Up in the Air - I'm with Gareth.

Great episode. Up in The Air is one of the first cases where in a disagreement I'm closer to Jett's view than Gareth's...Gareth, your POV is fascinating, and made me doubt my entire view fo the film. I'm no longer sure I got the big picture Reitman was intending, but, either way, I felt like this was a very sloppily construced film. It's utterly unreal- the footage of the real people re-enacting their firing struck me as a very heartless addition, as Clooney/Farmiga/Kendrick exist in a cool, slick, Hollywood prestige picture version of real life. I felt like they were coldly exploiting those people. The disconnect between the fanciful, schlocky elements and the all-too-potent issue of people being fired was quite dispiriting. The film has three plot threads, two of which involve Clooney's quest for family, the third is his job, and there's a complete disconnect. I really liked Reitman's previous films, but this one struck me as really ill-formed, tonally more than anything. Clooney was miscast in that he gave it the glossy romantic feel...I'm not entirely convinced that was unintentended, though. Farmiga was fantastic.

I thank you for the illuminating view of the film, Gareth. I'm not sure I buy it, but I'm not often stopped dead in my tracks about a film and forced to rethink it. It doesn't change my view of the screenplay's failure, but it did force me to re-examine what exactly it was that failed to achieve.

I was surprised neither of you (or anyone in the comments) considered or brought up the other possible interpretation of the ending.

(It's set up when Anna Kendrick talks about what she'd do with 10 million air miles.)

Really interesting idea Marty, I hadn't considered it either!!

Thanks so much for discussing The Road!

Hey Jett!

Am wondering, if are unable to call our question and reactions, can we record them and then email them to you?

thanks a lot,
Chris

Good question Chris - of course please do send in your questions as an mp3 or wav or quicktime, youtube vid, etc. to contact@thefilmtalk.com - anything i can grab audio out of - it's a good suggestion, i'm going to amend the Ask The Film Talk page to reflect it! :)

Congrats on the great site and podcast Gareth and Jett, have really enjoyed listening/reading your thoughts over the past few months.

Listened to the 'Up in the Air' section of the podcast with great interest as I saw the film a few weeks back. I'd side more with Gareth than Jett on this film although I thought there were some clunky moments in the closing section.

(warning: SPOILERS)

Especially the scene where Clooney at the beginning of his motivational just abandons it and walks out... very cornball! And the scene right at the end where we have the redundant employees talking about how important family was to them (obviously in contrast to Clooney's character) was heavy-handed and unnecessary. The film had given us that message through its plot resolution, why underline it in such an obvious way?

(End SPOILERS)

Despite those problems an excellent film overall I thought.

Finally, was wondering whether Jett could elaborate about his Jason Reitman comments as I wasn't quite sure what the precise point he was making about him (they seemed somewhat critical). Are you saying that basically for him filmmaking is less of a passion than it would be for others because he's doing it because he's part of the 'family business' and he was able to get into it more easily than most others would? Or that he tends to make films that are self-consciously about getting awards and critical praise as opposed to being genuinely truthful? Or perhaps another point altogether?

Hi Marco - thanks for the congrats and thanks of course for listening! :)

Re: your questions, am happy to answer them/discus them but am concentrating more now on the podcast itself rather than in posting and commenting - so please do feel free to use our new 'Ask The Film Talk' service by calling:

1-(206)-203-3468

and leaving a message - we'll play your question on the show and answer it then :)

Hi Jett,
I was reading your reply and am curious to know more about the plans for the blog (because I think the blog is great!). I have noticed that it has been less active lately and thought it was perhaps because of Facebook. Are you planning on permanently focusing more on the podcast and less on the blog/commenting/posting?

Hey there Ana -

glad you brought this up = i was going to ask our members in the Newsletter what they want/get out of TFT.

What I've found over the last couple of months is that after the duties of producing the show and the website, doing the social media work with twitter/facebook/current etc. and looking after other stuff such as our interaction with the members, (minding the store re: memberships, donations, perks etc.) I'm left with almost no time to blog.

So my question is what do people get out of the blog? Gareth is continuing to post which is great :) but am thinking perhaps my focus should stay with the show and getting people to migrate, (re asking questions/comments), to Ask The Film Talk so we can have that kind of member/listener integration -

thoughts?

Hi Jett - I have really enjoyed the blog posts/comments/discussions so much over the last year and I have learned a lot from them too. Since I am not on Facebook, it has been a great way read about, consider and share perspectives on the world of film. I love the idea of calling in questions to the show too, it's just seems more limited in terms of participation. That said, I understand and trust that the show needs to develop in a way that is manageable for you and Gareth. I can absolutely go with the flow. I'm really glad that the podcast is continuing and I can always consider joining Facebook :)...