For those of you who rushed out to see the movie during its big city engagement before it opens wide on Christmas day will know, Up in the Air is the story of Ryan Bingham, a man who travels around the country firing people who have been downsized by their respective companies. Rich thinks this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, if we could all still afford a loaf of bread or a knife to cut it with.

Here is an America whose battered inhabitants realize that the economic deck is stacked against them, gamed by distant, powerful figures they can't see or know. Up in the Air may be a glossy production sprinkled with laughter and sex, but it captures the distinctive topography of our Great Recession as vividly as a far more dour Hollywood product of 70 years ago, The Grapes of Wrath, did the vastly different landscape of the Great Depression.

Steinbeck did actually tell the story of Up in the Air in The Grapes of Wrath. Early in the novel, he gives a few pages to the bank men who came to kick farmers off their land:

Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some were afraid, and some worshiped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling. If a bank or a finance company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank or the Companyneedswantsinsistsmust have as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them. These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time. Some of the owner men were a little proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters. The owner men sat in the cars and explained. You know the land is poor. You've scrabbled at it long enough, God knows.

And then Steinbeck moved on to the true characters, the Joads and their trek west, full of empty dreams and shattered promises. The only way this movie — that tries to humanize the corporate hatchet man — could be anything like The Grapes of Wrath is if John Steinback came back from the dead and rewrote it so that it focused on and humanized the men who show up at the Joad's house to tack a foreclosure notice on the front door. But he didn't because his tale is about the people whose livelihood was lost due to natural and financial disaster and who subsequently wander around doing anything just to survive. Through it we can sympathize with the once-proud people who have been laid low by the Great Depression.

Up in the Air, on the other hand, is a film about the man who flies around in first class collecting frequent flier miles for sport and still has a job, an expense account, an apartment, and so many hotel key cards that he doesn't even need to pony up for a night at the Milwaukee Hilton unless he wants to. After a peek into his luxe lifestyle, it asks us to feel sorry for him, because his job firing people is so hard and he doesn't have a life outside of work. He's lonely. Sad face.

While director Jason Reitman uses "real people" who lost their jobs as the sorry spectres loosed from this employment coil by Ryan, how do you think watching this movie must feel for someone who has met the Brooks Brothers-clad grim reaper in a beige conference room in their very own workplace? They're intended to muster up even the slightest bit of sympathy for this dude, who still gets a paycheck, because he doesn't have a life? Yeah, that's not salve we're putting on that wound, Frank, it's salt.

After a long season of caped-superheroes and cars smashing into things, its probably only fair that we should then eat our vegetables and be forced to sit through a few month of loving portrayals of war, disease, genocide, aging, divorce, poverty and Hitler.

And there is nothing that gets development execs more excited than a torn-from-the-headlines bummer; after all, events like the Iraq War or the Economic Collapse have built in name recognition...and people have proven they are interested by living in a world dominated by them without killing themselves.

The problem, as Hollywood perpetually discovers, when it seeks to market its latest Iraq film for instance, is that when people look for entertainment (the condition they still amazingly associate with their visits to the multi-plex) they don't think of it in terms of shelling out a week's pay to be bludgeoned for two hours by a big screen version of the same hopeless depressing mess they've been forced to hear about all day on their cable news.

In the case of Up In the Air, the about to be released Oscar darling starring George Clooney as a downsizing specialist, the LA Times documents today the challenge facing the Paramount marketing department, as they attempt to get folks to come out of their homes to enjoy a fun-filled romp through the world of mass lay-offs. Apparently, the marketeers job has been made all the more interesting by director Jason Reitman's decision to tie the film directly to current conditions by cutting in clips of real-life laid-off people talking about their real life lay-offs. Now who wouldn't call that an evening of family fun?

Well, if you are a marketeer, wondering, how do I sell that, the answer is apparently, you don't. Despite a bunch of assurances in the piece that the film resonates well with grown-up serious people, the Paramount marketing department decided not even to try to sell that line to the public. The piece reports:

But the marketing doesn't dwell on the pain of layoffs. The theatrical trailer includes only a few quick glimpses of job-loss scenes. And the teaser trailer and two clips on the movie's website include no references to unemployment whatsoever. Instead, in selling the movie, Paramount is emphasizing Bingham's journey of self-discovery, his existential isolation as a corporate consultant who lives out of his suitcase and off an expense account.

"At its heart, the movie is about making human connections," said Josh Greenstein, Paramount's co-president of marketing. "That's so relevant in the world we live in today, where, with Twitter and e-mail, people communicate without being face-to-face." To make that point, the poster for the movie features Clooney standing at an airport terminal staring out the window, with the tag line: "The story of a man ready to make a connection."

