I was looking for a serious movie to see on Friday, but couldn’t find one with a convenient starting time so I went to see JUNO instead. Something struck me about this film that would have made it a natural topic for discussion on this board, but I haven’t read any mention of it—anywhere.

At some point after the halfway mark in the film, the pregnant teen, Juno (Ellen Page), visits the husband, Mark (Jason Bateman), of the adoptive couple she’ll be giving her baby to. He’s alone in the big house he shares with his wife, Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), and he and Juno start talking about horror movies as he shows her a VHS tape of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ THE WIZARD OF GORE and she starts waxing rhapsodic about Dario Argento. So he puts WIZARD into the VCR and we watch a brief gory clip. She laughs approvingly and makes some kind of clever comment accepting Lewis’ virtues as a horror specialist or something (I don’t recall exactly what she said). They also share their tastes on rock music. She’s a big fan of 1970s punk and Mott the Hoople. He tries to turn her on to Sonic Youth.

“Did Tarantino do a polish on this?” I wondered. The obsession with cute young girls who like the same pop culture as older guys reminded me of both DEATH PROOF and Terry Zwigoff/Daniel Clowes’ GHOST WORLD. Well, it turns out that screenwriter Diablo Cody, the real auteur of JUNO, has been a big horror fan all her life and even name-checks Argento in her latest Entertainment Weekly column. So now we can see what DEATH PROOF and GHOST WORLD might have looked like if written by a woman. I don’t know that it’s necessarily an improvement over the earlier films, although at least it’s given us a bonafide movie star in Ellen Page. (GHOST WORLD, interestingly, made a star out of its second lead, Scarlett Johansson, rather than its lead, Thora Birch.)

Anyway, I just thought that a debate over the relative merits of Herschell Gordon Lewis and Dario Argento situated within a high-profile Oscar-nominated “indie” film like this would have generated some discussion in fan circles and if it has, I don’t know of it.

For the record, I didn’t hate JUNO, but I wasn’t enthusiastic about it. Almost everyone in it spouts the same style of glib, clever dialogue to the point where it quickly becomes a cartoon. Or a 90-minute sitcom. They all sound like Diablo Cody (in the way pretty much everybody sounds like Tarantino in, say, PULP FICTION, which at least wasn't trying to be a serious drama about teen pregnancy). It’s saved in the later stages by a dramatic scene between the two adoptive parents that actually displays some realistic behavior. To her credit, Jennifer Garner gives a thoughtful, restrained performance, especially in her later scenes, that allows an actual believable human being to penetrate all the “fun.”

I wouldn't mind so much if the film had been imagined as a farce to begin with, but to take a serious subject and turn it into a demo reel for one’s comic dialogue skills seems a bit opportunistic. (Not that I mind Diablo Cody getting script polish jobs on the basis of JUNO—imagine how much better sitcoms would be if she was writing them. Or Farrelly Brothers/Will Ferrell/Judd Apatow comedies.)

Ditto. Which is why I can't muster the energy to have this conversation again. ;)

There's stuff peppered throughout the board, and if DVD Maniacs was actually up and running right now, I'd link you to more discussion than you'd actually want, but I. Just. Can't. Do. It. Again.

I haven't seen JUNO but I already can't stand her face.



The Italians have a great expression, faccia da schiaffi, which essentially means "faces that need to be slapped." I can't think of a better candidate.

Jeez, dude. Her face is something I actually do have time for. Terrific actress in any case.

Hey, I think's she's pretty--in an old-fashioned movie star kind of way--and she can act (anyone who's seen HARD CANDY would agree). Ain't nothing wrong with that face, IMHO. :D (crosses fingers hoping she dosen't go the Botox route in the future like most big-time actresses and actors sadly end up doing). Will catch JUNO hopefully sometime in the future.

Knock yourself out.




Seriously!

I'ma knock you out! I'ma slap you face! I'ma - aw, never mind.

I'm ill-suited to a go 'round with an over-six foot thyroid case like you. Being that I'm a stunted, under-six foot midget-type little person. I shouldn't start nuthin'. Juno what I'm sayin'?

You should have seen Lara Flynn Boyle guest-starring recently on LAW & ORDER. In HD. She looks like a puppet. It was very depressing to look at her. She can't even open her mouth to speak.

Bet she can still smoke a cigarette with evident and withering attitude, though.

I am exactly six feet and precisely correct in all of my kneejerk opinions.

I feel sad about Lara Flynn Boyle. It's weird to look better in middle age than many of the hot actresses of my wonder years.

