83
Metascore
36 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterIt's rare for a movie to be at once so biting and so moving. If Ryan's future seems bleak, there's something exhilarating about a movie made with such clear-eyed intelligence.
- 100Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanUp in the Air is light and dark, hilarious and tragic, romantic and real. It's everything that Hollywood has forgotten how to do; we're blessed that Jason Reitman has remembered
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertUp in the Air takes the trust people once had in their jobs and pulls out the rug. It is a film for this time.
- 90VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyThe timing in the Clooney-Farmiga scenes is like splendid tennis, with each player surprising the other with shots but keeping the rally going to breathtaking duration.
- 90New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinUp in the Air is poised to be a smash, and Clooney--slim, dark, perfectly tailored--glamorizes insincerity in a way that makes you want to go out and lie.
- 80The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneThe film is a hybrid. Its backdrop is despair, but the foreground action has the silvery zest of a comedy.
- 80Dallas ObserverRobert WilonskyDallas ObserverRobert WilonskyIf Steven Soderbergh taught Clooney how to act in "Out of Sight," then Reitman has taught him how to stop acting. This is the most vulnerable, the most playful, the most human performance of his career.
- 70Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesReitman deserves credit for going through with a bitterly ironic ending, but the movie is marred by its warm condescension toward flyover country.
- 50Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanUp in the Air goes down like a sedative. This is a movie that's easy to like--and to dislike as well.
- 40Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichReitman, who also cowrote the screenplay, feels the constant need to "deepen" his characters, granting them wants and motivations--especially during the moralistic third act--that are totally alien to how they're initially portrayed.