'Up' Staged

By Chase Kahn

"I've just seen the most eloquent, affecting and altogether best film of 2009...so far", says Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere. Get in line, because Jason Reitman's Up in the Air is sweeping the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals like a good-natured plague.

Imagine that scene inside the movie theater during Outbreak where we see the germs flying around the air -- then replace them with little fairies spreading magical pixie dust that enlightens and deeply persuades the viewer into feeling nothing less than an overbearing wave of movie ecstasy.

"But Up In The Air really has it all -- recognizable human-scale truth, clarity, smart comfort, the right degree of restraint (i.e., knowing how not to push it), and -- this got me more than anything else -- a penetrating, almost unnerving sense of quiet".

The film has really been on my radar ever since those various reports of gushy test screenings back in July. I would say at this point, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, Lone Sherfig's An Education and now Jason Reitman's Up in the Air are the three biggest year-end unshakeable powerhouses going right now -- your safe bets.

By the way, the George Clooney-vehicle is beginning a platform release on 11.13.09 followed by an expansion two weeks later and a wide release on 12.04.09 -- I think.