Most movies exist in a sort of cultural vacuum, too addicted to rehashing genre conventions to explore the realities of the contemporary world outside the cinema’s doors. The most successful, transformative filmmakers have transcended those limitations, producing assured stylistic works that also say something about the times we live in.

Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, his best film, reaffirms his up-and-coming place in the pantheon of those great directors. With a precise tone that expertly blends humor and pathos, it’s a movie rife with small, truthful moments and pitch perfect character detail. It’s also a film of the American here and now, rooted in an on-the-go, technologically oriented society facing a crisis only survivable through genuine human connections.

The picture, adapted from the Walter Kirn novel of the same title, stars George Clooney as a corporate downsizer named Ryan Bingham. He’s paid to fire people, spending his life passing through antiseptic airport terminals, inhaling the recycled air on planes and bringing bad news from one quick layover to the next. He loves his solitary existence and cherishes the experience of avoiding the concerns of reality, simply soaring through the clouds from one rental car depot and low-key airport hotel to the next.

Things change, however, when his boss (Jason Bateman) brings in recent college graduate Natalie (Anna Kendrick) in an attempt to freshen up their business model. If the professional firer wants to avoid the unemployment line himself, the boss implies, he’d do well to take Natalie with him on his continental tour. At the same time, the commitment phobic Ryan has begun a series of dalliances with Alex (Vera Farmiga), a colleague who tells him that when he thinks of her “think of you with a vagina.”

More comprehensively than any movie I’ve seen, Up in the Air evokes the essence of the airport experience. It reconstitutes the mundane activity of passing through security and boarding your plane as one with profound implications. The airport is analogous to Limbo, a place that’s suspended between here and there. It’s the launching pad for people looking for an escape, heaven for those wedded to their work and forever on the move. With images like a long shot that frames Clooney against floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on a runway and the tracking shots that follow him on an automated mover as he heads towards his gate, Reitman presents the airport as the mirror of a man lost in a sea of commotion.

In playing that man, Clooney subverts his dapper image in small, resonant steps. The character’s inner troubles set in subtly in his performance, which first presents Ryan as almost comically sure of himself and set in his ways. When the actor beams his characteristically broad smile during one of his motivational speeches, as he talks about the need to lighten the load of one’s personal connections, you believe every bit of what he’s selling. Yet Clooney draws out the loneliness that eats at the character by gradually employing less of that smile and emphasizing a pained look that jarringly contrasts with his heretofore dapper demeanor. Prolonged silences derived from deep rooted pain supplant the cockiness, Clooney’s work shifts to emphasize the still sadness and Reitman employs close-ups that let his star reveal an unexpected vulnerability.

It’s to the great credit of both men that they keep Ryan grounded and complicated, even as he takes on the burden of symbolizing a society driven to fatal distraction by its addiction to modern conveniences. He’s both a representative of the capitalist system run amok and a guardian of humanist principles. When Natalie proposes the institution of an Internet firing system he vehemently objects, and he has a talent for instilling feelings of hope and dignity in the people he lays off. As he had in Juno, Reitman demonstrates a gift for drawing out the emotion in a sequence, staying focused on the right characters for the right amount of time, never hurrying to the next shot and (in his work with co-writer Sheldon Turner) crafting dialogue that gets at the heart of who we are and what we feel.

And that, ultimately, is what Up in the Air is about. With interviews with real laid off workers sprinkled throughout, and the threat of unemployment looming, the movie tells the story of a man learning to value more than the frequent flier miles he’s accrued and the various advantage points he’s saved at chains like Hertz and Hilton. It’s about breaking free from the corporate system, celebrating the freedom to act spontaneously and daring to reach out to others, no matter how messy things might get. The naturalistic flow of its dialogue, which unfolds in the rhythms of real world conversations, and the ease with which the narrative combines moments of sharp, deadpan comedy and heartfelt drama further establish the 32-year-old Reitman as perhaps the great filmmaking talent of his generation.

The Upside: This is a film of enormous, subtle power, crafted with an eye for the complexities of human behavior. It stays with you for a long time.

The Downside: There really isn’t one.

On the Side: The National Board of Review named it the best film of the year, the first in what will surely be many such designations.

