I saw Up in the Air. I connected with Clooney's character a lot throughout the film so much so that I didn't give the movie much thought after my viewing. Sometimes when a character in a film speaks to facets of my inner dialogue so clearly, I have a tendency to take it for granted that viewpoints such as mine exist. It was only after listening to the podcast and hearing the diverse reactions of David, Devindra, and Adam that I was reminded the film warranted further examination.

I think it was borderline formulaic, meaning that Reitman accepts that most filmgoers have ideas about where movies should go where character arcs should end and, as Adam mentioned, uses this to his advantage to build up, meet or shatter our expectations. Until listening to everyone's various opinions, I didn’t find many scenes ambiguous. But I realized that this was because I was biased by my own perspective.

If I choose to instead step back and consider the myriad of interpretations for key scenes, I come to the conclusion that it’s no less ambiguous than life itself. Most movies exist in the form that they do usually in order to take the audience through a satisfying and noticeably transformative arc for our main character in a short time. Life is rarely like this. We make small steps of progress and often suffer setbacks. Clooney’s character is on the path to transformative change for most of the movie, realizing that he values human connection in his professional and personal life. Just as in real life, he is helped along his arc by someone he’s romantically involved with and, unfortunately just as in real life, he experiences the feeling of being deprived of a transformative change when he is abandoned on the other end.

So what are we left with? He didn’t get the girl, he didn’t assume the role of go-to patriarch, he will still feel the pressure of an oncoming generation that will eventually push him aside. But he stood up for his way of life and his principles when they were challenged, he went through the motions sometimes just to get by showing that he cares enough to fake it, he risked security for intimacy. He learned that he’s more complicated than he professed, a small change, just like life.

One character in the movie, when posed with the question of what they would do with so many frequent flyer miles, answers that they would just go to the airport, look at the departure board, choose a destination, and go. Is this what Bingham did at the end of the movie? It depends if you want there to be a satisfying transformative change. By previously upending our expectations, the film gives us the permission to take his small steps forward as all there is.

If you're interested in "The Misfits" you might also want to watch "No Heroics" another UK series (6 episodes - ITV). One way to describe it is how Watchmen would have been if Douglas Adams wrote it.

re: Sherlock Holmes

I agree with basically everything in your review of Sherlock Holmes, but I think your criticisms of the mysteries missed their mark. I've read almost the complete library of Holmes books and the vast majority of them play out their mysteries the same way as this movie. At the end of the story Holmes just points out a bunch of things that were completely unknown to the reader and solves the case, sometimes irrelevantly. The point of the Holmes stories is not the mystery, but the character of Holmes and his idiosyncrasies, and in that regard I feel like the movie captured that very very well.

Good episode fellas. Enjoyed Adam's It's Complicated thoughts very much.

I wish more of you had enjoyed Sherlock Holmes more. I thought it was a lot fun. And the literary version of Holmes did indeed enjoy himself some bare-knuckle boxing on occasion.

I wish everyone would give people in "middle america" more credit. I live in Nebraska, but I saw Up In The Air with my family, including my rom-com loving mom, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the film. I think the fact that it seems a little detached or open with its views means that you can read as much as you want into the film. My mom enjoyed the relationship between Clooney and Kendrick, and between Clooney and Farmiga. She might not have been as focused on the points about technology, but she still had a good time.

However, while I went to see Avatar, my parents watched and enjoyed the blind side. So maybe Up In The Air was just a fluke. But I agree with Adam, it was pretty accessible, even to my midwestern nuclear family.

Adam, lived your review of IT'S COMPLICATED. Had me chuckling at work.

Re UP IN THE AIR:

I saw the film this past weekend and I enjoyed it overall. However, I don't understand the gushing over it. Clooney is great and I think the first hour of the film is some great filmmaking, but once his sister's wedding comes around the film quickly loses steam and kind of meanders. Reitman's unwillingness to say anything drastically hurts the film. I'm all for making the audience figure things out on their own, but this can be done really successfully with some subtle filmmaking. There is none of that, in fact, Reitman comes off as a very distant director by the end of the film. The open-endedness of the film I think is another weak point because Reitman doesn't give you enough to really mull over. It's too detatched and I kind of felt like, "Well, if Reitman doesn't care, why should I?"

Just my two cents...

Adam, your pain is my delight; your mini-review of It's Complicated made me laugh out loud, as I eat my lunch at work. Sorry that you had to suffer, but for this review alone, the episode is an instant favorite.

You were dead on wiht your views on It' Complicated. I wanted to like a movie starring adults but it was just stupid and shallow.

No one really asked that so i guess i'll have to.. What the hell is happening to the "News" segment lately?

just noticed that too... maybe it was cut this week in lieu of the double review?

Up in the Air reminded me quite directly of Lost in Translation combined with Thank You For Smoking. Loved it.

re: Up In The Air. Reitman consistently undercuts the tension of his scenes and sequences. I do not imply that I was hoping for melodrama (which was the problem with the scene on the dock) and yes, certain scenes had clear conflict. But rarely did Reitman relish in that conflict or draw it out. Nobody in real life is as easily read as the characters in this unbelievable film.

Why, on the airplane, did Clooney not lower his voice after remarking over Kendrick's loud typing? Why, on the crowded bus, do they not lean in to each other while she grills him on personal subjects? Why would Bateman's character ever think Kendrick's revolutionary business model would ever hold up?

The filmmaking was generally stale and flat with exception in the beginning and wedding scene. And the music force fed every moment that it was present for. Without over stepping my bounds, the directing seems passive and indulgent.

My brother summed the tale thusly: It's like walking down a street and you look in the window of a really nice department store. You sigh and keep walking.

How is this so widely acclaimed?

Jesus christ, Reitman's Up In The Air gets nearly two times as much discussion time as Sherlock Holmes, and a feature on the afterdark? Am I the only person in the universe who was severely underwhelmed and disappointed by this film. I guess so.

I agree. I really wanted to like Up in the Air and in the end I was just really underwhelmed...and actually thought the end sucked.

And Jason Reitman seems like a great guy. Up in the Air wasn't bad but over the years it won't hold up, and definitely not worth the amount of hype it's getting.

Why is it so surprising that a better film gets more discussion? Sorry if you were underwhelmed, but there wasn't much else we could have gained from discussing Holmes.

There is really not much to say about Sherlock Holmes that you guys did not talk about. When we walked out of it we had nothing substantial to say about the film. With Up in the air we straight away started talking about how we felt about the characters and their actions and the themes of the film. I did feel however that the film was advocating against Ryan's lifestyle but now that i think about it again i agree that it might be less straightforward than I first thought. Great film, definitely worth the praise and the discussion...

As far as Avatar is concerned I think that when people are attacking the lack of a substantial story they are missing the point. Its not about figuring a compelling story but experiencing a very familiar story like you have never experienced it before. At least thats what I felt when I was watching, I was so overwhelmed by the experience that the logical part of my mind was shut off, now I still don't want to look the film in a judgmental way the same way that i don't want to judge my friends. I do look forward though to a more compelling story and character development with the sequels that will make it a true classic.

To be fair, you didn't even mention the major theme of the movie at all.

Downloading the 'cast to enjoy during work tomorrow. I'm sure it's great as always.

Enjoy your New Years, gentleman!