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'UP IN THE AIR'
STRAIGHTEN UP AND FLY RIGHT
By Sean Chavel

Up in the Air is another winner for George Clooney, the consummate movie star who brings his usual top-flight brand of intelligence to every project he chooses. Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham, a downsizing specialist that corporations hire to conduct clean, preventive-retaliation layoffs. Ryan is pleased to spend most of his life up in the air remarking that he is in reach to claim ten million flyer miles. In another observation of himself, he only spent 43 days home in Omaha in the past year. "To know me is to travel with me" is one of his zingy lines. He travels light, both literally and figuratively. No family baggage in other words.

What Clooney does so easily is project this dominant superiority complex which makes it effortless for him to fire people for a living. This attribute allows him a certain detachment from the rest of the human race - those who are dumped are saps, they are beneath him. As another travelling professional, Alex (Vera Farmiga) is a female equal with the noticeable masculine name. When they first meet at a hotel bar, Alex senses Ryan's play at seduction and throws a bunch of witty verbal obstacles at him. No problem for Ryan as he suavely rises to the occasion by using his persuasive speaking skills (he also lectures at seminars) to seduce Alex - a transcontinental affair begins.

Back home things are changing at the company when a fresh out of graduate school efficiency expert named Natalie (Anna Kendrick) convinces boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) to use computer interfaces to fire people. This would eliminate the need to fly Ryan and other employees to company on-site locations. This also gets rid of airfare and hotel costs as Natalie makes Craig see it. Ryan debates a multitude of reasons why human interface is needed in the hatchet business. His next tour of duty could be his last, and he is asked to take Natalie under his wing to train her, if not, orientate her to the business. Perhaps convince her that all her proposed ideas are wrong.

At this point, you think that the film will propose that this is going to be a battle of wills between Ryan and Natalie, as on the road they try both his way and her way. Ryan is outright the stronger and more forceful one in this relationship. What occurs are transitional scenes of Ryan proving to Natalie what a tough business it really is (in several instances there are clipped montages of employees suffering the indignity of being let go). Which opens up the plot hole: Couldn't Craig and the rest of the executives foresee that Natalie's new strategic plan was going to backfire? You wonder if you are going to get a scene of a laid-off employee going ballistic and throwing the computer monitor across the room.

"Up in the Air" is the kind of movie you love anyway despite of one glaring flaw. It's a relationship comedy, a cold technology replacing humanity comedy, and a socio-economic comedy that offers much human insight and observation. It is also nevertheless about the Ryan Bingham type that can roam freely without being tied down, and Clooney is nuts-and-bolts perfect as the roamer who fails to see the need for commitment. On the road, Natalie gets devastating news via text message, and Ryan, observing that she is looking for consolation, offers to her dryly "It feels like getting fired by a computer, doesn't it?"

Clooney's delivery is not kind. He is rubbing it in.

Returning to the romance angle, Clooney and Farmiga have lots of spark and heat. You must remember Farmiga as the police psychiatrist in "The Departed." She exudes maturity, brains and allure in every scene. While we're at it, let's remind ourselves that this is the Clooney we know from "Out of Sight" or "Ocean's 11," the guy who exudes charm and panache. In any movie of this kind of contemporary candor, you have to expect complications to come up and not make things so easy, cookie-cutter for these two. What happens between the two of them is subtle, and disquieting to say the least. To make life work, Ryan must change his plans and compromise his invented ideals.

We also have director Jason Reitman ("Thank You for Smoking," "Juno") to thank for bringing such sharp and intelligence entertainment to the screen. He makes the movie crisp and snappy, and he has a gift for shooting skylines. And no movie with Danny McBride could possibly disappoint. He shows up for two-thirds of the movie as a Styrofoam cut-out, leaving us in anticipation of when he is going to appear. When he does, (Ryan meets him in Milwaukee) McBride delivers another off-key and surprisingly poignant performance that catches us by surprise. "Up in the Air" takes us all over the map and does it satisfyingly and memorably.