Watch the trailer for Up in the Air below:

On the surface, Bright Star marks a rather startling departure for Jane Campion, the Oscar winning writer-director best known for unique, explicit explorations of human sexuality like The Piano and In the Cut. It’s a PG rated, 19th century set affair and the nudity is restricted to the occasional bared leg. But anyone familiar with the passionate, free-flowing verse of John Keats (Ben Whishaw) will recognize that Campion’s returned again to her most familiar subject in depicting the poet’s romance with neighbor Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish).

It’s a film that sacrifices physical sensuality for that found in the composition of a couplet, in words like these from the sonnet Keats wrote from which the film derives its name: “Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, to feel forever its soft fall and swell, awake forever in a sweet unrest.” The picture trades in restraint, as any unfolding in high society 19th century England must, but all one need do is look beyond the stilted awkwardness with which Keats propels the courtship forward to discover a work blessed with keen insight into the heart and soul.

Shot without a wealth of garish period detail, mostly focusing on naturally lit interiors and impressionistically colored exteriors, the movie begins with the uncomfortably shy Keats’ introduction to the headstrong Fanny and traces the slow but steady development of their romance. The usual impediments develop. A bad case of jealousy bewitches Keats’ best friend and writing partner Charles Brown (Paul Schneider) and the still anonymous poet’s lack of an income reduces his desirability to everyone but Fanny.

Yet none of these obstacles come across as the forced clichés they might have in the hands of a lesser filmmaker. Charles is big, brash and often rude, but his resentment for Fanny never seems outsized for an individual desperate to keep his preternaturally talented friend on target. Though Mrs. Brawne (Kerry Fox) raises her objections to the pairing, she doesn’t act as the typical comically overwrought mother type one expects from films of the period. Rather than obsessing over money and relentlessly driving her daughter away from her true love, she recognizes the depth of Fanny’s feelings and comes to support her. Campion enriches the film with her eye for the complexities in relationships, particularly her refusal to codify human behavior strictly in shades of good vs. evil, us vs. them.

The reduction in breadth — deemphasizing the wider world for the small, more personal one Keats and Fanny share — creates an atmosphere of steadfast focus that allows the smallest nuances to play out as they should. Unconcerned with the frenetic pacing that’s become the increasing cinematic standard Campion creates a deliberately built atmosphere to luxuriate in, one marked by leisurely outdoor strolls caught in wide shots, thoughtful conversations, intimate family dinners and good, old-fashioned pining. When the characters speak they do so thoughtfully, expressing their feelings in verse, through anecdotes or the words of souls wiser than their years.

The role of Keats falls in line with the introspective dreamer parts Whishaw played in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and I’m Not There, and few current actors are quite as accomplished at using expressions and mannerisms, like constantly darting eyes, to suggest profound inner torment. However, the picture takes Fanny’s perspective and is in large part Cornish’s show. She projects strength and vulnerability as a woman ahead of her time in every sense: professionally, in an age of very limited options for women, she designs clothes. Personally, she believes the desires of the heart transcend all. The actress, a casting coup for Campion, reveals the full measure of Fanny’s deep, powerful love for Keats and invaluably assists the transformation of a film about an unconsummated relationship into a work of intense erotic feeling.

The Toronto Film Festival has announced its lineup for Midnight Madness. And among this year’s selection are some highly anticipated blood-baths from horror masters, Oscar winners and martial arts masters.

First and foremost is the newly titled Survival of the Dead, from director George Romero. Also among the list is Diablo Cody’s teen cheerleader flick Jennifer’s Body, in which a half-naked Megan Fox eats boys. There is the long-awaited actioner Bitch Slap, which we saw footage of at last year’s Comic-Con, which sends up the Grindhouse genre with a trio of hot ladies. And finally, if you’re in Toronto and you miss Ong Bak 2, there’s something wrong with you. Need proof? Read Rob Hunter’s glowing review of the film from SXSW.

Jennifer’s Body
(dir. Karyn Kusama, USA)
Jennifer’s Body tells the story of small-town high-school student Jennifer (Megan Fox) who is possessed by a hungry demon and transitions from being “high school evil”-gorgeous (and doesn’t she know it), stuck up and ultra-attitudinal-to the real deal: evil/evil. The glittering beauty becomes a pale and sickly creature jonesing for a meaty snack, and guys who never stood a chance with the heartless babe take on new lustre in the light of her insatiable appetite. Meanwhile, Jennifer’s best friend, Needy (Amanda Seyfried), long relegated to living in Jennifer’s shadow, must step-up to protect the town’s young men, including her nerdy boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons). Written and executive produced by Oscar®-winner Diablo Cody (Juno). Watch the trailer below:

A Town Called Panic
(dir. Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, Belgium/Luxembourg/France)
An outlandish animation style captures the absurd wit and surreal adventures of plastic toys Cowboy, Indian and Horse.

