"Up in the Air" Trailer Review

With such delights as suitcase surcharges, the barefoot security line scuffle, frequent delays, and insufficient leg room (unless, however, you happen to have the leg span of a primordial dwarf or an oompa-loompa), it is no wonder that many people find air travel to be incredibly irritating. Ryan Bingham, however, is not one of those people. As a very frequent flyer, Ryan (George Clooney) takes to sterile airport existence like a duck to water. From the creative mind of writer-director Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air" is the story of a man who makes a living out of stylishly firing people, but through his relationships with fellow frequent flyer, Alex (Vera Farmiga), and fresh-out-of-college, work colleague, Natalie (Anna Kendrick), he begins to realize that his predisposition for isolationism is not the most satisfying way to go through life.

“Up in the Air” is the third feature for the enormously talented Jason Reitman, who earned oodles of accolades for his first two films, “Thank You for Smoking” (2006) and “Juno” (2007). One of Reitman’s fortes as a writer is breathing hilarity into a casually pitched, insensible remark. The trailer does an excellent job of evidencing appropriate instances of this flair without stealing the thunder of the film’s more serious significance, which involves the growth and development of the central characters.

As an actor’s movie, the trailer’s main focus is to foster character understanding. Suitably so, the trailer doesn’t make use of any extraneous narration. Instead, it relies solely on quips and quotes that come straight from the characters’ mouths, especially Ryan’s - wise choice given the fact that you’d have to be off your rocker to choose the voice of “that announcer guy” over the do-me-now cadence of George Clooney. The trailer is very successful with respect to the dialogue and scene tidbits that it employs to create an empathetic tone for the film’s central relationships. It shows the uptight Natalie serving as a brilliant, comedic foil for Ryan, and it leaves the audience rapt and intrigued about the ensuing affairs between Ryan and Alex, two ultra sexy peas in a peripatetic pod.

As a film that is generating a lot of Oscar buzz, the trailer for “Up in the Air” serves it well. Setting the tone of a feel-good film with an edge, the trailer effectively communicates the film’s dual comedic and tragic nature through the traits and foibles of the characters without making the film seem contrived.

Chapter 4: North Park and the Russian Giant

The very next night, Stacey and I put our game faces on and hit up the bar scene in a new area of San Diego called North Park, which is delightfully Indie-chic. Converse sneakers and side-swept bangs flock to North Park the way droolosity and rock-hardness flock to Matthew McConaughey’s abs.

While out in NP, I met an uberly tall, string bean skinny, Russian, biochemist named Ilya. Over the next couple of weeks I went out with Ilya four times. Each of our outings was entertaining and I always had a reasonably good time. But the thing was, in spite of being a nice, sweet, decent human being - Ilya was a nice, sweet, decent human being…yawn, and I liked Marc more. Also, not to totally doggy paddle around in the shallow end of the pool, but Ilya was a bit on the eye spam-ish side and I couldn’t help cringing a little every time he went in for a lip lock.

Anyways, at the end of date numero four, Ilya was clearly looking for a carnal goody bag. Instead, however, he got to sit on the opposing end of my Salvation Army couch and work out celebrity crossword puzzles…sexy right? Ilya apparently didn’t think so. As he moved in for a make-out, I halted him with 4 across: 11 letter movie title starring Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart (Just Friends). He left shortly afterwards, never to be heard from again.

Oh well!

Chapter 3: Sailor Boy

So if you recall from previous posts, I had started a little, dating/whatever fling-thing with a Maine born, sailor boy named Marc around Halloween time. We hadn’t been dating for very long, however, before my little Gilligan decided to take a leave of absence from San Diego to return to his home in Maine for a couple of months of R&R.

Surprisingly enough, Marc and I kept up the communication while he was gone and made plans to continue hanging out once he returned to the west coast.

Initially, he told me he was due to make his grand Sandy Eggo reappearance at the end of January…

(…I hate admitting this, but in Marc‘s absence, I had sort of been holding off on dating other boys and was kind of waiting for him…strong emphasis on the “kind of.” I was obviously wide open to the idea of finding his replacement but I didn’t do a whole lot of active trolling. Plus, while he was gone, I totally romanticized the little rat because I am such a sucker for a love story where any form of pining is involved. Unrequited love stories are my favorite. So yeah, I was an eager beaver for Marc to return to San Diego so I could determine the ratio of truth to whimsical fantasy with my romarcticizations…)

But alas, he calls me one night in late January and informs me that it could be another month before he returns to San Diego. And then, when he finally does return, it might only be for 2 weeks.

…you can make that reality check out to Little Miss Pineshine for the amount of “It’s time to move on tout de suite.”

