Up In The Air (2009, Jason Reitman)

I've been working my way through the Oscar nominees and finally got to Up In The Air, namely because it came out this past week on DVD/Blu-Ray. It is a very good film with some great performances. This is the kind of movie that is rarely made these days; the mid-level drama-with-jokes. It had elements of classic comedy scenarios; the romance, the business comedy, the misanthrope-who-needs-to-change comedy, set against the backdrop of the current jobless crisis. More filmmakers should be using current events as the backdrops for comedies. The reason this film had the most Oscar-nominated actors this year was because it had clearly defined characters that were each given character moments that helped drive the story, and weren't just shoehorned in for fireworks. Another reason films like this don't get made often; the ending. Bittersweet. Some things don't work out. And the things that do work out for Bingham; they are bittersweet. And that's what made this film rise in its quality to me: the ending.