Bitch Slap
(dir. Rick Jacobson, USA)
In this campy action comedy from the creators of Xena and Hercules, three hot-blooded women try to uncover some booty in the desert using feminine charms, fists and machine guns. Watch the trailer below:

Daybreakers
(dir. Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig, Australia/USA)
Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill star in this sci-fi horror about a future populated by vampires where humans are the minority. Watch the trailer below:

George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead
(dir. George A. Romero, Canada)
Master director George A. Romero returns to his world of the undead, this time pitting two feuding clans in the middle of the fallout of a zombie epidemic.

The Loved Ones
(dir. Sean Byrne, Australia)
A troubled teen’s prom dreams are shattered by a series of painful events that take place under the mirrored disco ball, involving syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer in this wild mash-up of Pretty in Pink and Misery.

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
(dir. Tony Jaa, Thailand)
Martial-arts superstar Tony Jaa stars in and directs this epic tale of revenge set hundreds of years in the past. Featuring a huge cast and hordes of elephants, this prequel takes Jaa’s skills to the next level, showcasing him as a master of a wide range of martial-arts styles – while proving him to be a promising director as well. Watch the trailer below:

[REC] 2
(dir. Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, Spain)
In the follow-up to the acclaimed [REC], a SWAT team enters the old apartment to control an epidemic with terrifying results.

Solomon Kane
(dir. Michael J. Bassett, United Kingdom)
From Robert E. Howard, the legendary creator of Conan, comes this tale of a savage mercenary in sixteeth-century Century England who owes the devil his soul and seeks to redeem himself by fighting evil.

Symbol
(dir. Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan)
Japanese comedy superstar Hitoshi Matsumoto (DAINIPPONJIN) stars in and directs this absurd and outlandish comedy about a man trying to escape a unique dilemma.

For more information about the Toronto Film Festival — which takes place from September 10-19th — head on over to the fest’s official website: TIFF.net.

Pass the bananas, because the 34th Toronto International Film Festival announced today that it will open with the world premiere of Jon Amiel’s Charles Darwin biopic Creation. Creation stars Paul Bettany as Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, and is based on the unintentionally-hilariously-titled biography Annie’s Box.

The festival, slated to begin on September 10^th, is usually opened with a Canadian premiere. Lucky for us, Canada hasn’t made any movies worth watching this year. Piers Handling, Director and CEO of Toronto International Film Festival, said, “we are pleased to open the Festival with such an impassioned look at Charles Darwin, especially on the year marking the 200th anniversary of his birth.”

Unnamed heretic representatives for the festival described the film as “part ghost story, part psychological thriller, part heart-wrenching love story. Torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place,” they detail, “Darwin finds himself caught in a struggle between faith and reason, love and truth.”

Along with Creation, TIFF will also feature the world premiere of FSR Staff Pick The Invention of Lying, and resident pothead pick Leaves of Grass. Other highlights include Soderbergh’s The Informant!, and FSR Staffer Rob Hunter’s #1 turn-on of 2009, the Asian-filled feature film Mother.

Here’s the initial lineup of Gala premiere and special presentation selection, with a description of each film provided by TIFF:

Galas

Get Low
Aaron Schneider, USA World Premiere
Inspired by the true story of Felix “Bush” Breazeale, this stately frontier drama stars Robert Duvall as a backwoods eccentric who stages his own funeral—while still alive. Ten thousand people arrive to hear him speak and to learn why this local legend exiled himself 40 years ago to the foothills of Eastern Tennessee. Set in the early 1930s, Get Low is a story of mystery and discovery that speaks of timeless things. Can we know who we are? Should we judge anyone? Is there redemption for those of us lost in the dark catacombs of our past? Also starring Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black.

