Up In the Air (2009)

Walter Kern, author of the novel Up in The Air described his inspiration for the unusual book in an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. “I was flying and received a rare upgrade to first class and began a conversation with a businessman. I asked him where he was from and he answered quizzically, “I am from here”. Kern found himself fascinated by the prospect of trying to picture the life of a man who flies 322 days and up to 350,000 miles a year. The result of Kern’s musings was the 2006 novel, which also struck the fascination of father and son movie team Ivan and Jason Reitman. Jason, the younger Reitman, was the director of Juno, the surprise indie hit of 2007. He took the novel and ran with it. No doubt he ran directly toward the Hollywood establishment, but his fresh and quirky sensibility enlivens the film as it had Juno.

Ryan Bingham played by George Clooney, has his flying routine down pat. He travels light and with maximum efficiency. His metaphorical backpack is never burdened with unnecessary material objects or emotional baggage. He does not get attached. His smug smile is sincere and endearing, he knows exactly who he is and likes himself just fine. He desires neither entangling relationships nor family, and his only goal besides material success is some magical number of flying miles he is unwilling to reveal. Oh yes, his job is to fly from city to city, company to company, to tell people they have been fired-in the most impersonal, legal, and professional terms possible. He is very good at it. You could call him a model hatchet man in the era of the Great Recession.

Few could make such a man likeable but George Clooney as Bingham seems to carry the burden of his job with such ease and charm, he succeeds. When he meets Alex Goran, played by Vera Farmiga, an attractive, mature female frequent flyer in a hotel bar, the banter is so quick and witty it could pass for foreplay. They are both so good at this type of encounter its climax is a forgone conclusion. A scene where they sit across from one another, laptop to laptop, fingers flying to book the next tryst into their busy schedules, and finish in a dead heat is an instant classic. Only the unpredictable can disturb the smooth superficiality of the life-style, and of course it happens.

The satirical elements of the movie are obvious but its redeeming merit to me was the scenes of interaction between the hitman and the freshly fired. The reactions of everyday people who have devoted their years and careers to their company only to meet this sudden end puts a human face on the human toll of economic downturns. This pathos is uncomfortably real and makes the movie an entertaining reflection of its times.





Up in the Air: Directed by Jason Reitman. Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner. Starring George Clooney, Jason Bateman, Vera Farmiga, Karen Keener.

The Cold War Era: The Beginning

WWII proved to be the most devastating and disastrous war in human history. The military casualties were high, but there were a staggering number of civilian casualties. By 1943, Nazi Germany had 300 concentration camps and the Germans had begun the process of mass extermination known as the “final solution”. The Holocaust took over twelve million lives. The vast majority of these were innocent civilians who committed such crimes as being Jewish, Gypsy, disabled, mentally or physically ill, a political dissident, a religious protester or just an undesirable. Jews made up half of the total and were almost eliminated from the European population. Poland, for instance saw a Jewish population of 2.7 million Jews before the war reduced to less than sixty thousand. Victims were men, women, and children who were first herded into ghettoes and then systematically shipped by railroads to the numerous death camps. The toll was not known until the end of the war when the camps were liberated. All this happened in a country whose military had the highest literacy rate in the world.

Americans were shocked by the horrors of the war and eager to put it behind them as the war ended in 1945. When news of what the death camp liberators found became public knowledge, Americans felt justified for their participation in the “good war”. However, no sooner was the war over than a new chill spread over American society in the form of the “Cold War”. The Cold War was an ideological rivalry that pitted the US and its allies against the USSR or Soviet Union. The unique facet of this war was the reality of nuclear weapons. The atomic bomb had ended WWII and became the most decisive weapon in the Cold War, although it was never used again after Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The Russians developed and tested their own bomb in 1949, the same year that Mao Tse Tung’s communist army finally succeeded in ending China’s long civil war victoriously. At this point, two thirds of the world’s population lived under communism. Many Americans believed they had much to fear, and that fear became a large part of the Cold War era.

