COOLSHITE – Up In The Air

Up In The Air – Movie Review [for CoolShite On The Tube]

• Dir: Jason Reitman
• Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman

Adapted from a novel by Walter Kim (who also wrote the novel Thumbsucker), Up In The Air could easily be another charming rom-com starring Clooney, but in the hands of Jason Reitman, audiences are in for more than they bargained for – and odds are they will be grateful.

Jason Reitman is a director that should be on everybody’s watch-list by now – he’s got a satirical style that is gentler (but no less sharp) than the Coen Brothers and a knack for dialogue and writers that has produced some of the best mainstream/fringe films of the last decade. With Up In The Air, Reitman blends the rom-com genre with a non-preachy interpretation of the human impact of the GFC.

Reminding us that one of the supposedly great things about America is that there’s always money to be made, Up In The Air follows the travels of Ryan Bingham, a redundancy consultant hired by firms who need to cut staff but are unwilling to deal with the soon-to-be-unemployed.  Unsurprisingly, business is good – Bingham flies around the country constantly, confidently removing the incomes and security of untold lives while chasing his real prize – frequent flyer miles.

Bingham’s whole life is in transit; he even lectures on the empowerment of a life with no attachments, family or possessions – unaware that he is in fact burdened with arbitrary goals and his love of high status, insincere uniformity. When he meets the beautiful and equally self-assured Alex Goran (Farmiga) in a transit lounge, he believes he has found a fellow traveler in his no-holds-barred/no-strings-attached lifestyle.

However, this lifestyle is threatened by the introduction of ambitious graduate Natalie Keener (Kendrick), who plans to digitally revolutionise the redundancy industry, and reduce overheads by removing the face-to-face component – and thus, Bingham’s jet-setting lifestyle.

Clooney isn’t exactly stretching himself with this one; once again he’s a confident, charming, emotionally distant sexual predator of ruthless efficiency both on the job and ‘on the job’… but in the role of Ryan Bingham, a status-obsessed high-flying ‘transitioning consultant’, this stereotype is removed from the gaming halls of Las Vegas and rubs caustically against the lives of real people in a time of economic decline.

Reitman takes this premise a step further than one might expect by splicing interviews with real people who have been ‘let go’ among set pieces from character actors (including the always awesome J.K Simmons) in montages of redundancy interviews used to establish Bingham’s role – interestingly, Clooney doesn’t even appear in some of these interviews, which heightens the sense of distance that is central to Bingham’s success.

Apart from the clever commentary, this film is also superbly lifted above the usual rom-com fare by a strong supporting cast of women in strong roles – Farmiga is to be roundly applauded for bringing  35+ strength and sexiness back to the screen, easily holding her own against Clooney’s indisputable charisma.

Beyond that, the women in this film demonstrate quite clearly the value in the life choices that Bingham believes is beneath him; the dignity of his grounded homemaker sister Kara (Amy Morton), the naive faith and warmth of younger sister Julie (Melanie Lynskey) and the bravado and bluff romantic nature of young careerist Natalie.

All told, Up In The Air will bring Reitman a broader audience, thanks to the Clooney-factor, but it is easy to sense that this is just the latest installment in a growing body of work that appears to seamlessly blend familiar forms and genres with the issues and idiosyncracies of our times.

IN CONVERSATION WITH… An-Un-Australian

“That’s Un-Australian,” you hear it all the time
But it bothers me our nationhood is so often defined
By the things that it is not
Instead of all the traits we’ve got…

Is it standing by your mate
When he’s in a fight
That he started with no provocation
With a brown man looking for an Aussie education…

Or just Vegemite
Which is owned by a US corporation
That went messing with our icon
For the iPod generation

And to sell more cheese (or cheese based products)

Once a livestock thief
Took shelter by a dirty creek
And killed himself when the police arrived…

Yes, we like to break the law
And never be accountable
We might say ’sorry’, but it might take some time…

You might think my national pride
Is lacking in a way you can easily define

But when you call me Un-Australian
What you are really saying
Is that it’s Un-Australian
To aspire…

To a country where our dignity
Is inclusive and guaranteed
I won’t mind, I’ll be the first to fly the flag
When it is that time
I take responsibility
For working toward that reality
That’s what I’d like to leave behind…

For anyone who has been following my Sea Shepherd rants…

Please have a look at the work done by the ever reliable observer, The Paris Site

Quick update – RAW COMEDY

Last night, Bonnie Davies and I progressed through our West Australian heat for RAW COMEDY, so in 5-6 weeks it will be time for the semi-finals.

