UP IN THE AIR (and discussion with George Clooney after)

[OMG! This is turning into a movie review site! (Really, it’s just because it’s awards season.) Since people in other countries are reading my columns here, maybe I can join the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and vote on the Golden Globes! (Just kidding.)]

 

I saw Up In The Air (love the title, btw) last night at a screening of about 700 SAG members. (That fact is important for later.) After the movie, George Clooney, who’s the star of it, spoke, along with the director, Jason Reitman. So, this is also a review of the whole event. First up, this would be a great time for a refresher course in audience behavior.

AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR

As much as many people seem to think it is, sitting in an audience is not a solitary activity; it’s a group one. So why do so many people act like they’re the only ones there and make themselves at home?

The invitation clearly stated “NO RECORDING PERMITTED. VIOLATION OF THIS PROHIBITION IS SUBJECT TO CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITIES,” and everyone knows that rule for screenings without it being written. I can’t tell you how many people recorded the whole post-film discussion!!! Not just stills–actual filming. How rude. Not just to the event, but to the other audience members who were distracted by it.

Here are some other rudenesses I observed there: putting jackets and coats on the backs of seats, like in school. Theatre seats are cramped enough, without having to contend with bulky leather jackets hanging down on your legs.

Then there’s the heavy perfumes. Why do people think that others want to smell their particular fragrance all night? Even playbills state somewhere, albeit in small print in the back of the book, that perfume-wearing is frowned upon.

And the number of people who wear caps, have fuzzy-hair, or sport up-dos is amazing. Do they not realize that people sit behind them? All that’s okay if you sit in the last row, but few do. The selfishness of the general population has me in awe. When I was in the third grade, we actually had lessons on Audience Behavior and Appreciation. When I was a teacher, I taught that lesson myself…in kindergarten. Maybe we should send the masses back to school to get an education in this category. Now on to the film itself.

UP IN THE AIR

This is definitely an entertaining film. It’s mostly a comedy, with real-world drama mixed-in. I’ve heard some people say that they found it to be sad. I guess it could be interpreted as such, in a small way, but the overall impression is that you had a good time watching it.

I just didn’t buy some parts of it, including the last half hour or so. I don’t want to give specifics because I don’t like other reviewers to ruin films for me and I believe in “do unto others…” (“As they would do unto you,” is the rest of it, in case you’re not familiar with the Golden Rule, which I think most people aren’t nowadays, come to think of it. Shame.)

I will say that this is the first time I’ve ever found George Clooney to be attractive. (My beautiful friend, Lucia, thought the same thing! But we know we’re in the great minority.) I really hate to say this, but he was almost even attractive in a Cary Grant kind-of way. (I love Mr. Grant–that’s why I hate to favorably compare someone I never cared about to him.)

Really, this is the best George ever looked! He was thin and trim, his teeth have been fixed, and his off-screen charm came through on-screen.

The only sad part of the film, to me, is that he’ll probably win all the awards on popularity and charm over Colin Firth, who, in A Single Man, gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen!

GEORGE CLOONEY AND JASON REITMAN Q AND A

So, after the film, George Clooney, Jason Reitman, and Anna Kendrick took the stage for a discussion and audience Q and A. Anna was just a young girl with not much to say, except for the occasional showing-us-she-and-George-are-friendly silliness.

George was his usual charming, entertaining self and had several enlightening acting comments without being full of himself in that phony actor way that many of these post-screening speakers are.

Jason was outgoing, intelligent, and natural enough, and added much to the discourse. But a very interesting scenario arose. He was proudly boasting that, instead of actors, he had used many “real people,” as he put it, who had been fired in real life, as the firees in the film. This to a room full of actors!

One intrepid actress in the audience took her career in her hands and queried, “Don’t you feel a little funny to announce to a room full of mainly unemployed actors that you hired so many non-actors instead of us???” Lucia and I were shocked when she got only about 50% of the assemblage cheering for her. We figure that the rest of them want to be able to tell Reitman, should they ever read for him, that they supported him in this mini-confrontation. And BTW, the girl asked in it a non-accusatory manner; rather in a friendly elephant-in-the-room way.

Young Reitman didn’t have a good response, in my opinion. He said he wouldn’t have gotten the lines that these real-life firees came up with had he used actors. I was dying to chime in and ask if he didn’t know that half of us do improv and may have come up with something even better. Or that most of us have been fired in our lives, many even from acting jobs!!! We know the experience more than most!

And the funniest part is that the whole panel got quiet when the girl asked the question, and three of them turned to the other side of the room and asked for another question. But George Clooney, in an act that made me finally a fan, stopped them, saying, “Wait now–she deserves an answer.” Too bad she got a totally un-satisfying one.

Note: I actually know the brave girl, so if you’re an actor who wants to thank her, or a fair director who wants to hire her, just let me know and I’ll pass the info on. If you just want to fire her, better have George Clooney do it for you.