10. 'Up in the Air'

"To know me is to fly with me," proclaims philosopher-in-flight Ryan Bingham. "This is where I live." Technically a "career transition counselor," George Clooney's Ryan is a hatchet man for hire, forever flying to some forlorn company to fire employees for bosses who are too timid or intimidated to do it themselves. Ryan may take no pleasure in the act but he loves his job (and his accumulating frequent flyer miles). He's a 21st century traveling man who has trimmed his existence down to what can be packed into carry-on luggage and turned business class seating and the impersonal austerity of airport lounges and hotels into his comfort zone. He's spent so much time passing through life that he treats relationships like layovers: a brief, impermanent stop on a never-ending journey. Pick your own metaphor. Ryan calls it "the empty backpack" and he's even turned it into a side career as a motivational speaker. Where the film shines is in finding his rhythm, the elegant precision of his comforting ritual, the smooth familiarity of his life-in-transition existence. Clooney uses his trademark charm and easy confidence to create a character who skates along the surface until a connection with a sexy and smart fellow traveler (Vera Farmiga) starts him thinking that, "Everyone needs a co-pilot" (a revelation as sales pitches). But the film also taps into the pulse and the anxieties of our precarious times, and it gives a voice to the victims of downsizing and streamlining that go through Ryan's assembly line counseling. Clooney and director Jason Reitman make this cultural snapshot as existential odyssey funny and wry and bittersweet and ultimately painfully, tenderly human. -- Sean Axmaker