‘Up in the Air’ at 15: George Clooney says you’re fired

Jason Reitman’s 2009 film was perfect for its exact moment- and mostly holds up today.

Some films are ahead of their time, while others are behind the times. Up in the Air, more than any other movie in memory was absolutely perfect for the exact time when it was released.

Directed by Jason Reitman, and adapted by Reitman with Sheldon Turner from a Walter Kirn 2001 novel, Up in the Air arrived in theaters in December of 2009, 15 years ago today. That proved the perfect time for a movie about economic anxiety and large numbers of people being fired all at once.

Had Up in the Air arrived ten years later, all of the discourse about it would have centered on George Clooney’s character as a privileged white male. A year or two later, it would have served as a satire of ruthless corporate efficiency. In 2024, “HR” has a very different connotation, having become a Musk-era Twitter incel euphemism for “woman who I find annoying.” But it all landed, just perfectly, at the time that it did.