Now if only they could find a way to make clear that all these Iraq films are not about guns, or killing, or the eternal quagmire of the Middle East but about, you know, guys hanging out and talking about guy stuff, really no different than any run-of-the-mill Judd Apatow film, then theyy'd really be onto a forumla for success.

Posting his chart on twitter, Reitman breaks down all the questions he's been asked in his Up In the Air press appearances. Shown in full the chart demonstrates first of all what a deadening experience it must be, sitting in junkets and having to answer, by his count, a full 111 times, "What's it like working with George Clooney?"

However, pulling up the number two slot, the world's entertainment journalists, sparked by the big contemporary issues raised by Up in The Air, asked Reitman 96 times about the economy. No doubt these were probing questions posed by the hard-nosed financial analysts of Ok! and Hello! to the director of Juno; questions we imagine along the lines of "So the economy,...isn't that just awful?" and "What does George think of the economy?" and "If the Federal Reserve were an ice cream store, what would be its most popular flavor?"

But hey, maybe those are just the sort of questions we need to be asking if this nation is ever going to think its way out of this mess.

• For the second year in a row, Paramount and Warner Brothers led the summer box office derby, fueled by Transformers 2 and Star Trek for Paramount and Harry Potter and The Hangover for Warners. Universal landed at the bottom of the heap with a string of disappointments including Bruno, Land of the Lost and Funny People. Variety cautions, however, "Market share and profitability don't necessarily go hand in hand, since market share doesn't account for how much a studio has spent on production and marketing." Meaning just because they took in a fortune, doesn't meed they made a dime. [Variety]

• The Hollywood Reporter credits this year's four percent uptick in receipts to the higher ticket prices Hollywood conned America into paying for 3-D movies. [Hollywood Reporter]

• A tepid last weekend of the summer box office race was again won by last weekend's winner, Final Destination 3-D which took the crown with a paltry 15.4 million. To no one's shock, this weekend's releases Gamer and All About Steve both failed to catch fire. [Box Office Mojo]

• The Telluride Festival closed with strong reviews for at least a pair of films. Last year, the festival first brought Slumdog Millionaire to the world. This year, Jason Reitman's Up In the Air and Tolstoy biopic The Last Station won strong reviews. [Variety]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE COME. I'll sign your DVD. I'll sign your nutsack!

Now before a line of beaming, tracksuit-pants-wearing gentlemen of all ages and sizes starts winding its way around Fairfax, we'd like to remind everyone that Diablo's generous, nutsack-autographing offer was not meant to titillate cheap-thrill seekers. Handlers will ensure that the line move swiftly as possible, and while she'll do her best to oblige any requests, demands that she scrawl, "Your balls are the cheese to my macaroni. Love, Diablo" with a fine-point Sharpie across one's low-hanging nether-regions will most likely not be obliged.

• MONDO DIABLO: Season of the Bitch! [Diablo Cody's MySpace]

"I was really scared," he said. "I know how I felt about the children of famous filmmakers; that's how people would think of me. The perception is that you're talentless, you're a spoiled brat, and more often than not you have an alcohol or drug problem. So! That was the idea going in: 'This is what people are going to think, and they'll never think I deserved it.' Most people try to break from obscurity by going to film festivals; I was looking for obscurity. I wanted to be just another tape that got submitted."

He financed his first short, the kidney-theft comedy Operation, by selling advertising for dorm-room calendars at USC: "I thought, 'Could I ask my Pa for $8,000? I probably could, but if I do this calendar thing, then one day, if I'm at a panel on a film festival...' " Zing! Commercials followed, then Thank You For Smoking — the rest is twee history.

For the first time in years, though, Ivan topped his son: The producer/director spent 15 minutes elaborating about the development of Animal House, from its National Lampoon sketch roots to the script's first pass at Universal — which apparently could have gone better. "I remember we showed the first or second draft to the studio," he said. "They read it and said, 'This is the worst script we've ever read. This is horrible.' Nobody was interested in making this movie. We wrote about 15 drafts over a two-year period, and we kept saying, 'Look, you guys don't understand — this could be the funniest movie ever made.' Because what we thought in our young arrogance was that no one's speaking this language — the language of my generation. The Baby Boom generation had no comedic filmmakers; the closest thing we could sort of identify was M*A*S*H. ... It changed the way comedy was approached."

