Movies We've Just Watched discussion
Anyone seen Juno?
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Kate
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Dec 28, 2007 08:51AM

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No, not yet but I really love the screenwriter's blog and will see it soon. Ebert called it the best film of 2007.
Ed
Ed



Smart dialogue, winning heroine, achingly funny and very very real. I liked it a lot. Saw it with my 14 year old daughter and 20 year old son who both liked it and my husband, who hated it and thought the heroine was selfish. She was, but she was also 16 and messed up and very real.


( And even then the name-dropping rarely makes sense...Does the fact that Jason Bateman prefers Herschell Gordon Lewis to Dario Argento mean anything? And certainly a kid who claims to be interested mostly in punk bands twice her age would have heard of Sonic Youth long before she ever tracked down Mott the Hoople...and would certainly prefer either to the treacle neo-folk ditties that dominate the soundtrack. And would any high school prom anywhere in the late 80s actually have played "All the Young Dudes"?)

Robert, you notice I wrote that Juno was a cute movie. Which is not exactly high praise in my book. Roger Ebert supposedly said that this movie was the best of the year? And one review said that it refrains from being too clever...I'm not so sure about that. I'm riding the fence on the language being fun and clever, or hipster overkill. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
Also, I kind of got the feeling that the writers weren't quite sure what to do with Jason Bateman's character. 3/4 of the way in, his character kind of pulled a 180 degree turn-around. I felt like they were reaching for some plot resolution, despite what the characters might really do. It wasn't perfect.
Overall, "cute" movie, and I'm glad I saw it. But I don't think it needs an Oscar nomination.

I'm disappointed to hear that they may have overdone the trendy thing in this film. still want to see it though.




I love Belle and Sebastian...the Sinister.cd..?? I'll have to find it...I used to listen to that quite a bit. Thanks Arctic for bringing that memory back. :)
Ed
Ed


And if you like true indie rock, you'll love the soundtrack.





2) The girl who played the lead was great.
3) Sometimes the writing got annoying when it tried to hard, but was usually good and well acted by almost everyone in it.
4) Before I saw it, I heard comparisons to Little Miss Sunshine, and when I had seen it, I tried to put my finger on exactly why I didn't like it as much. I think I figured it out. Ready?
There is never as much of an emotional connection developed with all the different characters in this as there is in a truly fantastic movie. It has some great comedy, some fun scenes, a nice story and good acting, but it never really made me feel as emotionally invested in the characters as it would have needed to in order to get a bump from the B range to the A range for me.

Ellen Page was astounding last year's thriller "Hard Candy," and turned in good performance in the latest X-Men film, but this is by far her best.
This is a film about kids that exist everywhere, but are ignored by their middle-class parents.
Definitely the best film of 2007, with No End in Sight (doc on Iraq), a close runner up.

but as the film progresses, you see that this teenage girl really has it together and is part of a beautiful romantic relationship. she has totally supportive parents and is doing a wonderful thing by giving her baby up for adoption.
then, you begin to change your mind about the married couple. you see that the husband is really immature and totally not ready for a child. while the wife is slightly controlling, but will be a fantastic mother.
in the end, this teenage girl gives her baby to a single mother. and you're left feeling that's exactly how it should be. the film really challenges social assumptions.

Also--did anyone find a gaping hole in the plot? I wondered why Jennifer Garner's character was surprised to see Juno at her house (either time she "dropped by") when her ugly freaking van was parked out front. That kind of "detail" does not seem like it would escape the notice of a perfectionist like the character Jennifer played.
I also wondered for awhile if it was out of Michael Cera's character's personality to have asked another girl to the dance. Then I wondered if he did it just to appease Juno (Ellen Page) because she had specifically mentioned this girl to him. Finally, I decided he did it to find out if Juno were truly interested in him. I got this from his, "You were not bored . . . The Blair Witch Trial was on Starz" speech which was really sweet.
Anyway, overthinking it? Just thought I'd throw that out there. (c;

Jackie, there's much to be analyzed from Juno. I kind of felt like Juno put up a front of being hard, as a coping mechanism for dealing with her real mom leaving her. So she tried to lead MC's character to believe that she didn't love him in order to protect herself from being hurt.
I thought this movie shed a beautiful light on adoption.

I loved Alison Janey's character! Love her!

I'm glad you enjoyed the movie.





Just a coupla thought for you, coming from a woman with two daughters, and many female friends and relatives. IMHO, there are no run-of-the-mill teenage girls. Those years present an exceptionally tough passage to navigate. So many double-standards, double-binds, and just plain old b.s to get thru.
The language was smart and sassy and funny, the way teenagers talk. Even if it didn't appeal to you, Bad1news, I do think it was relevant to the movie. I don't particularly care for my mother and her friend's conversational style, but it is what they know. It bores the crap outta me but whatever, it's specifically generational.
Lastly, I know women in every possible configuration of this story; pregnant teen, step-mom of pregnant teen, adopter, etc. This film truly shows some new sides of the same old screwed-up situation.
Beth
P.S. I loved Rushmore, and I think teenage boys have a tough time, too!


I still thought it was trying too hard. I guess it's in the same group as two movies that I love, which are Little Miss Sunshine and Me and You and Everyone We Know. Those sorts of movies. Or, at least, it so desperately wanted to be like one of those movies.
I love Jason Bateman. So much.




~c

however, while i did like it for it's "cuteness" and for the quirky dialogue (i heard somewhere that the writer used to be part of the whedon-verse; buffy the vampire slayer, angel, etc, which would totally explain where that dialogue came from and why i loved it, as i am a totally unashamed fan of buff). but the reason i really liked this movie was that unlike some other recent similarly plotted stories (ahem, KNOCKED UP for instance) this one wasn't preaching about which choices were the "right" ones, or frankly, preaching about anything at all. you'd be hard pressed to find another movie in which pregnancy is the main storyline that DOESN'T take some sort of holier than thou stance, one way or the other. while i didn't love that she got pregnant as a after thought, i did love that no one disowned her for it, or tried to force their choices on her or anything like that. and i especially loved (SPOILER AHEAD) that in the end, she let jennifer garner have the baby as her own and didn't even see it or second guess herself or regret anything. no offense to anyone, but i'm sick and tired of pregnancy and childbirth and motherhood being this whole end all, be all of female existance. for some people, it is (jennifer garner's character). for some, it isn't. and there's no reason to force it or feel bad about that.
as for the trendy, it was faaaaaaaar less grating and annoying and obvious than garden state, or any zach braff anything (besides scrubs of course).


Beth
P.S. See my earlier posts on this, I have very strong feelings about this one. Good luck, get yourself something to drink before you go in because you will need it to stop the hiccups from laughing!