The turn around that US foreign policy made after WWII from the previous war could not have been more dramatic. It was highlighted by a speech made by President Harry Truman in 1947 to a joint session of congress asking for 400 million dollars for military aid to Greece and Turkey. In it, Truman pledged to support nations whose liberty was threatened by totalitarian aggression for the sake of “free peoples anywhere in the world”. The speech became known as the Truman Doctrine. Combined with George Kennan’s Containment policy, the belief that communism would spread if not systematically met and contained, it validated a series of interventions and covert operations to destabilize communist countries and left-leaning governments around the world for the next 40 years. The controversial Marshall Plan for financial aid to Europe was intended to thwart communism which was thought to spread wherever material deprivation and social injustice was prevalent. The plan proved successful as an economic recovery seeded by the $17 billion in aid revived businesses in Western European, which also led to profits at home for Americans. However, by that time the Soviet Union and the US and its western allies consolidated their power within their spheres of influence in Germany. Although a joint occupation of Berlin had been agreed upon, the city lay well within the Soviet zone. Russian leader Joseph Stalin blockaded the western entrance to Berlin. Truman responded by organizing a massive airlift of food and other supplies to sustain West Berliners. After a year of blockade and approaching the brink of war Stalin gave up the blockade. The Berlin Wall was built separating East and West Berlin and became a permanent fixture symbolizing the antagonism between the two superpowers and ideological enemies for the next 42 years.

World War II and US Intervention

The Treaty of Versailles (1919) left the global powers that had participated in the Great War with a structural imbalance that would prove fatal to the cause of lasting peace. The withdrawal of Russia during the war, and the unwillingness of the US to sign the treaty afterwards left a precarious balance in Europe. Great Britain and France, victors in the war, and Germany the main defeated power, had to determine a relationship going forward absent the involvement of the Unites States and Russia. President Wilson had emphasized the need for international cooperation and peaceful adjudication of grievances through the auspices of the new League of Nations. However, both France and England opted for a punitive treatment of Germany. The Germans were bitter in defeat and felt they had been betrayed in the war and the treaty negotiations. They viewed as insult and injury the $50 billion dollars in war reparations that were imposed on them. Considering the difficulty that the western democracies had in winning the war, and the fact that France and England no longer had the US or the USSR available to them, the course they took proved shortsighted and doomed a lasting peace to failure.

The bitterness, frustration and instability of Germany was apparent. Representative government was thrust upon the Germans by the allies and it was fragile at best. The Weimar Republic had to contend with armed paramilitary extremists from left and right from the outset. After the failure of an attempted coup by the communist in1919 known as the Spartacus Revolt, the Hitler led Nazi Party also attempted to topple the republic. In 1923, a poorly planned and executed coup attempt by the Nazis was suppressed and Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison. He ended up serving a total of six months of house arrest in a villa owned by a powerful industrialist. He used the down time to write his plan for Germany’s future, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In it he described in detail the whole sordid saga that became Germany’s future from 1933-1945. At the time, few paid attention. A decade later the rambling memoir became required reading while the German classics, from Faust to Kant to Goethe were being burned by the Nazi Party.

The US danced through the Twenties until the stock market crashed in 1929. Americans, disillusioned by the failure to “make the world safe for democracy”, as Wilson had promised, wanted no part of political engagement with Europe. Trade and investment were the focus of business minded America as far as Europe was concerned. International finances were less understood then than they are today, and they were a mess. Great Britain and France attempted to hold Germany to the huge reparation payments they were forced to make to the allies for war guilt. The US was insisting on payment for material shipped to France and Great Britain during the war. America had come out of the war a $10 billion dollar creditor. The allies asked for forgiveness of the debt but the government refused. Meanwhile Germany was seeking loans for US investment banks in order to make reparation payments. Credit was holding up the circular flow of money and Europeans were having a hard time rebuilding their damaged economies. US corporations were selling goods to Europe and invoked the aid of Congress to erect tariff barriers. Europe was being squeezed dry of the small amounts of capital it had. American business was in for a huge shock and the shock began in October 1929.

