More Reactions to Up in the Air

Indiewire’s Anne Thompson:

Writer-director Jason Reitman (and obsessive airline mile collector) played the crowd like a pro, hoping that the movie would live up to their expectations. He didn’t need to worry. The director, who debuted Juno here two years ago at the same theater, delivers a winner.

And our friend in Telluride emailed to say that it’s a perfect role for Clooney. It should be mentioned, though, that one hopes the hype does not kill the movie. From what I’m reading, it is not Slumdog Millionaire – and it won’t be an across-the-board crowdpleaser. It sounds, despite some of the bloggasms, like a more thoughtful, agitated look on the world – more akin to Thank You for Smoking than Juno. I say this not to downplay the positive reaction, but to temper it with “this isn’t going to be Juno,” which, in the end, helps keep the hype in check.¬† Also, a bummer for me, and any movie in the Oscar run, is when the hype soars too high for the film to ever match it. That wasn’t the case for me with District 9, and eventually Inglourious Basterds. So perhaps it won’t be the case for this. It is always a problem, though, when early reactions to a film that hasn’t been released are done and done on the web — if we’re already at the top there is nowhere to go but down. Even when I’ve loved a film at a screening and come here to tell you all about it, I always prepare myself for the inevitable “it wasn’t that” reaction. We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, however, and it will be what it will be.