UP IN THE AIR
   √ Bob Certified

   George Clooney is so perfect as a modern “hired gun”—he’s brought in by corporations around the country to fire employees to spare the corporation’s own bosses from the chore—that it makes it easy at times to look past director Jason Reitman’s marvelous handling of the actor and the movie’s theme. Clooney is so distanced from the concept of family and friends that he’s the opposite of the normal traveler who can’t wait to get home. Clooney dreads the 40 or so days when he’s not traveling somewhere. Reitman and Clooney give us a look at loneliness versus community that is witty, sophisticated, thoughtful and deeply poignant. A mini-masterpiece that belongs with “Hurt Locker” at the top of any list of best films of 2009.

THE MAID

√ Bob Certified

   Be careful not to read too much about this gem from Chile because you don’t want to spoil the way director Sebastian Silva keeps you guessing about what’s going on in this tale of a maid—brilliantly played by Catalin Saavedra--who has been in the employ of a well-to-do family for most of her adult life. Even though things move slowly, a lot is going on in every frame. One of the year’s most memorable films.

 (UNTITLED)

√ Bob Certified

   The story about the tension between radical avant-garde art and commercially accepted art (and other things) doesn’t really break new ground, but the script (by director Jonathan Parker and Catherine di Napoli) is witty and fast-paced,  and the acting is exceptionally winning—especially Adam Goldberg as a self-absorbed musician, Marley Shelton as a gallery owner with such craving for the extreme that she refused to let her best-selling artist hang his paintings in the gallery and Ptolemy Slocum in a show-stopping turn as a neurotic conceptual artist who feeds Shelton’s lust for the for the novel.

THE INVENTION OF LYING

Woeful

    How can a movie that has three such reliable comedy figures as Ricky Gravais, Tina Fey and Jeffrey Tambor in the opening scenes end up so humorless?  It’s just one of the mysteries of this disappointing clunker.  Enough said.

MICHAEL JACKSON’S THIS IS IT

Has some warm, wonderful moments.

     This is a much more valuable documentary than you may have feared.  As director, Kenny Ortega, who was also the musical director of Michael’s London comeback production, demonstrates excellent restraint in keeping the film from being an overly sentimental love fest. (Given his tendency toward self-aggrandizement, Michael, by contrast, might have pushed for that love fest approach if he were involved in putting the film together.)  Ortega, though, wisely keeps the focus on Michael the performing wonder. The result is frequently warm and illuminating. We see Michael the perfectionist, casting an eye and ear on seemingly every detail during the extensive rehearsals of the gala production. Most surprising, he seems more open and comfortable on stage than I remember him from the 1980s. While many of the production touches are dazzling, Michael is most touching and convincing in the film’s more intimate moments, especially “Billie Jean” and “Earth Song.” Perhaps the most endearing moment is during his stylish duet with singer Judith Hill on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.” As they sing the title line for the final time, Michael turns to face the audience when he gets to the word “you” so that he’s speaking directly to his fans rather than his vocal partner. Seeing that his co-singer is still facing him, Michael motions for her, too, to turn and address the line to the audience. It felt like more than just a clever stage move. After years of humiliation and despair, Michael was thankful for the chance to step back into the spotlight and the ticket demand in London must have been immensely comforting to him. So, he wanted to thank the fans for their loyalty—their continuing love.  Sadly, he was reaching out at the rehearsal to a mostly empty arena. He never got the chance to thank the hundreds of thousands of loving fans waiting for him in England.

A SERIOUS MAN

Hilarious at times.

    The latest from the Coen Brothers is presented (in previews and elsewhere) as so deeply buried in Jewish angst that I thought it required a Bar Mitzvah to appreciate it. But, as a first communion kid, I found it quite easy to enjoy—if that word can be applied to a tale so bleak. A physics professor at a Midwestern university can whiz write the most complicated physics formulas on the blackboard, but he has a difficult time trying to figure out God’s will—and the movie is the funniest when he turns to rabbis for help. They speak in what are, to him, riddles that underscore the difficulty of trying to substitute reason for faith. If you want a rock ‘n’ roll equivalent, check out Bruce Springsteen’s stirring “Reason to Believe,” the closing song on his stark, classic “Nebraska” album. It’s a song about people going through all kinds of disappointment and heartbreak, but still finding a reason to believe. For another, more light-hearted take on the subject, try the White Stripes’ exquisite “I’m Lonely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet).”