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Michael and Us

#713 - Downsize This

Michael and Us

Luke Savage and Will Sloan

Society & Culture

4.5696 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A year into the Great Recession, one film was brave enough to ask, "But what about the corporate consultants?" We discuss Jason Reitman's onetime critical darling UP IN THE AIR (2009), a film that invites us to have sympathy for the downsizers. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Transcript

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0:00.0

You know, he was a billionaire.

0:09.0

He was one of those guys who rode the world like a colossus.

0:13.5

His name was on a million things.

0:15.6

And as far as guys like that go, he doesn't seem like one of the worst ones.

0:19.8

He created Turner Classic movies.

0:22.7

He created the cartoon network. He did create CNN. So mixed legacy.

0:29.5

Was married to Jane Fonda? Right. That's pretty cool. Uh-huh. Well, I wish I was married to

0:34.6

Jane Fonda. For the man who made it possible for me to watch Dexter's Lab when I was 10, RIP.

0:41.5

Yeah.

0:42.0

He also was the chief proponent of colorization back in the 80s, which was the exciting process

0:48.1

of taking black and white movies and making them in color because back in the day,

0:53.3

they forgot to make them in color. So he did it.

0:56.7

And, you know, obviously that was a horrible innovation. It was terrible. It continues to be terrible.

1:02.3

But I've softened on colorization over the years because I think if you've seen King Kong or Casablanca like a hundred times. It's kind of fun to watch the fucked up

1:13.0

version of them. I guess. To watch the kooky version with like awful colors and stuff. Well, I mean,

1:18.5

colorization now, like it's, it's pretty tame compared to the stuff that is happening these days

1:23.9

where, you know, it won't be long before we start getting classic films where they've

1:28.1

just like AI'd another actor into the film in place of, you know, what if, what if Christopher Reeve played the Humphrey Bogart character in Casablanca, that'd be pretty like, you know, Christopher Reed. I don't know, I'm just thinking about like, I like that you didn't go for a more current actor like someone alive right now. That's that's what I'm saying because that's how it'll

1:47.3

start. It'll be like, the Trojan horse will be like, we're reviving like deceased actors. But like, okay, Heath Ledger, a better example. They will start putting Heath Ledger's likeness into things. Yeah. I bet. Well, I mean, they're already doing that now because did you know that Bruce

2:01.1

Willis or Bruce Willis's family like sold off some of his image rights? They sold off his

2:07.0

digital likeness. Yeah. So Bruce Willis is being used in like AI commercials overseas right now.

2:13.2

I think that's fucked up. I don't like that. It's happening with other artists too. And I mean,

...

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