Directed by Jason Reitman
(R)
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A corporate hit man gets a lesson in life.
Up in the Air arrives right on time, said Leah Rozen in People. Director Jason Reitman’s new film, about a man (George Clooney) who flies around the country firing people, “thrums with zeitgeist zing.” While Clooney is “as good as he’s ever been” as a smooth bearer of bad news, the film’s remarkable immediacy comes from scenes featuring actual people from the ranks of the newly unemployed. Reitman contrasts his film’s humorous portions with a “pungent and affecting series of vignettes” about real people who’ve lost real jobs, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. Their stories capture the fear and anxieties of the moment, but also validate the director’s “expansive view of comedy.” Reitman, who also directed Juno and Thank You for Smoking, “goes for life, not just for laughs.” His film is “everything that Hollywood has forgotten how to do,” said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. The dialogue is smart, the characters genuine and surprising, and the subject matter marvelously in sync with the times. Up in the Air is a “rare and sparkling gem of a movie.”
-
Political cartoons for October 26Cartoons Sunday’s editorial cartoons include Young Republicans group chat, Louvre robbery, and more
-
Why Britain is struggling to stop the ransomware cyberattacksThe Explainer New business models have greatly lowered barriers to entry for criminal hackers
-
Greene’s rebellion: a Maga hardliner turns against TrumpIn the Spotlight The Georgia congresswoman’s independent streak has ‘not gone unnoticed’ by the president
