Paul and Corey Cross the Streams: S7E16 [UP IN THE AIR (2009)]

Welcome to Season 7! As we are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century, like Bill Murray in Tootsie, Paul and Corey are asking, "What happened?" This season we are looking at the trends, genres, styles, and more that make up cinema of the past 25 years. This week, Corey reacquainted us with Nepo baby libertarian Jason Reitman's sensitive and insightful examination (I'm being sarcastic, folks.) of the Great Recession... Up in the Air (2009). Like so much of the Obama administration, it seems like this project exists to put a smiling face (quite literally in this case) on the evils of neoliberalism, and this middlebrow slop fits right in with films like school privatization propaganda Waiting for Superman (2010) or torture apologia like Zero Dark Thirty (2012). As Corey says to Paul, "You REALLY hate this movie," and as you can tell by this synopsis, I do. Ultimately, the cast is very charming and talented, and maybe that is enough for a viewer.