By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Amy Morton | Anna Kendrick | George Clooney | J.K. Simmons | Jason Bateman | Melanie Lynskey | Vera Farmiga
Country: united_states
Year: 2009
Running time: 108
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/
Thom says: “Reitman has done a few seriously lauded films including JUNO and THANK YOU FOR SMOKING. & yes I’m thrilled to see him using must-see Simmons once again, albeit, in a small role. For many reasons, I suppose, it’s hard for me to fully embrace a film where I’m not sympathetic towards at least one of the leads & as excellent as the film was, this is the case here. Like in Will Smith’s THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS where the superstar played a wannabe stock broker (surely one of the world’s worst professions because they have to spend their career lying like prostitutes & used-car salesmen) and in this film Clooney playing a man who flies around the country firing people for big companies. While Clooney is out-of-hand charming he nearly won me over but in the end I didn’t care what happened to him. Since the film veered off into personal relationships rather than a business expose I ended up apathetic in the outcome. Clooney, as the flying firer, Farmiga as his recent squeeze, and Anna Kendrick as his new assistant all do highly professional work, especially Kendrick who is exhilarating (no, she didn’t deserve an Oscar over Mo’Nique), and the beautiful camerawork helps as well. In each city Clooney flies to we see the city from the air which adds to the anonymity of the proceedings. Jason Bateman shows up as a cruel ogre, a change-of-pace for him. 4 cats”