…

Chapter 2: Eddie's Place

But never fear. Soon after I flew the coop from the preschool, I landed a job hostessing/waitressing at a brand new restaurant called Eddie’s Place. The commute to Eddie’s is a kick ass 20 minutes, which totally blew my hour and a half long commute to the navy job to smithereens. Plus, the earliest shift doesn’t start until 10 am, so I can still squirrel away all of my precious z’s sans problemo. Plus plus Stacey also got a job working there, which makes the work much more entertaining.

During the dawn of my Eddie‘s Place career, aside from a few irritating kinks in the computer system, and a hand full of ‘tude-toting, queen-ish customers (Whatever happened to the fear of the booger-burger?), everything was peaches n’ cream. The work was pretty easy and the rest of the employees were a lot of fun to hang out with, especially the other hostesses, Veronica and Kayla.

The honeymoon phase didn’t last long, however. Eddie, who shall hereby be known as E.G.G. (evil, gay giant), turned out to be a little, money-grubbing whore. First, he cut our hours, then he laid off Veronica, then he took over the dinner shifts (the better tipping ones) by working them himself (bee tee dubs, Eddie gives the tip money he receives during his shifts to his cabana boy boyfriend as his “salary,” who he has playing Cinderella washing dishes because he also laid off the original dishwasher).

Plus, Eddie likes to berate the hostesses in front of customers and seems to think we all have the brains of bowls of oatmeal. Quote: “Michaela, when you run out of quarters, you can use dimes and nickels instead…because two dimes…plus a nickel…equals 25 cents!” Good to know E.G.G. And that’s coming from a guy who was born and raised in Philly, yet still managed to misspell Philadelphia, as in Philadelphia cheese steak, on all of the menus. Today’s soup is cream of dumb ass.

I still work there but I am hotly searching for new employment. Now, I just spend most of my time at Eddie’s Place fantasizing about cracking E.G.G. over his hard-boiled head with a frying pan. The guy is a millionaire! He had been retired for three years at the age of 45 and just got bored! And that’s why he decided to open a restaurant! Purely for ha ha’s!

Grrr…

Marathon Recap:

Ok. I need to do oodles of back tracking. So much has happened over the last couple of months! Gahh! So let the recapping begin!

Chapter 1: The Preschool

In the beginning of January, I was briefly employed as a Catholic preschool teacher. This job lasted for a whopping two whole days. Why only two days, you ask? Well, let’s just say, I wasn’t cut out to spend nine hours a day brandishing my power as an “authority figure” as I stifled the imagination of three year olds, all in the name of Cheese-And-Rice Superstar. Call me crazy, but I think three year olds should spend the bulk of their time playing games and making messes, not sitting silently while they complete work book exercises.

So yeah, that job bit the dust.

Buggy buggy

In Hollywood, you’ve got show-stopping performances and eye-popping beauties. But what about those Hollywood beauties whose eyes just pop? Some celebrities are recognized by their plunger lips, or by their adorable pair of dimples, while others are distinguished by their bulging peepers. The bug-eye feature is very hit or miss, however. On one hand, bug-eyes have the ability to create unconventional gorgeosity in a person, but on the other hand, they are also capable of making good faces go Muppet.

Christina Ricci falls into the former category of bug-eyed celebrities. Her sizeable peepers are reminiscent of the large, doe-eyes of Disney Princesses like Snow White and Ariel, and they only enhance her level of attractiveness. Fittingly, Christina made her acting debut in the film “Mermaids” starring opposite Cher and Winona Ryder. Since then, Christina and her Bratz doll eyes have been featured in over 30 films, including “Speed Racer,” “The Opposite of Sex,” and of course, “The Addams Family,” in which her giant peepers traded in their doe-eyed sparkle for dreary stoicism as the all together ooky Wednesday Addams.

While you’ve got the unconventional eye-candy variety of bug-eyed celebs, whose breed also incorporates actors like Mena Suvari, Jonathan Rhys Myers, and Bette Davis (the original bug-eyed belle), you’ve also got the eye-spam strain of super-sized peepers. These bug-eyed chaps are often typecast as creepy, or crazed characters - think Steve Buscemi, one of the most talented American independent film actors, who nearly always plays either a neurotic, snarky loser or a sleazy, weasel-like scumbag as in “Reservoir Dogs” and “Fargo.” Then you’ve got Christopher Walken, a versatile actor who continuously creeps out audiences with his googly eyes and off-kilter deliveries in films such as “Sleepy Hollow,” “The Deer Hunter,” and “Batman Returns.” While it’s true that Steve Buscemi and Christopher Walken may look a bit like deranged Muppets, and you may not see them in leading roles all too often, but over the course of their prolific careers, these two actors have brought to life a slew of unforgettable supporting characters, who frequently steal the show.

