Gawker
When Juno, the 16-year-old heroine of the movie being marketed hardest to my generation this holiday season, tells her best friend she's pregnant, the friend's first reaction is, "Honest to blog?" CLUNK. But in spite of being forewarned about that line in the movie's ubiquitous T.V. spots, and in spite of David Denby's New Yorker rave—"Juno is a coming-of-age movie made with idiosyncratic charm and not a single false note"—I still held out high hopes for alternastripper memoirist turned screenwriter Diablo Cody's collaboration with 'Thank You For Smoking' director Jason Reitman. But guess what? There are false notes aplenty in this trytoohardy movie. Honest to blog!
When we're first introduced to Juno, she's taking pregnancy tests in a convenience store bathroom and dispassionately blurting the results to everyone within earshot, including Rainn Wilson, the clerk, who calls her "homeskillet." Never having met Juno before, it's tough for us to tell what's behind her oversharing. Are she and Rainn longtime pals? Is she acting studiedly blase, or is she catatonic with shock? David Edelstein has theorized that Juno's just acting her age, or more specifically, acting her demographic: "she's a poster girl (or will be) for the Facebook Generation—the one with zero sphere of privacy."
But later in the film, we see her sweating out her decision to tell her parents about the pregnancy and worrying what kids at school will think. Tone-deaf slang aside, this contradiction is the film's biggest flaw: is being pregs a big deal to Juno, or is it all just a "shenanigan"?
It's also hard to believe in Juno's feelings for her impregnator and One True Love, Michael Cera's Paulie Bleek. True, he is played by Michael Cera, he does wear running shorts pretty much throughout the film, and he does have the 'endearing' habit of eating lots of orange Tic-Tacs. Based on those attributes, and on his, like, three lines, we're meant to root for his and Juno's romance and to understand when, towards the end of the film, Juno apologizes for having been "a bitch" to him.
Huh? Honey, you told him you were pregnant and he stood there across the yard from you all blank and George Michael Bluth-y! A little bitchiness was in order! This kind of missing emotional nuance undermines every moment in the movie that's supposed to be moving, and no amount of heartstring-manipulation from the twee soundtrack can pick up the slack.
About that soundtrack: besides a couple of Tigermilk tracks, the movie is almost entire scored to songs by the alt-folk band the Moldy Peaches. Those jangly duets—clever and catchy at first listen, clearly in love with their own cleverness and rough edges, decreasingly charming upon repeated listening—suit the movie perfectly.
Comments
Sometimes I think you just don't want to be happy, Emily.
What killed this movie was a lack of detached mumbling.
Oh and Michael Cera. Can someone stop that fucker from acting?
Is this not a new side of your talents, Ms. Gould?
Whoa.
This should serve you well in future gigs.
As a person who dealt with teenage pregnancy, I'm classifying this movie under Fantastical Science Fiction.
I think this film is worthy of seeing and clicking.
@grandmoffbastard: The slang was pretty jarring, although I think "Fuck it, Thailand!" was kinda classic. And there's some great, subtle acting, like Jason Bateman's obnoxious little smile that he can't hide in his last scene with Jennifer Garner.
they're gonna want that check back
We're supposed to root for them because they're young cute white kids. Duh!
Bring back the Bluths!
How do they use the Peaches' "Who's Got the Crack?"
@Pope John Peeps II: I'm with you. He was the worst thing about Superbad.
OK, so that first scene was horrible, and the lingo is really grating...but it gets toned down after the beginning. And the movie DOES turn moving by the end, and it's got nothing to do with the soundtrack.
Advertiser was advertising.
@Sayser: Blasphemer! Have you seen Arrested Development ? That kid's comedic timing is amazing. I love him. However, this movie looks like it sucks big balls.
how dare you diss george michael bluth, in any form!
@Smitros:
That was my first thought, too. Great review.
I want to know what movies Em did like this year, just for some insight.
after much anticipation, i saw it last night and was a bit underwhelmed. the score made me wanna punch myself in the nuts at times. way too fucking cutesy.
yes, the film did have its moments and perhaps i went into it with lofty expectations, but i kind of left the theater with that feeling that you get when a girl tells you "i give great head" and she then proceeds to mutilate your cock with her teeth so bad that you have to conjure up images in your head of every porn you've ever seen in order to convince yourself that the head is good enough to make you cum.
yeah.
but i'm still crushing on diablo cody.
This movie is a good argument for abortion.
Ballsy review, considering the Juno ads all over the page. Stick it to the man!
Michael Cera has rather girlish thighs...
Emily, I'll give you a few Snickers to take down "The Golden Compass" for me. I've tried, but it just turns into LiveJournally fangirl blather and I'm quite sure there's a lot of that out there.
Oh, look! Phoning-it-in hipster chick decides to prove she's original by bucking critical acclaim! This is sort of like when a Williamsburgite stops liking a band because they've gotten to be too well-known, right?
I'm all for questioning hype and indie acclaim when it's called for (e.g., I thought Waitress was bordering on unwatchable and only got good reviews because no one wanted to posthumously pan Adrienne Shelley), but. Wow. Juno?
Juno is awesome, and I don't care if everyone else in the country thinks it's awesome, too. Go see it.
Is it anything like Saved? Because the previews reminded me of it. Well, minus all the Jesus stuff, but still.
Oh Emily, this was great! The constant ramming of this movie down my throat by EVERYONE WITH GOOD TASTE was getting a bit stifling.
I said exactly the same thing, but Katherine Heigl still wouldn't sleep with me.