The economic depression that began with the US stock market crash in 1929 had far-reaching political implications as it spread around the world. In Germany, the Nazi Party had 100,000 members in 1929. However, after three years of a worsening economy that saw unemployment reach 40%, three million Germans voted for the Nazi party in the elections of 1932. What had eluded Hitler and the Nazis by violence came to them through the chaos that had become the parliamentary process in Germany by then. The 85 year old President Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany. The Nazis rose to power by manipulating the republic that they despised and had tried to overthrow. In 1933 a mysterious fire burned down the Reichstag and Hitler declared martial law. The first concentration camps were under construction by the end of that year.

The years 1933-39 could well be called the Lost Opportunity to stop Germany’s aggression under Hitler, leading to WWII. His violations of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles began with the rearming of Germany. When this met with no response he took the next step up of resigning Germany from the League of Nations. Again, receiving rebuke but no measures from the League he began occupying the Rhineland a DMZ (demilitarized zone) 1936. In the same year he formed an alliance with Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy, and Japan also joined the Axis powers. Each time the leaders of the west objected, Hitler assured them of his interest in peace and they acquiesced. This pattern continued with the invasion of Austria, forcibly joining it to the German nation, and finally the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, a treaty member of the League of Nations. By 1938 the Wermacht, the German war machine was almost fully operational. Hitler signed a treaty with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that allowed England’s leader to go home declaring “peace in our time” had been achieved. But nine months later Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939. The ostrich that was the west finally had to take its head out of the sand and WWII began.

The US government and its citizens watched the proceedings in Europe and once again remained firmly committed to neutrality. Once again, the US began material help to the allies through the Lend Lease program. Roosevelt knew that the US would need to get into the war but the determined objection of the American people stood in the way. In 1940, with France defeated and Hitler posing for pictures under the Arc de Triumph, a survey of the American people found that 90% still wanted to remain neutral. Although preparations for war had begun, Roosevelt’s hands were tied until the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is said that when Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of embattled England heard news of that attack he danced a jig. Finally, the Americans were in the war.

A Serious Man (2009)

Larry Gopnick is a schmendrick. He is also a serious man trying to keep his life from spinning out of control. Problem is, one smack upside the head follows another and Larry turns one way and then the other but never quite sees where the last one nor the next one is coming from. A schmendrick. I can identify, a therapist once called me that. What clinches my ability to identify is Larry’s pre Bar Mitzvah pot-sucking son who gets chased home every afternoon after religious school. For me it wasn’t Fagelman trying to collect the $20 I owed him for buds that made me run. It was big, blonde, bue-eyed Mitchell Mason who did it just for fun, and of course because I was obviously Jewish. My guess is for the Coen brothers this stuff also passes for nostalgia. This is a warm-hearted paean to middleclass life lived by typical Jews in the 1967 Midwest, with a lot of accompanying mishegass.

Not that it lacks the characteristic dread and suspense that the brothers are so good at conjuring up. The first scene takes care of that. Some primordial village dwelling predecessor of the Gopnick family encounters what the wife swears is a ghost in the woods. The hapless husband invites the ghost in, he thinks the revered rabbi is alive, she disproves it by sticking an ice pick in the rabbi’s chest. Unfortunately for the couple, eventually he bleeds. What does this scene have to do with the movie? Who knows, it’s the Coen brothers.

Poor Larry, a Physics professor seeking tenure at a Midwestern university, he is beset on all sides. His wife is furious with him for not knowing why she is furious. She takes it out on him by having an affair with Sy Abelman, an unattractive pompous ass. His unemployable eccentric brother lives with them, and his teenage children ignore him except when they need money. One of the members of his tenure committee is receiving anonymous letters accusing Larry of improprieties with coeds. Larry is not a devout man but seeks advice from the town’s rabbis. He wants to know why Hashem (God) has afflicted him. What does he want from him? If this reminds you of the story of Job from the Old Testament you know what kind of answers Larry is likely to find. The three rabbis talk in parables, or they talk about parking lots as a way of explaining the glory of God’s plan.