Thanks to everyone who came to show their support and for everyone who has since sent thankyou messages.

In particular, thanks to Ms Pemberton, Ms Scott-Norman and Ms Berger for their support and pushing me to get up onstage and have a crack at it, and to Mr Montague for taking the time to advise me on how to do it better.

Onwards and (trending) upwards.

Raw Comedy 2010

IN CONVERSATION WITH… The Mad Monk #SPILL

OK… The plan is that I’m back in the saddle with the satirical musical comedy again. And for this, we have the internal machinations of the Liberal Party to thank.

So if you don’t like it, blame Abbott. Or Enigma. Or Anakin.

Right Click to Download

I’m the mad monk Abbott, the Liberal hat produced a rabbit,
I’m a real Rhodes Scholar, an attack dog off the collar
I don’t take no Turnbull,  I lead the Liberals
A man without a plan but I’m conservative and cool

My opponents say that I’m deranged, I don’t believe in climate change
I’m not an economic juggler, check out my new budgie smugglers
Forget about Hockey; I rode him like a jockey
The new campaign is more of the same

Seize the Opus Dei (don’t beat yourself up)
Seize the Opus Dei

I’m licenced to spill as the new Liberal
You know I’m pro-life but I’m going to kill K-Rudd
At the election, it’s natural selection
God forgive me; that sounds like Darwinism!

Seize the Opus Dei (don’t beat yourself up)
Seize the Opus Dei

Not all of my colleagues believe in resurrection
But those of them that do are on the front bench
I’m a man on a mission with my mate Nick Minchin
And Bishop and Bishop are my main two bitches

The Nats can rejoice they’ve got Barnaby Joyce
And Phillip Ruddock is in charge of Immigration choices
Seize the Opus Dei
Seize the Opus Dei…

In Conversation With… Capitalism

First published in X-Press Magazine

Alternate promo poster for Capitalism: A Love Story

CAPITALISM: A Love Story
Directed by Michael Moore
Starring: You, Me… Everybody, Everybody.

Few people could say there’s no need for a hard-hitting documentary providing insight into the people, institutions and circumstances that combined in what is now known as the GFC.  Capitalism: A Love Story has already grossed over US$13.6M at the box office, and that doco still needs to be made.

It’s been said before, but in light of the latest promotional chutzpah Moore has been spraying through Australian media channels in the last week, perhaps once more is appropriate; Michael Moore is the Johnny Knoxville of socialist (or humanist) film-making.

Moore has said he ‘tricked’ his studio backers by saying he was making a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11, then using their  money to make his story on the GFC.  Well, it wasn’t much of a trick – Moore’s shockumentary tactics are now so well-established that future films may well use roman numerals for titles.

Importantly, given that the GFC has been the subject of more media scrutiny, financial analysis, vox pops, international policy etc – than any other event or phenomenon since 9/11, the truth is that there is very little or new or surprising in Capitalism… it’s Michael Moore weighing in with his two cents.

As a documentary film, Capitalism isn’t exactly a taut, well-executed  argument. There are sympathetic vignettes about the real struggles faced by various communities; inspirational stories of solidarity; alternate business models that empower all participants – but nothing much that hangs them together other than Moore himself.

The first half of the film is designed to connect with audiences the important idea that the economy is not an abstract entity, but the sum of the endeavour of the majority, under the control of a select few.  The failure of the system – incrementally, over decades – has a social cost, and Moore succeeds in putting ‘human faces’ to the flood of red numbers on Wall St stock tickers.