Really? You post taller...

I'm sure her fiercely independent spirit will continue to shine through!

Dude, you morphed her into co-star Jennifer Garner! Why must you ruin everything?!

Wow, this thread went to hell fast. And in more ways than this paisan cares to list. <_<

Anywho... I liked Juno enough to stick in in my 11-20 list for best of 2007. Liked it, didn't love it. I think it's a cute script that's sometimes too caught up in how cute it is, but is bolstered into a nearly great film by one hell of a cast. J K Simmons rocks. Allison Janney too. I could see a whole other movie just about them. And I think Jason Reitman already has topped his dad twice in the directing department. I look forward to his next film.

My only exposure to Diablo Cody was seeing Juno, catching a couple pictures of her and a few quotes by her online, then seeing her sweet and honest reaction up on the Oscar stage. It seems that too many people are exposing themselves to too much of the promotional hoo-hah hype machine that saturates the media.* Cody wrote a decent first-timer script, that's the only purpose she has for me as a moviegoer, and I don't really care about anything else she does or says in front of a microphone with the encouragement of hungry reporters. Hence, I suffer no Diablo Backlash, thank you very much. Same goes for Tarantino. I like him behind the camera and buried in Final Draft, not so much when tossing off opinions to TV cameras. Judging these people based on what their job isn't doesn't strike me as a winning game.

Strange to read this film described as a serious teen pregnancy drama. Out of all the reams of commentary on Juno, I haven't come across that perspective. I thought we had something much closer to an 80s John Hughes type of situation, mostly teen comedy with a touch of human relationship drama added in for flavor.

Anyone else think that Jason Bateman's character kinda got treated shabbily at the end of the film? Sure, he's somewhat immature, irresponsible, and a bit underhanded in his pre-emptive loft buying. But I still saw him as part of this 3-couple story. I would have liked to have seen a quick shot of him during the final montages, perhaps showing him in a nice big loft for all his movie and music shwag, but utterly alone. The movie didn't seem quite complete without a final beat for him.

*Similar thing happened some years back with Shakespeare In Love, a perfectly nice little film with a nice little performance by Paltrow. But the endless hype machine brought on an ugly backlash that I felt the film (judged purely by itself) didn't deserve.

Sorry to interrupt. We now return you to our esteemed Mobius Beauty Pageant judges...

Hey there, shorty! ;)

And William, I thought I remembered there was a final shot or two of Bateman near the end, showing what he was doing...

...One of the problems in our media and soundbite saturated modern cultural landscape is that one is constantly inundated by hype and peripheral chatter about films, TV shows, books, and products that one might enjoy if given half the chance, but what ends up happening is that if you don't watch something the second it comes out, the avalanche of "You must see X" ends up making you not want to go near it. One of the wonderful things for cinema-lovers is the joy of discovery. When free of expectations, the joy of finding something that zigs when it usually zags or just approaches something with a particularly singular perspective. Hype or intense negative publicity throws expectations out of whack.

Personally, I'm a bit of a contrarian, and when something is massively reviled, it makes me more curious, than when something is praised to the heavens. Bad reviews for Gods and Generals made me HAVE to see it in the theatre; insane chatter about Borat made me not want to go near it... (I've since seen Borat on HBO, after the furor died down, and nearly blacked out laughing at one point...)

So to steer the discussion back to more "serious" matters, why did a movie that elicited such a tempered reaction make it onto any kind of list? Did somebody put a gun to your head and demand that you short list the best films of 2007?

Yes... yes. I did not see his face... only the gun. They call him Erik Nelson.

Oh, you are not.

Put me down as someone else who thinks JUNO is fine, but not that special (not even in Blu-ray). Simmons, Janney and Garner are very good, and I liked Ellen Page. I didn't believe any of the characters existed in the real world, and I'm pretty sure 16-year-old girls don't know who Soupy Sales is.

If JUNO was one of 2007's five best films, it was a bad year for movies.

It isn't, and it wasn't.

Since my only publically offered statement on this movie was resoundingly negative - The endlessly precious and self-conciously quirky songs that, despite including some fine songs added up to a near suicide-inducing whole - I will note that, soundtrack aside, I found the movie entertaining. Now, mind you, I think that was largely on the strength of the actors. I can't imagine the screenplay holding up very well with lesser actors, quite frankly.

Cracked.com presents If JUNO Was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest

If the cast of JUNO had performed that script as a skit at the Oscars, I would have taken back everything bad I've said about Hollywood in the last ten years. (Well, let's not get carried away--make it the last nine years.)