The casting of Michael Stuhlberg as Larry is brilliant, as is wife Sari Lennick. Familiar faces abound but none have the prominence which would stand out in this fine ensemble. Together they transport you back to a younger time; Jefferson Starship, F Troop on TV, fuzzy reception, and antennas. The film will not go down as the Coen brothers’ finest work but I found it funny and entertaining. Just watch out for that --------- at the end.




A Serious Man. Written by and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Adam (2009)

The range of human emotions in relationships is expansive, for most people. From the very stunted to the exquisitely delivered, the expression of these emotions can be a high wire act for even the most evolved people. How is it for those who lack the sensing/feeling antennas that allows a person to anticipate what the “other” thinks, feels and needs to hear, in communicating emotions? “Adam” is a love story about a young man with Aspergers Syndrome* who has just lost his father. An attractive and friendly young woman, Beth (Rose Byrne) has just moved into the apartment building where Adam (Hugh Dancy) lives. They begin a relationship that develops with fits and starts as he deals with his awkwardness and she learns to accept it.

A sweetness pervades the halting, gentle interaction between the two New Yorkers as they draw closer to one another despite coming from very different backgrounds. Beth is the daughter of a gregarious, successful accountant (Peter Gallagher) and a mother (Amy Irving) who dote on their accomplished daughter. Adam has only a faint memory of his mother and lived with his engineer father in the same apartment all of his life. Beth teaches in an elementary school and wants to create children’s books. He works for a friend of his father who owns a toy story and creates ingenious mechanical toys too expensive for the owner to sell.
Dancy portray’s Adam’s disability as an endearing shyness and his social inadequacy through his inability to look directly at people. However, he has a winning smile and his intelligence and enthusiasm differentiate him from the more severe forms of autism. When Beth first comes into his apartment he shows her the universe, as a planetarium he has created on his ceiling. Adam socializes with difficulty but his enthusiasm for the stars is infectious. Beth knows what she is getting into but lets her heart lead. Adam has never been in love before, only knows what he feels long before he can express it. They come together but are separated by an annoying subplot involving Beth’s parents.

Performances involving mental disabilities are a formidable challenge for any actor. Hugh Dancy plays his role with a deft touch, not overdoing the handicap, nor minimizing the obstacles it creates. As the romance unfolds the audience is reminded that with love all things are possible. It is a hard storyline to reject.

*Asperger Syndrome is named after a Viennese doctor who treated young male patients with, “normal intelligence and language development, but who also exhibited autistic-like behaviors and marked deficiencies in social and communication skills”. (http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/)

Adam. Written and directed by Max Mayer. Starring Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Amy Irving, and Peter Gallagher.

Taking Woodstock (2009)

“I came across a child of god he was walking across the road and I stopped to ask him where are you going and he told me.” If you know what he told Joni or if you are old enough to have these lyrics burned into your cerebral cortex than you will love the flashbacks Taking Woodstock evokes. Joni Mitchell and so many other amazing musicians of ‘60s folklore were there, and so were about a million stoned out freaks and fairies. What a three days it was! Waiting to greet the gathering were a few hundred simple folk of the rural upstate New York community. Needless to say, they had no idea that anything could ever make their sleepy home so popular that the New York State Throughway would be closed because of the number of people headed their way. The interaction between the locals and the hippies headed there is depicted with wry humor and warmth by director Ang Lee.

