Retrospective Film Review

Up in the Air (2009) • 15 Years Later — laughs and loneliness in superb modern drama

A corporate downsizing spends his life in planes, airports, and hotels, but meets a woman who makes him rethink his transient life.

If you were to leave your house tomorrow, knowing that you could never return, what would you pack in your suitcase? Such a question forces us to reckon with just how many superfluous things we have in our lives. It’s also a question that Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) asks his audience at one of his many talks, where he explains his philosophy as simply as is possible: “We weigh ourselves down until we can’t even move. And make no mistake, moving is living.” His entire life is built around this one ideal — never stop moving.

Last year, he spent 322 days on the road, travelling from one corporation to the next, where he fired loyal employees for executives who weren’t keen on doing it themselves. That’s just his line of work. It may not be the nicest job, but someone’s got to do it, and the lifestyle this job affords Ryan…