Letters to the Earth

I just watched "Something Left, Something Taken," a piece of short animation.  Click here to see it yourself.  This is a ten minute comedy, somewhat dark, about a couple on vacation who take a ride from the airport that may be going where they don't want to go.  It is written and designed by Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata.  The film is set in San Francisco, so I had to watch!  I still miss that city, as well as Berkeley (but not Oakland).

Roger Ebert recommended it on his Ebert Club Newsletter.  The newsletter is for paying members only, though it's a mere ten dollars per year.  I'm reposting the video because it had options to do so, and it's not proprietary to the club letter, which assembles links and footage of interesting previews, shows, shorts, and old movies.   I really enjoyed this video.  People who watch crime scene investigation shows like Bones or the CSI series may find an additional chuckle here.

"Up in the Air", starring George Clooney, is the parable of a man who builds walls around him and who divests himself of anything he can't conveniently fit in a backpack or piece of luggage, like relationships.  The question the movie asks is whether he'll change and if he can, and what his choices teach the rest of us.  Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham, works for a company whose sole purpose is to be hired by other businesses to go around and fire people, because the owners of said businesses don't have the guts to do it. I assume the company is entirely made-up, because I hope there are no real-life services like that. You might find it traumatic or prophetic, depending on how you feel about the economy, and whether you're in danger of being laid off (or actually have been).  The screenplay is based on a book by Walter Kirn.  Many or most of the actors who are fired are people who had actually been laid off in real life, and who answered a casting call for a documentary.  They could either respond to the firing procedure as they actually did, or as they wished they had done.

The axe-men company temporarily grounds its employees under a new business model of firing through online real-time video chat. You put a laptop with Skype (or whatever) in the other company's office, and the axe-men company will fire them long-distance. Bingham says that this lacks humanity and the personal touch, and so is given a few weeks of travel back on the road to compare his approach with that of the inventor of the online method.  One of my friends said Clooney is a bloodless actor, but I disagree.  He gives a good performance in "Up in the Air" as a man who has built an emotional wall around himself, free of most relationships other than the very casual. The breaking and cracking of his fortress, however, and whether or not he rebuilds it, is what is so interesting about the movie. It's a story about modern human relationships more than anything else.

Clooney also comes across as a suave lady's man. The women here are devastating in their roles, though, and quite strong characters.  When he meets someone (Alex, played by Vera Farmiga) who describes herself as a counterpart of him, only with a vagina, the romantic interaction becomes fascinating.  The other, non-romantic, foil for Clooney is the younger woman, Natalie Keener as played by Anna Kendrick, who wants to fire people online.  She wants to be the new version of Ryan Bingham, only she has second thoughts over the course of the movie.

"Up in the Air" isn't quite a drama, satire, or comedy, though it partakes of all of those.  I highly recommend it.