I haven't seen Juno, but I am wincing at the prospect of having to watch another crappy movie that my brother/Dad will most likely drag me to. Last Thanksgiving it was 'The Mist'(I only watch Steven King adaptations that aren't Carrie or the Shining on Sundays at 2pm on TBS). What will it be this time? *Shudder*
Better be careful...you know what happened to GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann after he trashed a game heavily advertised on his site:
[kotaku.com]
Oh, that's right. You don't have to be careful. Go nuts, Mama!
@pre555soul: Gouldgate to follow?
[www.joystiq.com]
@Maya_Twocents: damnit... too slow
Bring back the vapid, soulless female comedy characters!!!
BUT DID JENNIFER GARNER SURVIVE THAT SNOWSTORM???
@oovy: The Soup did a funny bit on that with Lou the chihouhou.
@the cajun boy: So you're saying I should still see it, but with the understanding that I may have to "finish myself off" later with a viewing of something more satisfying.
@the cajun boy: Oh you mean Brook Busey-Hunt (born June 14, 1978, in Chicago, Illinois), a Los Angeles-based writer and blogger?
Gag me.
Oh, and the whole "I stripped for non-fiction" thing is such a gut-wrenching cliche, too.
@oovy: Where on Earth have you been??
I didn't really feel the first scene, but I liked the movie as a whole. But, I'm pregnant and everything makes me cry in the good way, so what do I know.
In "defense" of Juno: I told so many strangers I was pregnant before I told my parents. The sales girl at Barnes and Noble who recommended What to Expect When You're Knocked-Up, the lovely woman who told me not to buy it, the woman at the fancy-cheese counter, even the lady at Whole Foods who asked when I bought the OTC prenatal vitamins.
Anyway, the soundtrack also sucked.
Just tell me this.
Is this film the 2007 equivalent of Little Miss Sunshine, i.e. a movie that my white, liberal, pseudo-hipster friends loved but i thought was just ok.
I dunno, I'd like to see a movie in which a smart teenage girl opts for an abortion. It could show that it's a difficult choice for her, but one with which she's satisfied.
@karion:
Emily LOVED Saw IX: The Commenters Die Screaming.
I'm still going to see it, but you took all the fun out of it, Emily.
I know -- I REALLY wanted to like it, and was really looking forward to it. Juno's dialogue was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too fake/cutesy. Really got on my nerves after a while.
@LolCait: Just having some spine surgery.
@fiveinchtaint: yes!
@oovy: good times.
@LolCait: And I've only managed to come up for air for a sec because I'm defying my pain meds today, they're making me ca-RAY-ZAY.
@surfacenoise76: I would like to see that movie, too, but as my friend pointed out after Juno, it would probably be horrible boring.
Young woman gets pregnant, struggles with the decision a wee bit, gets a ride to the doctor from her quirky next door neighbor, life goes on...
"no envious Juno sat cross-legged over the nativity of any man's intellectual offspring" -- John Milton
(just for the record -- no heartfelt gamine sex here)
@HeyThereKiller: Vulcan Mind Meld!
@ftrain: I liked it much better than Little Miss Sunshine, which started out okay, but was totally annoying by the end. Juno was in reverse: the lingo-heavy opening (and was that product placement for Sunny-D?) made me antsy, but the film won me over by credits time. And the fact that it had parent characters that weren't idiots and a smart teen girl were extra credit.
Meh. What were you expecting? There are some hilarious lines, Ellen Page is pretty great, no it's not groundbreaking. It's a movie written by a first-time screenwriter who has painstakingly crafted an image, and directed by Ivan Reitman's kid. It's exactly what I thought it would be.
But it does have J.K. Simmons telling a little girl that he "will kick [her] monkey butt" so it's not all bad.
@surfacenoise76: Something close to that was depicted in "Degrassi: The Next Generation." Just substitute "smart teenage girl" with "stupid Canadian cheerleader who has unprotected sex with the dumb bi-polar guy in the awful jazz/rock band."
@Cesare_the_Somnambulist: Actually, I would love to see a Final Destination based on commenter executions prevented at the last minute by an IT glitch.
THANK YOU. I was just arguing about this over lunch yesterday. I'm into super-stylized dialogue as much as the next English major - meaning that (forgive me, Jesus) I do like Aaron Sorkin - but the lines in Juno were so self-consciously quirky I often cringed. I imagine the script reads really well on the page, but in the mouths of even those gifted actors they fizzled and died. That said, since Ian McShane did such miracles with Milch's rococo dialogue in Deadwood, I'd love to see him take a crack at Cody's words - who wouldn't pay $14 to hear Swearengen say "honest to blog"?
@Pope John Peeps II: He has to start acting before we can stop him.
@Pope John Peeps II: @Sayser: Y'all are crazy; he's fantastic. Plus he's a Canuck! I thought you were all about the solidarity, Peeps.
Also, @procrastinator, esq.: I saw Waitress on a plane and was surprised to find it adorable! So there.
@Conbon et al.: IT WAS A GOOD MOVIE AND ALL OF YOU PEOPLE NEED TO DIG UP THE URNS IN WHICH YOU HAVE BURIED YOUR SOULS.
@Cesare_the_Somnambulist: Heh. Yes.
@pre555soul: That is ballsy. I mean, should could get fired or something.
@oovy: Oh. Spine surgery. Happy holidays.
(Cheers to a speedy recovery!)
Hmmm. I can't decide whether or not I still want to see it. I think I'll click on this banner ad to find out more.
I just want to say, I think it's really cool that you'll give a mediocre-to-shitty review of a movie that's advertising on your website.
It actually lends a (small) degree of credibility to you guys.
@MisterHippity: You, too, Hippity.
*shakes fist*