And then, last but certainly not least, there is Marty Feldman, who puts all of the aforementioned eye-popping celebrities to shame with his epic set of protruding peepers. Marty is a London born comedian who began his career as a comedy writer for British television shows, including several Monty Python sketches. Marty made his American television debut in the late 60’s appearing on “The Dean Martin Show” and “Dean Martin Presents the Gold Diggers.” His popularity with American audiences soared, and in 1970 he was given the chance to star in his own television series called “The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine.” In 1974, Marty and his bug-eyes, which were the result of a thyroid condition known as Graves’ disease, landed the role that they were born to play, that of Igor (Eye-gore) in Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein.” In the film, many of Marty’s lines were improvised, so when Gene Wilder’s character exclaims “Damn your eyes!” it was only natural for Marty to look into the camera and say with a puckish grin, “Too late!”

Unexpected Celebrity Career Changes

In the celebrity world, career dabbling is a relatively common occurrence. Once a person has risen to celebrity status, they have easy access to the necessary resources, such as agents, publicists, and various other in-the-biz connections, which will allow them to change careers almost as often as they change their bed sheets - think celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Hillary Duff who oscillate between being actresses and singers. Career changes like these are especially made possible in today’s celebrity world thanks to contraptions like auto-tune, which has lead to the replacement of talent and skill with marketability as the key component in determining the level of success with a celebrity career switcharoo. Most marketable celebrities are able to make relatively seamless career transitions. Yet, there are definitely those select few…ahem cough cough David Hasselhoff and his musical stylings…who are either down right mocktastic, or beg the question, “What the hell were they smoking?”

Both are the case with two-time Academy Award nominated Joaquin Phoenix’s decision to abandon his acting career in favor of morphing into a snappily dressed, rapping grizzly bear. There is a lot of speculation surrounding Mr. Phoenix’s anomalous profession transition, however. When Joaquin first announced that he was going to scrap acting for hip-hop, most people drew the same conclusion: the boy is chock full-o-nuts, mm hmm. Yet after a recent Las Vegas performance where Joaquin dazzled the masses as he spit and sputtered robotic rhymes from three songs from his upcoming album (not to mention the grand finale when he fell off the stage, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that hip-hop is in fact Joaquin’s true life calling), it seems much more likely that Mr. Phoenix is pulling an elaborate Andy Kaufman-esque hoax with the help of his brother-in-law, Casey Affleck. According Entertainment Weekly, Joaquin reportedly told a source, “It's a put-on. I'm going to pretend to have a meltdown and change careers, and Casey is going to film it.” Apparently, Joaquin’s motivations behind this alleged career swap are both to satirize pretentious actors and to prank the paparazzi. At any rate, whether Joaquin’s rapping grizzly bear persona is for real or all for the sake of a Phoenix/Affleck mockumentary, either way it’s pretty entertaining.

Now, while Joaquin Phoenix’s outlandish career change may be a giant sized practical joke, other celebrities like Kevin Federline are very serious about their latest vocation endeavors. K-Fed, everyone’s favorite former backup dancer/second rate rapper, is stepping up to the profession plate for a third time. Kevin is looking to redeem himself for his first two career strike outs with a hit as a children’s clothing designer. That’s right folks, the former Mr. Britney Spears is going into the tiny tot costume business. Kevin’s design plan hasn’t been set in stone yet, but according to the MTV Newsroom, Kevin has been chatting up fashion executive Gerard Guez about the launch of his proposed line of children’s clothing, which he aims to make affordable yet stylish. So what can we expect from the man whose debut album pales in comparison to even that of David Hasselhoff’s? Probably something along the lines of a Baby Gap stocked with an array of tiny wife beaters, baggy baby jeans, and heavy gold chains…perfect for teething.

Another celebrity to take a stab at an unlikely, vocational alteration is Kevin Costner, who recently expanded his field of dreams to include lead singer of the country-rock band, Modern West. According to People Magazine, Kevin has been playing music with some of his Modern West band mates for close to twenty years, but it wasn’t until this past November that the group released their first album, which features twelve songs, six of which were co-written by Mr. Costner. “I remember looking out into the crowd, thinking, ‘This just feels right.’” Kevin previously said about performing at an early Modern West show. Hey, the man’s career didn’t completely pull a Titanic after Waterworld and The Postman, so who knows, maybe Mr. Dances...err Sings with Wolves will be the next Garth Brooks.

Celebrity career changes are fairly common and some certainly work better than others. To conclude, here is a list of some of the more unexpected career alterations:

Kate Moss - actress (apparently she does have a voice)

Steven Seagal - singer with his gem of an album “Songs from the Crystal Cave”

Lance Bass - astronaut (N’Sync’s Space Cowboy must have really struck a chord)

Clint Eastwood - singer (Dirty Harry cut a pair of singles and a long playing record called “Rawhide’s Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites” in the 60’s)

And of course the perennial favorite of career chameleons, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former body builder/actor turned governor of California.