A stonger attack on capitalism than anything by Michael Moore: Up in the Air

"Up in the Air" is a more effective attack against capitalism than anything Michael Moore has ever done. It's a devastating look at the cruelty of the corporate culture, the layoffs of people who have given their lives to their work and are fired by some hired gun (George Clooney), brought in to do the dirtywork. There are great, moving, scary interviews with the laid off/fired/let go (some played by nonactors), extremely hard to watch. Part of the beauty of the film is watching the tables turn, a hotshot young girl out of biz school comes in with her plan to completely change the Clooney's company, a ridiculous (though scarily credible) idea to do the layoffs by a script, through a i-chat format. Everyone learns something by the end, and the strength of this film is that it doesn't flinch or make anything easy. It could easily have devolved into a lighthearted comedy a la The Desk Set, but it's sharper than that (for which I credit the book by Walter Kirn, which I haven't read, yet). I did have trouble with the surprise at the end (spoiler!), in which Clooney learns that his road fling, Vera FArmiga, is married with kids. Okay, sure, I can accept that she'd want a road affair as so many guys do, but if that's the case she would not have spent the weekend entangled emotionally with Clooney at his sister's wedding - nor would she be likely to have literally lied to him about her marital status. More likely she'd have said she was on the verge of divorce or something. Still, a really strong movie, well acted, great performance by Anna Kendrick (Reitman, the director, has a way with precocious young women who sound well older than their years but look younger).