The adaptation of Walter Kirn's UP IN THE AIR faced off against "The Hurt Locker" and lost. Now Kirn, Hollywood expert, breaks it down for us in New York magazine:
"'The Hurt Locker' won that year. It wasn't a film that was widely seen at the time, and I didn't think it was a terrific movie — it bored me a little bit — but what seemed to win was Hollywood's guilt over having not paid proper attention to the Iraq War, our long national agony. Plus, it was directed by a female director, Kathryn Bigelow. To me, the movies that win have social dimensions that are ultimately noncontroversial."
Well, maybe. But he makes a better point about why "Up in the Air" didn't get more credit for dealing with "real-world" issues:
[Interviewer Jennifer Vineyard]: But "Up in the Air" also had social relevance — it dealt with job loss in the recession.
The country didn't want to face it yet. This is how absurd it gets with "Up in the Air" — they wanted to hire a plane and fly all these unemployed people to Hollywood for a free vacation as a publicity stunt. That is the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard — the most patronizing, tone-deaf thing of all time. Everyone thought the recovery would end soon. Jason Reitman was even asking, "Do you think by the fall ... ?" No one thought the recession would still be operative years later.
Ha ha ha oh boy. For the record, Kirn thinks "Lincoln" will win because of its connection with the President (?). By this logic, Congress and the President will have a Constitutional showdown in the year 2017... sounds plausible. (DOMA repeal? We can only hope.)
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