Reitman and company eventually wore the studio down with help from another comic. "There was some Richard Pryor movie that had a very good preview and that Universal also hated," he said. "So they said, 'Well, we hated that one, and it turned out OK; let's go make this Animal House thing."

"This is how the industry works," Jason replied. And we guess we can be thankful for that.

We guess we'll wait and see, but meanwhile, we've scanned the program for a few daily recommendations you might consider through the end of the festival — from no-budget micro-horror to a primate-centric Charlton Heston tribute to a Reitman family gab session. See them all (and add your own tips) after the jump. And give us a ride, would you? We're quiet, clean and can probably fit in your trunk.

Tonight: Start the fest in style by crashing the premiere and after-party of Wanted; assuming she shows up, it's likely the only way Entertainment Tonight can be sure Angelina Jolie has not yet made twins.

Friday, June 20: Not to be confused with Alan Ball's execrable eye-terror Towelhead, the Duplass Brothers' Baghead is a nifty comedy/horror hybrid about four struggling actors who hit a cabin in the woods to hash out a screenplay for themselves. Creative tension gives way to sexual tension, which in turn gives way to a bag-wearing homicidal maniac. What, your writing partners never tried to kill you? Alternate: Swear-A-Long Scarface at the Ford Amphitheater. It is what it sounds like.

Saturday, June 21: After eluding their damn dirty hands in April once and for all, the late Charlton Heston receives a free tribute screening of Planet of the Apes outdoors on Broxton Ave. Alternate: Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson and his Cinematic Titanic crew return for a live-on-stage lampooning of Roger Corman's The Wasp Woman.

Sunday, June 22: David Duchovny and Chris Carter drop by the Crest to show clips from X Files: I Want to Believe and deflect amateur screenwriters' offers during the Q&A to write the franchise's next film. Alternate: The engrossing, Sundance-winning doc Man on Wire, about the wack-job who walked between the World Trade Center towers on a tightrope in 1974.

Monday, June 23: Ivan and Jason Reitman chat all things Canadian and nepotistic in a conversation at the Geffen Playhouse. Alternate: Guillermo del Toro chats all things monsters and Hobbit at the Billy Wilder Theater.

Tuesday, June 24: A late revival screening of The Lost Boys promises "special guests" (someone named "Corey" is a high-percentage guess) and a preview of the straight-to-DVD sequel Lost Boys: The Tribe. Alternate: Una Noche con Antonio Banderas at el Teatro de Guillermo Wilder.

Wednesday, June 25: We haven't seen Paper or Plastic?, but any documentary about a grocery-bagging competition in Las Vegas seems virtually guaranteed to soar. Alternate: Josh Safdie's kleptomaniacal Cannes and South By Southwest sensation The Pleasure of Being Robbed.

Thursday, June 26: The Russian social "satire" Cargo 200 is arguably the bleakest, most uncommercial and bitterly amusing film we've seen this year. Which is to say we loved it. See it now or wait for Netflix. Alternate: Rob Reiner gets his spittly, hyperventilating election-year game going with a screening and discussion of his 1995 film The American President.

Friday, June 27: Night Flight: Born Again revisits the gone-but-not-forgotten program's stash of music videos, interviews, shorts and other cult artifacts that made it the compelling (if short-lived) analog to '80s-era MTV. Alternate: If that's not fringe enough for you, three hours' worth of Kuchar brothers films are screening at the same time down the street at the Billy Wilder Theater.

Saturday, June 28: Another crash-worthy gala premiere of Hellboy II: The Golden Army starts winding things down, followed by more monsters-and-Hobbit talk from Guillermo del Toro. Alternate: The Peter Bart-approved crankhead opus Heidi Fleiss: The Would-Be Madam of Crystal.

Sunday, June 30: The W Westwood hosts a 20th-anniversary screening of A Fish Called Wanda. Alternate: None. Are you kidding? Have you seen A Fish Called Wanda?

"Juno B-Sides: Almost Adopted Songs," a 15-track collection boasting a ditty performed by star Ellen Page, will debut exclusively through iTunes for a suggested list price of $9.99 on April 8, distributor Rhino Records said. Page performs 'Zub Zub,' a song written by the film's Oscar-winning screenwriter, Diablo Cody, for a scene that was eventually cut for time. Page's character bemoans her fate with such lines as "he filled me with baby batter, then we ate some orange tic tacs after."

[Director Jason] Reitman said the scene provided one of his favorite memories. "I just remember directing with my daughter strapped to my chest in a BabyBjorn (baby carrier) and the whole crew watching on as Ellen noodled around on guitar."