"Coraline" is a Must-See Movie
By Danielle Radin

A young girl bored and out of touch with reality, discovers a secret world, which flips her real world upside down. This is the basic plot of the movie "Coraline," one of the best-animated films of 2009. "Coraline" is "The Nightmare Before Christmas" meets "Alice in Wonderland" for a perfect blend of grim plot structure with fantastical characters. Although dark for a child's movie, "Coraline" is filled with underlying values of family and friendship.

The movie centers around Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) a young only-child who moves into a new house with her mother and father. She does not have any friends in her new environment, and is bored most of the time. On top of this, her annoying neighbor, Wybie, (voiced by Robert Bailey Jr.) seems a little too friendly and very weird. Coraline seeks out the attention of her parents to curb her loneliness but her mother (voiced Teri Hatcher) and her father (voiced by John Hodgman) are busy writing about plants and other things unrelated to their daughter's life.

Coraline explores her new house, all the while continuing to be bored and lonely. She is skimming the walls when she comes across a door behind wallpaper. When she walks through, a fluttering secret passage takes her to a place that appears to look exactly like her house. She finds her mother and father, but they look slightly different. They appear to have buttons for eyes! Coraline is not phased too much by this, but is greatly phased by how much attention her "other" mother and father seem to be paying to her. They are grateful of her presence and do not want her to leave. She tells them that she must return to her real house, promising to come back.

Coraline returns to her "other" mother and father, and they continue to shower her with love and gifts. The more times, she visits, however, the more sinister the atmosphere of her other house gets. She soon discovers for herself that something is not quite right with this alternate world. Coraline realizes that maybe her other world was not so bad, but she might come to this realization too late to go back to her own home and be with her own parents.

The film is Henry Selick's, ("Nightmare Before Christ-mas," "James and the Giant Peach") and is a work of shear brilliance. Selick adapted it to film based on Neil Gaiman's out of this world book. "Coraline" makes the viewer appreciate all the little things and people in life that are usually taken for granted. While I found it to be a little too eerie for it's "PG" rating, I thought that there were touching moral lessons suitable for children of the proper age (preferably 10-12).

The animation is incredible. (I strongly suggest that anyone who wishes to see it try to catch it while still in theaters so that the option of watching it with 3D glasses on is still available). The movie is stop motion, and it is obvious that since "Nightmare Before Christmas" came out in 1993, Selick has been practicing the technique. "Coraline" flows substantially well for stop motion animation, and it is almost unbelievable how beautifully Henry Selick meshes this with the 3D effect. It draws the viewer into the movie, as if we are an actual character in it.

"Coraline" is quirky, beautiful, and bone chilling all at the same time. It is a masterpiece that I strongly recommend be seen immediately, if not sooner. It has taken children's movies and stop motion to a whole new level in America. I would argue that this is Henry Selick's greatest film yet. This film is definitely one of my all time favorite movies. And it will be too, for anyone who appreciates the mastermind of Selick combined with a beautifully executed plot and underlying values that are relatable to all.

'CRAZY HEART'
BRIDGES HAS GOT ONE
By Sean Chavel

The road, one must assume, has got to be a great and exciting place for a musician. But when you're 57 and travelling on the road, and alone… well it is just that. Lonely and dissatisfying. Jeff Bridges is Bad Blake, a one-time popular country singer and boozer in Crazy Heart. He is more ashamed about his real given name than he is about his drinking. He drinks all day before his performances, sometime taking place at a bowling alley in the southwest. If he can, he will have a drink during his performance.

This is the kind of movie designed to get Jeff Bridges (a deserved) Best Actor Oscar nomination, a movie that reminds us of his considerable talent and range. He takes the stage as comfortably as he did Jeff Lebowski. He loves the microphone, he just happens to love drinking better. But he doesn't come off stupefying drunk everyday, so his addiction is unknown to him. Maggie Gyllenhaal, as Jean, is a reporter who falls for his grizzled poet ways. Jean starts off interviewing Blake for the papers, and then soon enough Blake is babysitting her kid and staying over.