The Invention of Lying
Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, USA World Premiere
From Ricky Gervais, the award-winning creator and star of the original BBC series The Office and HBO’s Extras, comes the new romantic comedy The Invention of Lying, which takes place in an alternate reality where lying—even the concept of a lie—does not even exist. Everyone—from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street—speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when a down-on-his-luck loser named Mark suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. In a world where every word is assumed to be the absolute truth, Mark easily lies his way to fame and fortune. But lies have a way of spreading, and he begins to realize that things are getting out of control when some of his tallest tales are being taken as, well, gospel. With the entire world now hanging on his every word, there is only one thing Mark has not been able to lie his way into: the heart of the woman he loves.

Max Manus
Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, Norway/Denmark/Germany North American Premiere
The film is based on the true story of Norway’s most colourful resistance fighter Max Manus, and follows him from the outbreak of World War II until the summer of peace in 1945. After fighting against the Russians during the Winter War in Finland, Max returns to a German-occupied Norway. He joins the active resistance movement, and becomes one of the most important members of the so-called “Oslo Gang”, famous for their spectacular raids against German ships in Oslo harbour.

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Lee Daniels, USA Canadian Premiere
Lee Daniels’s Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in 1987 Harlem, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, an illiterate African-American teenager who is pregnant for the second time by her absent father and abused by a poisonously angry mother. Despite her experiences, Precious has a latent understanding that other possibilities exist for her, and jumps at the chance to enroll in an alternative school. There she encounters Ms. Rain, a teacher who will start her on a journey from pain and powerlessness to self-respect and determination. The film stars Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and introduces Gabourey Sidibe.

Special Presentations

The Boys Are Back
Scott Hicks, Australia/United Kingdom World Premiere
Based on the memoir by Simon Carr, Scott Hicks (Shine) directs The Boys Are Back, inspired by the poignant, comic and uplifting true story of a man who must suddenly raise his two sons alone. After the untimely passing of his second wife, the ill-prepared Joe (Clive Owen), who is dealing with his own loss, is confronted with the daily challenges of parenthood while coping with his young son Artie’s expressions of grief. They are soon joined by Harry, Joe’s teenage son from his first marriage, who brings his own personal “baggage” into the mix. Also starring Laura Fraser and Emma Booth.

Bright Star
Jane Campion, United Kingdom/Australia North American Premiere
A drama based on the secret love affair between 23-year-old English poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), an outspoken student of fashion. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, they rode a wave of romantic obsession that deepened as their troubles mounted. Only Keats’s illness and untimely death proved insurmountable.

City of Life and Death
Lu Chuan, China International Premiere
From acclaimed director Lu Chuan comes a devastating and controversial epic film based on the most atrocious holocaust in Chinese history, the Nanjing Massacre. The story unfolds as the Japanese take over the city in 1937 and everyone is struggling to survive in a city where death is easier than life. Starring Liu Ye and Gao Yuanyuan.

Cracks
Jordan Scott, Ireland World Premiere
In an austere and remote girls’ boarding school, the most elite clique of girls are the illustrious members of the school’s diving team. As they compete for the attention of their glamorous teacher (Eva Green), the arrival of a beautiful Spanish girl disrupts the delicate social balance. In an attempt to put differences aside, a secret midnight party takes place that will change their lives forever.

Hadewijch
Bruno Dumont, France World Premiere
Hadewijch is a religious novice whose ecstatic, blind faith leads to her expulsion from a convent. Returning to her former life, Hadewijch reverts to being Celine, a Parisienne and daughter of a diplomat. However, her passion for God, rage and encounters with Khaled and Nassir soon lead her down a dangerous path.

The Informant!
Steven Soderbergh, USA North American Premiere
Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), suddenly turns whistleblower. Exposing his company’s multinational price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre imagines himself as a kind of de facto secret agent. Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn’t been quite forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre’s ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre’s rambling imagination. Based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history.

Leaves of Grass
Tim Blake Nelson, USA World Premiere
Bill Kincaid, an Ivy League classics professor, returns to rural Oklahoma to bury his dangerously brilliant identical twin brother who had remained in their native state to grow hydroponic pot. Leaves of Grass is a fast-paced comic film that contrasts two distinct approaches to life. Featuring Edward Norton in the role of each twin.

London River
Rachid Bouchareb, United Kingdom/France/Algeria North American Premiere
This intimate drama tells the story of two people, a Muslim man and a Christian woman, who are immediately affected by the July 2005 London bombings. Both of them are drawn to the British capital when their children go missing on the day of the attacks. Putting aside their cultural differences, they will give each other the strength to continue the search for their children and maintain their faith.