The second half of the film is, in theory, Moore’s attempt to explain the global financial crisis, and some of the self-interested parties that either (a) caused it and/or (b) found a way to profit at the public’s expense from the collapse of the free market – or ‘life as we know it’, if you’re one of those evil Republicans or their Wall St cronies/overlords (depending on how you look at it).

Moore’s attempt to explain the sub-prime market is no attempt at all — just a pretext to rail against the complexity of a scam that has been perpetrated on the American people (and countries like Australia that invest in their financial instruments and institutions) – incidentally, there’s an interesting take on it that most people can understand here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsA9lR2XB3A.

Moore requires the bad guys to be bad, so he can be the white knight storming the gates. He names names, points the finger and then films himself being refused entry to a number of buildings. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Where Moore does succeed,  is in his look back on recent US history – in reminding the audience of Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ and the proposed Second Bill of Rights, of the importance of the collective will to improve life for all – in short, the promise which America made to itself, and then sold… and then hope, again, with Obama.

In Michael Moore’s latest film, we learn ‘Greed is Bad’, OK? Sure Oliver Stone made the phrase ‘Greed is good’ famous 21 years ago in Wall Street, but apparently the ironic overtones were lost on some people and now we all have to pay.

There’s a saying that goes like this: In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

In the world of American film-making, it is all too easy to imagine Michael Moore and Oliver Stone beating each other to death over who gets to have the eye. Come to think of it, that would make for pretty entertaining television. Perhaps Simon Cowell can get on that.

But until that happy day, we will get to live in a world where certain American film-makers feel that it is their duty to explain America to itself, knowing that a significant percentage of the ticket and DVD sales will come from other territories eager to hate the U.S. a little more for being… well… so gosh-darn arrogant and smug about everything, despite aggravated terrorism and a few armed conflicts around the world.

Well screw that. That is a job for film reviewers.

Interview with the writers of Mao’s Last Dancer

I recently had the privilege of speaking to Li Cunxin, writer of Mao’s Last Dancer and Jan Sardi, the Australian screenwriter who adapted it for the screen.

It was the kind of interview that you need to have once in a while, to remind you why you do what you do.

The interview was conducted on behalf of (Cool) Shite on the Tube, courtesy of the very good folk who represent Roadshow in WA.

This is a great, primarily Australian production (directed by Bruce Beresford, produced by Jane Scott and written by Sardi) that places Australia’s artistic and technical talent as the foundation of a compellingly told international story.

Please visit (Cool) Shite on the Tube to download the podcast.

Mao's Last Dancer

What the hell have I been doing?

Getting my head straight…feeling my way through a few projects I have delayed for far too long…

And distracting myself with an incidental project called “The Bumper Sticker Graveyard”, in which creative concepts are rejected by imaginary clients.

Rejected by the Hitchcock Appreciation Society because if you look closely, I've used an 'open single quote' instead of an apostrophe.

Rejected by Telstra because... well... because they don't like anyone else's ideas.

Rejected by the Societe Philosophy for being too 'racy'.

Lots of other stuff on the go, but not necessarily in keeping with the gravitas you’ve come to expect from In Conversation With… do stay tuned… an interview with the screenwriter (Jan Sardi) and the subject (Li Cunxin) of Mao’s Last Dancer will be coming soon!

Also, a review of Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It — a roller-derby hero’s journey/coming of age flick starring Ellen Page (Juno).

I’m keeping a diary of happy thoughts…

But not here.

Gosh, it’s quiet in here.

A thought for the weekend on public planning…

An interesting piece of information came my way recently:

The (deceased) American poet Joyce Kilmer is most famous for the following lines:

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree
Poems are made by fools like me
But only God can make a tree

A memorial to Joyce Kilmer was erected in a park in Allegheny County in Pennsylvania featuring these lines.

In the early 80s, the Allegheny County Commission ordered two thirds of the trees in the park cut down because “the tree-line obscured views to the memorial and prevented visitors from reading the famous lines”.

Brilliant.