Many of the other actors are good (nods to Robert Duvall and Paul Herman) but the surprise is Colin Farrell, whom I can't tell is actually good at singing or not. He gets away on his self-confidence - a projection of good acting. His character Tommy Sweet was an understudy, an opener, for Bad Blake years ago. Now Tommy is the superstar, perhaps because his mug looks good on record albums. Tommy makes attempts to cut Blake a break, but Blake is too proud to accept his graciousness. He nevertheless takes on an opening act in Arizona which will re-jump his career.

"Crazy Heart" is a movie where we observe a character slowly coveting a real life again that had been non-existent for years, and then slowly letting it slip out from under him. What good is life if you don't have someone to share it with? That comes to Bad Blake at age 57. Gyllenhaal is always effective as the sensual girl who gives bad guys a second chance; she might be the only actress alive who can act with her cheekbones alone. But if you use the "honeymoon is over" metaphor, then you see a young woman asking credibly if Blake is really right for her. Watching her lose patience is one of those things you can't tear your eyes away from. Gyllenhaal could too get an Oscar nomination if Bridges doesn't steal all the spotlight.

Thanks to Tommy Sweet, the cantankerous Blake gets a chance to write songs again. As you can tell Blake gets a multitude of second chances but there are obstacles, a crisis or two that comes that are all caused, and self-inflicted, by Blake himself. In a pivotal scene, Blake on his bad leg scuttles through a shopping mall looking for a little boy that he has lost. The culmination of this incident is realistically handled, an episode without a false note. It also closes on a moment as to why Bridges might not only be nominated for Best Actor, but might actually win.

You don't have to be a fan of country music to find the crossover appeal of "Crazy Heart," a film about mature relationships and professional exhaustion on the road. The other movie out right now, "Up in the Air," features George Clooney as a spry, tireless traveler. Bridges is tired and exhausted man, and uninterested in the news when the doctor said he has to change his eating and drinking habits. This is indeed a very full-bodied and uncompromised character portrait done by a tremendous actor.

'BROTHERS'
A BAD COMING HOME
By Sean Chavel

Brothers strains for an accessible way to teach the audience something about PTSD, that disorder that plagues soldiers coming home from Iraq. The main crux of the movie is a carefully positioned moral crisis. Tobey Maguire is the soldier presumed dead in Afghanistan. Jake Gyllenhaal is the ex-con brother who watches over Maguire's wife, Natalie Portman. Physical sparks happen between Gyllenhaal and Portman, and then, guilt and finger-pointing.

Every scene of the movie is designed so it builds to the point that a featured actor has an outburst, or an implosive spurt of tears, or an agonized look on their face by the end of the scene. While the chemistry is initially cold, a scene on an ice-rink with amped-up groovy music informs us that Gyllenhaal and Portman are falling for each other. They vow to keep things non-physical, for perhaps the time-being, and Gyllenhaal remodels her kitchen.

In regards to the scenes in Afghanistan, things crash dramatically when Maguire and a fellow soldier are taken prisoner by Taliban fighters. The two prisoners are placed down in a hole where they are starved. To prompt audience reaction as to how cruel the Taliban is, an executioner caps a plug in another Afghani, and it is so merciless and cold that the movie is trying to get you into shivers. But all I could think is: Why did they shoot that man other than so the movie to conveniently dictate that the Taliban is cruel?

The Taliban do other cruel things to the prisoners, but it's Maguire, as Captain Sam Cahill, who crosses over to show us how bug-eyed and crazy he is capable of looking. If the movie doesn't exactly wrench your emotions, you are marginally concerned as to whether he will get to return home or not. If Sam ever does reunite with his daughters, they might run the other way and not recognize daddy (actors love the range of doing light to dark transformations where they are unrecognizable in the latter). Gyllenhaal, as Uncle Tommy, is maturing into a fine man with no ex-con stink on him anymore (after two months) except that he's attracted to his brother's wife Grace (Portman) which by definition is a dangerous attraction.

As directed by Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot" his career highlight), he concentrates to extraneous lengths to give his actors dramatic lighting, often blocking his actors so that they walk into a ray of light in a quasi-dramatic epiphany. None of the actors are as spectacular as some Oscar forecasters would lead you to suggest, but Maguire has got enough of that deadly thousand-yard stare that might spook you enough into goose bumps. He makes you believe that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a common problem among vets, but by this point, a movie that goes more into the long effects of PTSD is what needs to be made.