Mao’s Last Dancer
Bruce Beresford, Australia/USA/China World Premiere
Adapted from his internationally best-selling memoir, the film tells the true story of Li Cunxin, a Chinese-trained ballet dancer. Plucked from his childhood village, subjected to years of vigorous training and threatened during the Cultural Revolution, Cunxin decides to leave China at great risk to himself and those he loves, for an uncertain future.

Moloch Tropical
Raoul Peck, Haiti/France World Premiere
A democratically elected “President” and his closest collaborators are getting ready for a state celebration. But in the morning of the event, he wakes up to find the country inflamed and the streets in turmoil. Despite the situation, the President does not want to face reality and refuses to resign. Overwhelmed, he plunges into a deep mental confusion as the events unfold. Set in a castle in the clouds, Moloch Tropical is a Shakespearian, behind-the-scenes depiction of the end of power.

Mother
Bong Joon-ho, South Korea North American Premiere
A unique noir thriller that digs into the secrecy surrounding a terrible murder and the mystery of a mother’s primal love for her son. The films of director Bong Joon-ho regularly, and brilliantly, break with convention, thanks to an imagination that is not confined to the accepted parameters of humour, suspense or horror – Mother is no exception.

Ondine
Neil Jordan, Ireland/USA World Premiere
A lyrical, modern fairy tale that tells the story of Syracuse (Colin Farrell), an Irish fisherman whose life is transformed when he catches a beautiful and mysterious woman (Alicja Bachleda) in his nets. His daughter Annie (Alison Barry) comes to believe that the woman is a magical creature, while Syracuse falls helplessly in love. However, like all fairy tales, enchantment and darkness go hand in hand.

Partir
Catherine Corsini, France International Premiere
Suzanne (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a well-to-do married woman and mother in the south of France. Her idle bourgeois lifestyle gets her down and she decides to go back to work as a physiotherapist. Her husband agrees to fix-up a consulting room for her in their backyard. When Suzanne and the man (Sergi Lopez) hired to do the building meet, the mutual attraction is sudden and violent. Suzanne decides to give up everything and live this all-engulfing passion to the fullest.

Scheherazade Tell Me a Story
Yousry Nasrallah, Egypt North American Premiere
Hebba is the host of a successful political talk show in present-day Cairo. Karim, her husband, is deputy editor-in-chief of a government-owned newspaper. When Party big shots imply his wife is meddling with opposition politics, Karim convinces her to start a series of talk shows around issues involving women. Hebba knows, of course, that women’s issues are political. But she could not imagine to what extent, and the tension eventually leads to the break-up of her marriage.

Solitary Man
Brian Koppelman and David Levien, USA World Premiere
Ben Kalmen (Michael Douglas) is feeling his age, but you wouldn’t know it from the company he keeps. A former mogul with a chain of car dealerships, until legal troubles knocked him out of business, Ben now keeps a grip on the world through his relationships with women – many women. The cast also includes Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary Louise Parker and Jenna Fischer.

Valhalla Rising
Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark/United Kingdom World Premiere
It is 1000 AD. For years, One Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength, has been held prisoner by the Norse chieftain Barde. Aided by Are, a boy slave, One Eye slays his captor and together he and Are escape, beginning a journey into the heart of darkness. On their flight, One Eye and Are board a Viking vessel, but the ship is soon engulfed by an endless fog that clears only as the crew sights an unknown land. As the new world reveals its secrets and the Vikings confront their terrible and bloody fate, One Eye discovers his true self.

Vengeance
Johnnie To, Hong Kong/France North American Premiere
A father comes to Hong Kong to avenge his daughter, whose family was murdered. Officially, he’s a French chef. Twenty years ago, he was a killer. Vengeance is a moody, noir-ish tour-de-force, starring French pop icon Johnny Hallyday.

The Vintner’s Luck
Niki Caro, New Zealand/France World Premiere
Set in early 19th century France The Vintner’s Luck tells the compelling tale of Sobran Jodeau, an ambitious young peasant winemaker and the three loves of his life—his beautiful and passionate wife Celeste, the proudly intellectual baroness Aurora de Valday and Xas, an angel who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Sobran. A fantastical creature with wings that smell of snow, Xas turns out to be an unconventional mentor. Under his guidance Sobran is forced to fathom the nature of love and belief and in the process, grapples with the sensual, the sacred and the profane—all in pursuit of the perfect vintage.