Nicole in D.C.

A coworker and I were having a conversation yesterday about actors and directors. Which actor do you know you’re supposed to like, but just can’t? Which director has made the biggest impact on film making this decade?

Those are some tough answers to find. We instantly agreed that we couldn’t get behind Penelope Cruz even though she’s a critical darling. We bonded over our hatred of Volver (probably not Cruz’s fault, though). After a little discussion, we both agreed that Stephen Soderbergh would get the award for best director of the decade. Between all the Oceans movies, Traffic, Erin Brockovich, and so on… how could anyone else really get it?

Personally, I’d have to give most enjoyable director to Jason Reitman. Before today, two of his films were my favorite of the Aughts: Juno and Thank You For Smoking. Today, I can add Up in the Air to that list.

It’s not every day I get to take off early from work, gallivant around town, and take in a movie by myself. But, boy, are those days enjoyable. Ever since I started working in Bethesda, I’ve been promising myself to walk down to Bethesda Row for a movie after work and I finally did it … six months later.

Throughout the film, Reitman utilized his filmmaking trademarks that make his films so enjoyable:

• Putting characters in unsympathetic roles and making you love them anyway. First, it was Nick Naylor in Thank You, the cigarette industry lobbyist; then Juno, the smart-assed, pregnant sixteen year-old; and now Ryan Bingham, the man who makes a living by… ending people’s livelihoods. Each one of these characters has the odds stacked against them; place them in any other director’s hands and they could come off self-loathing, self-serving, self-involved… Instead, they become human and three-dimensional. They know exactly what got them into this situation and they spend the film struggling to get themselves out of it.
• Employing great, yet understated actors to play these complex roles. All three leads are incredible actors that really shine when put into these situations. Ryan Bingham is basically an invisible man. He travels 270 or more days out of the year and never stops to take a break. He thrives on the road and gets human interaction only from complete strangers – - attendants at the check-in counter at hotels or airports, employees he’s laying off, and women he takes back to his room after a night at the hotel bar. He’s not attached to any one of these people in his life, so it’s easy for him to care about them. Family? Love? There’s too much baggage there to check at the gate.
• Taking locations and destinations out of the story and letting it rest on the characters. Each of these movies could be set in New York or LA with a montage of catchy music edited into a music video splicing each scene, but Reitman doesn’t do that. He lets everything rest on the lead character, knowing they’ll drive the story home. Just as Juno isn’t about teen pregnancy, Up isn’t George Clooney traveling across the country to fire people in each location. The movie’s really about how he handles each situation – -  how a man who thrives on being alone without other people’s baggage is the one person who can help a stranger when they’re at their lowest point. Each character figures out how they got there, if they want to stay there, and how they’re going to get out of the situation they’re in.
• Character changes are pretty large, but make sense. Every screenwriting class discusses the character arc and how the character needs to go from point A to point B literally, figuratively, or both before the end of the script. Reitman’s films allow the lead characters to do this naturally. The movies aren’t about the good guy getting the girl or the hockey team winning despite the odds. They’re about real people making real decisions. Even though the characters wind up doing something completely out of character by the end of the movie, it never seems forced. Reitman guides the character on an incredible arc that not only leaves you understanding this person, but rooting for them.
• Taking risks in the subplots and minor characters that are featured. In Juno, Allison Janney nearly stole the film with her obsession of Weimaraners and the wacky activities she allows her not-so-capable five year-old Liberty Bell to partake in. I was a little worried about Natalie (played by Anna Kendrick, most notably Bella’s friend Jessica in the Twilight saga) being featured so prominently but she allowed the story to go a little deeper – - make you understand how and why Ryan had gotten to the point he did. His steadfast cynicism about connections to other humans and his work beat her down while her naivety and idealism build him up. Both make huge character changes toward the end and make a long-lasting impact on one another. It’s also nice to not see this role go to a guy and take the easy father/son role. They both learn from each other and encourage the other to grow. Plus, Kendrick delivers some pretty killer lines (see blog title above).

I’m not quite sure how he does it, but I’ve loved each one of these movies. They may not be top contenders every time around for Oscars, but they are certainly well-acted, well-written, and well-told stories that, together, make for an impressive resume.