"Up in the Air"

The pervasive influence of lobbyists, teenage pregnancy and joblessness are nothing to laugh about. Yet director Jason Reitman has made three very funny films -- "Thank You for Smoking," "Juno" and "Up in the Air" -- addressing these topics. "Air," in which George Clooney plays a suave hatchet man who happily wields the ax when namby-pamby corporate types don't want to do their own dirty work, is the best of the bunch, a movie that manages to keep you laughing even as it slowly breaks your heart.

Based on Walter Kirn's novel of the same name, "Air" examines the world of Ryan Bingham (Clooney), a guy who jets around the country jettisoning workers from their offices. How does Bingham sleep at night? Quite comfortably, for the most part; he sees himself as a solitary man on a mission. Insults from his victims bounce off of him and their hysterical tears just roll off his back.

In an environment that regularly puts profits ahead of people, Ryan Bingham is a hero. But is this someone we really want to get to know? Yes, Reitman insists.

As "Air" unfolds, Bingham begins to look more and more like the lost son of C.C. Baxter, the status-seeking accountant Jack Lemmon played in director Billy Wilder's 1960 Oscar-winner "The Apartment." Baxter curried favor with his bosses by loaning his bedroom out to executives who needed a private getaway for illicit affairs; Bingham willingly does managers' dirty work for them in exchange for a generous salary. Baxter wanted to climb the ladder, but Bingham has even loftier dreams: He wants to rack up millions of frequent-flier miles to savor the premium perks they bring.

If Bingham is sounding more and more like a thoroughly loathsome personality, that's not the way Reitman sees him and it's certainly not the way Clooney plays him. "Air" realizes there is often a gap between what someone does for a living and who they really are -- and despite his outwardly impressive appearance, Bingham is not Mr. Success. His non-stop travel is a convenient cover for the way he runs away from commitments, from his family, from anything that reeks of stability. "Last year, I spent 322 days on the road, which means I had to spend 43 miserable days at home," he says in his narration. If home is truly where the heart is, Bingham would prefer to leave his in his barely furnished apartment.

In the hands of an actor less capable than Clooney, Bingham might be a very cold fish indeed. But Clooney uncovers the man's humor and wisdom, even his charm. So by the time Bingham finds himself involuntarily shackled to a take-charge trainee named Natalie (the outstanding Anna Kendrick), we find ourselves feeling sympathy for him. And when Bingham encounters Alex (Vera Farmiga), who's almost his equal when it comes to racking up time on the road, we start to hope maybe Bingham has found his perfect match.

"Air" might also be seen as a companion piece to Clooney's earlier "Michael Clayton," another story in which a seasoned pro suddenly realizes the life he's been enjoying is no longer viable. Like Clayton, Bingham begins to question what lies ahead, especially now that Natalie and Bingham's disturbingly upbeat boss (Jason Bateman) are pushing the idea of firing employees through video conferencing instead of going through all the trouble of doing it face-to-face. "The slower we move, the faster we die," Bingham tells an audience in one of his motivational seminars. "We are not swans -- we are sharks." And if Bingham is forced to settle down, he may well be a dead duck.

Reitman and co-writer Sheldon Turner have sandwiched some marvelously witty dialogue into this screenplay, and Clooney, Kendrick and Farmiga make sure every line hits its target. While Kendrick's Natalie embodies every awful trait of the recent bright-eyed business school grad (from the solemn stare to the curt tone she uses when addressing people she doesn't want to know), she's using those tactics to hide a deep well of insecurities. Like a little girl dressing up in Mommy's clothes, she has the right essentials but she doesn't quite know how to put it all together yet.

Alex is another story. Farmiga portrays her as a slick, seen-it-all veteran of the corporate wars who dresses classy, talks sassy and moves through a room as if she fully expected everyone to be watching her. "You're so pretty," Natalie gushes in a rare moment of candor. "You're exactly what I wanna look like in 15 years." Although Alex is too polite to tell Natalie she's got a long way to go, that sentiment flashes across Farmiga's eyes.

When I first saw "Up in the Air" at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, I was so impressed by the performances and the splendid writing I initially overlooked one of the film's most distinctive qualities: Even though its central figure is a man, this movie is a veritable goldmine of superb roles for women. In addition to Alex and Natalie, both of whom turn out to be just as complex as Bingham, there's also Bingham's borderline-neurotic sister, Julie, expertly played by the versatile Melanie Lynskey. In her uneasy phone conversations with her brother, you can hear many years of disappointments and let-downs, and when she asks Bingham to help her with a project for her wedding reception the concept she's come up with is both nutty and, when you think about it, truly sad. While her brother bounces all over the country, Julie and her fiance (Danny McBride) can't even scrape together enough money for a honeymoon trip.