When we consider the original Juno soundtrack's ascent to No. 1 during the film's cultural saturation point, such ecstatic milking of the twee Juno juggernaut doesn't come as a surprise. Yet our bullshit detectors shriek at the possibility that Page's "baby batter" lament could ever be a casualty of the running-time considerations noted in this report, and even Cody's gold-plated, animal-print imagination couldn't have conjured a more muscular irony than Reitman directing the scene with an infant strapped to his chest. And no one out side Fox Searchlight's marketing department actually uses the word "Junoverse" attributed here to Reitman, do they? Will someone please confirm that this isn't actually happening? Anyone? Echo?

• Diablo Cody's 'Tara' adds players [THR]
• Juno star sings in sequel to movie soundtrack [Reuters]

· At last, Beyoncé returns to the big screen, in Obsessed, a Screen Gems thriller loosely based on those gruesome Connect Four murders you probably remember reading about a few months back. [Variety]
· Someone named Gravy will play Notorious B.I.G. in the Fox Searchlight biopic Notorious. We've never heard of Gravy, but his name is Gravy, and that's really all we need to know. Well done, Fox Searchlight casting people! [Variety]
· Thanks to its American Idol lead-in, Fox's new drama New Amsterdam wins its Tuesday night time slot, the tale of a detective incapable of dying dovetailing nicely with an hour spent with the deceptively resilient Paula Abdul. [THR]

· Juno producer Lianna Halfon: "I was on the phone with my business partner and began jumping around with my son and husband after we heard. As indie producers, we're so naturally pessimistic, so we were completely stunned. The film is unexpected and doesn't fit any genre. I also think (director) Jason (Reitman)'s nomination is the big shock." [Variety]
· Jason Reitman: ""I had been out all night at a Sundance party and I was just sitting there with my wife hoping they would blow by the directing nominations and get to get picture and then I heard my name. I couldn't believe it. I have been on the phone with everybody," he said. "The producers are just crying. Diablo has already lost her voice and Ellen is in Europe, so we have been emailing back and forth like crazy." [NY Times]
· Paul Thomas Anderson: "I'm delighted that `There Will Be Blood' has been recognized by the Academy. These nominations are a testament to the cast and crew, who I am deeply grateful to, for their talent and collaboration. ... It's a thrill to be in this." [AP]
· Marion Cotillard: "It's as if I had swallowed some fireworks or something like this. My friends and my family in Paris, they are so happy." [AP]
· Tony Gilroy: "I would never cross a picket line ever. I couldn't. I'm a 20-year member of the Writers Guild. I think whatever they work out is going to be one way or the other but, no, I could never cross a picket line. I think there's a lot of people who feel that way." [AP]

· The strike stil isn't dampening Hollywood's insatiable appetite for re-teaming, as Juno director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody will be hooking up again for Fox Searchlight's comic horror flick Jennifer's Body. [THR]
· Pierce Brosnan and director Paul Verhoeven are attached to The Thomas Crown Affair sequel which will begin shooting in January; sadly, Rene Russo's love-interest services will no longer be required, limiting today's re-teaming related excitement to the previous item. [Variety]

This weekend I attended director Jason Reitman's birthday bash for fellow Thank You For Smoking and Hard C Productions partner Daniel Dubiecki. And how did they celebrate the beginning of his momentous 30th year? With lots of hot schoolgirls in short skirts and young, pawing male actors dressed up like Harry Potter/Elvis Costello.

The party's theme was high school reunion and was aptly named 'The Hard C High School Dance', complete with dubious decorations like "I will not spank her ass" written on blackboards, and posters with phrases like "One HARD C. a day keeps the doctor away!" (Get it?). The "young Hollywood insider" demographic was represented in full force, with random celebu-spawn even making the rounds (case in point, Henry Winkler's red haired son Max Winkler, accidentally looking more like Mr. Kotter than Fonzie). The girls were decked out in slutty schoolgirl digs, while the boys looked suspiciously too comfortable in their perfectly pressed schoolboy uniforms (leading me to believe that I was among that private school elite-turned 'my-daddy-funded-my-movie' league). Several of these young heavyweights were eying the girlies around them with only the perviest of intentions (resulting in us having to make several quick getaways), and were getting their groove on to only the most sophisticated Van Halen tunes (Ah, Van Halen, the frat boy classic). If I only had a nickel for every time we heard "So, I'm starting to cast my next movie in just a few weeks if you're interested..." [Rolling eyes]

Unfortunately, our correspondent left the camera at home, but our pals at LAist were on the scene to document the flagrant perversion of Catholic school uniforms on display. Enjoy, pervs.