My immediate takeaway from Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day,” which kicks off the Telluride Film Festival this afternoon at the annual patrons screening, was that it was an unexpected mature step for the filmmaker who has offered up such self-aware films as “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” “Up in the Air” and “Young Adult.” There isn’t a whiff of that tone here whatsoever. The edge that has defined Reitman’s work has been set aside while a more refined, lived-in aesthetic has taken hold.

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It’s fair to say filmmaker Jason Reitman has a bit of a history with the Telluride and Toronto film festivals. In 2005 his feature debut, “Thank You for Smoking,” sold at Toronto. Since then, three of his last four films, including this year’s “Labor Day,” have debuted at Telluride (2007’s “Juno” and 2009’s “Up in the Air” in the form of “sneak previews” secret screenings) before heading north to Toronto. It’s become a notable tradition, so we asked Reitman about his thoughts on the two environments and whether he’s superstitious enough to consider them a good luck charm at the start of the fall.

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