That increasingly wide gap between the haves and the have-littles lingers in the background of "Air" as Bingham contemplates charting a new course for himself. At least he's in control of his own fate: The people he's thrown out of work have little more than Bingham's freeze-dried inspirational slogans and the prospect of an unemployment check to comfort them. But, as this captivating comedy-drama reminds us, nothing is permanent.

"New Moon"

In the world of "New Moon," vampires can project themselves into your thoughts and a clan of teenage guys (with an aversion to wearing shirts, even in winter rain) can transform themselves into huge, snarling wolves. But Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has a weapon that trumps them all; she's got Glower Power, the gift of seeming utterly sullen and tuned-out, no matter what circumstances surround her.

Her reaction at getting birthday presents? Glower. What crosses her face when she's baffled by the Shirtless Six-Pack Sect? Steely-eyed glower. And her response when her sort-of boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson) unexpectedly moves out of town? Nuclear-power glower.

In fact, Bella takes the news so badly she stays home and glowers for the next three months -- we know this because titles reading "October," "November" and "December" cross the screen as she sits curled up in a chair doing you-know-what -- while Edward goes off on some sort of vampiric vision quest. Although far away, he does make a few token appearances in the form of a slightly blurry, scolding hallucination, and having to put up with a man who can't even bother to nag her in person makes Bella so angry, she could just...

"New Moon" is the second film adapted from Stephenie Meyer's enormously popular series of supernatural romances and it turns out to be one of those installments that devotes much of its time to setting up characters and plot complications that will hopefully come to dramatic fruition in the final two movies.

Alas, "Moon" is light on excitement and burdened with too many drawn-out scenes devoted to teen turmoil. Not only are they repetitious, they also make you fear for Bella's mental health after a while. Did her dad (Billy Burke) really just sit back and let her wallow in misery week after week, even when she began having nightmares so intense they caused her to scream in her sleep? Can we really believe the tiny town of Forks, Washington can be home to vampires and werewolves but there's not a single therapist to be found?

Director Catherine Hardwicke's "Twilight," the predecessor to "Moon," had a certain endearing air of lunacy, as Bella met Edward and got her first taste of the lifestyle of the undead. "Moon" (Chris Weitz took over the directorial reins this time around) too often tries to position itself as Serious Cinema, beginning with a heavy-handed "Romeo and Juliet" analogy early on and continuing to maintain a resolutely straight face as Bella is drawn to 16-year-old Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who is on the verge of discovering what he thought were just growing pains are actually the signals that he's carrying a gene that links him to an ancient tribe of shape-shifters.

Since Edward thoughtlessly left town at a time when the vengeful vampire Victoria (Rachelle LeFevre) is still hunting for Bella, having a werewolf as a bodyguard might not be such a bad idea. Unfortunately, Jacob's clan and Edward's circle get along almost as well as the Hatfields and the McCoys, and before the sun goes down on this "Moon"-scape Bella finds she's been appointed an unwilling referee in the feud.

Unless you completely identify with Bella's almost unremittingly angsty attitude, "Moon" is far more of a chore to sit through than "Twilight" was. Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg mercifully drops in an occasional joke or humorous tidbit -- such as when Bella, Jacob and clueless classmate Mike (the very funny Michael Welch) wind up seeing a gruesome action flick titled "Face Punch" -- to break up the general gloominess, and Anna Kendrick, who's about to take the world by storm as George Clooney's protege in "Up in the Air," is a snappy delight here as Bella's fairweather friend. The movie could have used a lot more of her.

There's also a quick jaunt to Italy for a visit with the Volturi, a band of high-living blood-suckers that Edward likens to vampire royalty. The leader, Aro, is played by Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning makes a cameo as Aro's acolyte Jane, who can paralyze her enemies with pain simply by staring at them; they perform as if they were pleasantly surprised to receive invitations to a really cool costume party. Disappointingly, the members of Edward's extended family, who provided some interesting suplots in "Twilight," are given short shrift here.

Even Pattinson is off-screen for about two-thirds of the all-too-generous 130-minute running time, so it's Lautner who has to provide the eerie eye candy this time out. Although his posters will undoubtedly adorn many a bedroom wall in months to come, Lautner doesn't make the same kind of connection with Stewart that Pattinson did in the first film. He's been wedged into the same sort of role Bill Pullman used to play regularly back in the early 1990s: the compassionate, kind fellow who is obviously not going to have a long-term liaison with the leading lady. Check Weitz's closet: You can be sure there's a Team Edward T-shirt in there somewhere.

Stewart, meanwhile, is straitjacketed by Bella's sheer dreariness. Aside from delivering a couple of out-of-nowhere wisecracks, Bella is worrisomely one-note. When she finally decides to indulge her wild side by riding around with a sleazy biker or diving off cliffs, her expression and mood change so little it's almost laughable. "Moon" delights in depression, at the expense of its storytelling and its heroine's appeal. Remember, even Angela Chase eventually managed to deal with being rejected by Jordan Catalano back in the day; Bella, sweetheart, get help -- we're concerned.