plays Bill Django, the leader of the New Earth Army. Think of a more motivated version of “The Dude,” Bridges’s character from “The Big Lebowski,” and you get a pretty good idea of what Bill Django is like.

Much of the story is told in flashbacks, to a time when everyone apparently sported just a moustache. Cassady is Django’s star pupil, but another student, Larry Hooper (Oscar winner Kevin Spacey), fancies himself as the top psychic in the class and resents the attention Cassady gets.

The film is certainly disjointed and certainly could have been tightened up in spots. Overall first-time director Grant Heslov (Clooney’s co-writer on “Good Night, and Good Luck”) lets the actors do what they’re best at and doesn’t try to force scenes, no matter how ridiculous.

I can see why “The Men Who Stare at Goats” didn’t light the box office on fire, but I have a suspicion that it may gain a cult following sometime in the next decade.

Theater: Marcus Midtown Crossing Cinema, Omaha, NE
Time: 945 pm
Date: 11/23/2009