The Second Annual Bel Air Film Festival
By Staff Writer

The second annual Bel Air Film Festival has announced its category winners. The festival held 35 film screenings with packed theaters, and four red carpet events November 13th-17th. The festival's opening night was held at UCLA's James Bridges Theater where honorees Louis Gossett Jr. received a "Lifetime Achievement Award," Taryn Manning was honored for her work in Film and Fashion with the festival's "Film Fashion Visionary" award, and Vivica A. Fox was given the festival's "Best Actress" Award. The Improv held the closing night ceremony hosted by Jill-Michele Melean from Mad TV, RENO 911, and Showtime. Comedy honoree recipients included Neal Brennan (Chappelle's Show) "Best Comedy Writer," Kerri Kenney; Thomas Lennon, and Robert Ben Garant, creators of Comedy Central's hit show RENO 911 for their work and devotion in film with the festival's "Outstanding Achievement in Comedy for Film and Television" award.

"The Bel Air Film Festival is pleased to announce our 2009 winners. Each awarded film is very special to its category, and this year's lineup is incredible," said Bel Air Film Festival™ President Melody Storm.

Mind of the Demon: The Larry Linkogle Story "Best Jury International Documentary" is an incredible and motivating documentary starring Olympic athlete Larry Linkogle.

The film takes an analytical look into the psyche of one of the most brilliantly talented, yet aggressively self-destructive minds of our generation. Larry Linkogle is a world-record holding dirt bike legend and a man battling his inner demons as he struggles to maintain structure, sobriety, and self-control. Incredible archival footage, colorful characters, and interviews with the industry's top names rebuild the thrilling story of the birth of freestyle motocross. Past and present storylines intertwine to drive the film toward one of only two possible conclusions: a nosedive straight into a black hole or one of the best comeback stories of all time.

Majestic and the Masked Man "Best Audience Short Film," written, produced, and starred in by Joel Maguen is about a small-time hustler who convinces a masked Mexican wrestler to fight in an illegal warehouse brawl. When the fight spirals out of control, they are on the run for their lives.

Road to Hollywood "Best Audience Comedy Short" is a drama about a forty something washed up Hollywood Comedian that clings to a very brief past fifteen minutes of fame. Amidst the day, we see that Dale (Ronald Barba) has an intimate relationship with Murphy's Law, willing to beat the odds of the day at all costs Dale learns a valuable lesson from the last person he would expect.

Borg El Hamam "Best Student Short Film" follows the life of journalist Nader Azmy. The film endures a simple yet unexpected event, which changes his beliefs and vision about life and people. Through a dramatic and contemplative climate, the film reveals a new meaning to the ordinary life of many to be deeply pensive and unwittingly illusive.

Prayer in the Night "Best Audience Animation" mixes the textures and opera music to create a romantic story with a theatrical look.

The Seventh Floor "Best Student Feature Film" is a captivating drama directed by Andrew Seeley. Set in 1940s San Francisco, a self-serving private detective resorts to deceit and blackmail in an attempt to pay off his escalating gambling debts.

Nobody The Great won the "Best Jury International Film" written, produced, and directed by British filmmaker KJ Miller. The film is about two characters, Jack and Basil who have double dates and on the same night terrorists decide to take over their apartment. Jack and Basil must fend off their unwelcome intruders before they can turn their attentions to, ahem, more important matters."

Bel Air Film Festival Mission Statement:

BAFF's screenings and parties are held at private luxury estates in Bel Air and in venues throughout Beverly Hills, Westwood, and greater Los Angeles. The festival believes in raising awareness about independent film and supporting upcoming filmmakers. The Festival showcases some of today's most creative films and filming talent, and brings together industry tastemakers, green-lighters, and film fans. BAFF is uniquely recognized for having a special Film Fashion category specifically for fashion-related films. Other programming categories include documentaries, shorts, comedic works, dramatic works, animated films, foreign films, music videos, and student-made films.

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