Review: Up in the Air

George Clooney plays a traveling business consultant hired to terminate employees for other companies and ready them for the path of job hunting. Clooney plays a relic, so to speak, fighting for his job against the ever evolving state of technology. Clooney decides to partner up with the young revolutionary, played by Anna Kendrick, taking her on a cross country trip to see how his job is done and teach her about the finer things about living on the road. Together they share life experiences and relationship advice.

George Clooney is an old-fashioned Hollywood player. He brings an incredible amount of charisma, grace, and machismo to the screen, and hits all his beats. If the movie was to rest solely on his shoulders it would be equally good. This is one of many roles Clooney was born to play. His profession has evolved to this point, a relic of the old ways being forced out by the corporate culture yet hangs on by a thread only to come out on top every time. He is a lovable jackass, but one that shows just the right amount of heart at the right time for us to never give up hope for him. He quietly evolves into something he never thought he'd be.

Luckily, Clooney does not have to go it alone. He has been surrounded by one of the better supporting casts this year. Anna Kendrick shows immense potential past her teeny bopper vampire flick. Vera Farmiga is completely relatable making her eventual resolution that much more surprising. Jason Bateman, Zach Galinfinakis, J. K. Simmons, and Sam Elliot make memorable turns. Maybe just because of their familiar faces, but none the less. Danny McBride really surprised me making a short but poignant cameo with the right amount of humor. More interesting is the inclusion of real life unemployed people given the opportunity to say whatever they wanted to say to those who fired them into the camera. Real emotions from real people.

The message is simple. The people we love and trust are a bigger part of our lives than we will ever realize. The value of human connectedness is not trivial. This is the film's greatest strength. Not the message itself, but how it depicts it. Never is there a lecture on the message, in fact, the lectures in the film seem to be for the total opposite. Clooney preaches the freedom of living on the road, meeting new people. He reminds me of Edward Norton at the beginning of Fight Club with his "single serving friends." But then there is the glaring realization written all over Clooney's face. An epiphany that lasts a second where Clooney stops talking and the message becomes so evidently clear. It lacks a lot of the pretentiousness that we have come to expect from Hollywood, due in part to what should be an unsatisfying ending feeling quite the opposite.

The movie is well-paced and light-hearted. It's silent moments are just as engrossing as its talking points. Clooney continues to prove that no one is quite as capable of carrying a screenplay as he is, yet the supporting cast and Reitman's keen eye keep up more than effectively. The setting and America's present economic climate will make this a film that defines the decade as a whole.

9/10

Review: Men Who Stare at Goats

Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a down and out journalist. In order to prove his worth as not just a reporter but as a human being, he goes to the Middle East to try and report on some of the dealings going on to do with the current war. Instead, he finds Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who is an ex-member of secret military organization developing alternative methods of fighting war using superpowers and peace. The two journey into the desert reminiscening about the "good ole days" and the secret mission they currently find themselves on.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a quirky, nonsensical tale. George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges all perform as one would think. They effortless become these overly-quirky characters so very unlike their uber-cool characters they have known to play. It is part of what makes them great actors. In addition, a lot of the jokes were really superb characterized by great dialog and equally, if not better timing.

Unfortunately, it just does not click. The movie is a plot that never goes anywhere. A greatest hits montage of this movie would probably be one of the best, but at feature length it struggles to find meaning and pacing. While Clooney, Bridges, and Spacey perform admirably, they are definitely on comfortable ground, taking steps back from greater performances they have already achieved. While Ewan McGregor who has proven himself a number of times calls in his performance as possibly one of the blandest characters to ever be put to celluloid.

4/10. I laughed a few times, but it mostly felt like an amateur filmmaker trying desperately to be like the Coen brothers.