Nostalgia for the uniqueness of the age and the freshness of the music permeates the film. Leonard the 21 year old menschy son of the proprietors of a rundown resort motel attempts to stave off the imminent bankruptcy of his aging immigrant parents. When Leonard hears that a music festival has been banned from a neighboring town he quickly sends an invitation to the producers to come to his sleepy Catskills resort. In short order, a bevy of suited agents and erstwhile rock impresarios pull up in their Lincoln Town cars and strike a deal with Max Yazgar the biggest landowner in the area for the use of his seventy five acres. Leonard realizes the deal is about to transform his world as he is handed thousands of dollars in cash in brown paper bags for the use of his parents’ resort and the construction crews and flower children start pouring in. The locals of the Woodstock area first plot how to profit off of the music festival then watch in horror and amazement as it becomes the iconic cultural event of the rebellious, music-loving era.

As the protagonist of the story Leonard represents the conflicted good son who tries to bridge the generation gap produced by drugs, sex, and Rock and Roll, the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. For many families in the America of the 1960s this was a hopelessly lost cause. Leonard is swept up in the momentousness of the event and feels the stirring of his own desire to break away from his home and hang-ups and join in the pleasures of his contemporaries. Wandering into the festival he meets a couple who invite him into their van where he is introduced to LSD. Needless to say the psychedelic experience is transformative. Leonard leaves the festival having heard little of the music but having seen beautiful visions both real and imaginary. For those people who experienced the age as an awakening to the possibilities of freedom this film is a joyous memory. For those who did not, like the couple who sat next to me all they may see is the soggy mess that was left behind, not three days of peace and love, the ideal of a generation.

Taking Woodstock. Directed by Ang Lee, written by James Schamus. Starring Dimitri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Imelda Stauton, Emile Hirsch

The Hurt Locker (2008)

By 2004 the Bush administration had turned a successful invasion/liberation of Iraq into a deadly insurgency. The US army of occupation under appointed “Pro-consul” Paul Bremer failed to show any intention of turning self-government over to the Iraqis or even an interest in turning the electricity back on. Terrorists haunted the streets of Bagdad and their weapon de jour is the IED, a bomb hidden in the roadsides and streets. The pivotal unit in the US forces countering this weapon is a three man team whose job it is to find and disarm these explosives. Instantly, the viewer is immersed in this operation and watches as the close-knit team loses its confident, veteran diffuser (Guy Pierce) to a deadly explosion in the very first scene. Welcome to the Hurt Locker.

The Hurt Locker has little discernible plot beyond the exquisitely realistic depiction of several days in the life of one of these three men teams. The daily routine involves patrols into areas of Bagdad that are identified as suspect by advanced marine units. The three man team we know from the opening scene now has a new diffuser, James. The team moves in and James dons the heavy uniform that makes him look like a ’60s era astronaut and the deadly game begins. One member of the unit provides cover, the second communicates with the diffuser, whose job it is to do his work under the watchful eyes of Iraqis, any one of whom can detonate a bomb by hitting a button on a cell phone. In one scene James (Jeremy Renner) discovers half a dozen bombs intricately interconnected and hidden in the trunk of a car. His response is to back away from the car, take off the useless suit, and go about his work. When the unit coordinator tries to communicate with James to tell him the job is too dangerous and to pull back James throws his earphones to the ground in frustration. Then he methodically disarms the six bombs and smiles as he finishes the job.

What makes such a man tick? How does he and the rest of the team function under the unremitting pressure? Sanborn (the command leader) played by Anthony Mackie hints at the answer when he socks James in the jaw for the violation of orders. He doesn’t want to get killed because of recklessness, nor does Eldridge the cover man, played by Brian Geraghty, who is counseled by a medic daily for his fear. Only James seems to have reconciled himself to the possibility of death as if it is a partner in a dance which entrances him.

No one can really know war unless they have participated in it. However, producer and director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, depict the Iraq war with an intensity that radiates with the heat of a desert patrol on a 120 degree day. The viewer knows that the film has elevated his/her understanding of the existential nature of war, an enervating and terrifying experience like no other.

The Hurt Locker. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Writen by Mark Boal. Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty.