We went to go see Juno last night. I was pretty sure I was going to like it so I was surprised to really dislike the beginning of the movie. I think overall the movie redeemed itself, but it was a lot more Napoleon Dynamite (which I hated) than I thought it was going to be. The title sequence in the film was almost painful for me and felt like it could be an important moment signifying the impending oversaturation of 1990s nostalgia. The frequency of Kimya Dawson songs at some point was too much, as well.
The second half of the movie felt like things had a bit more room to breathe. I think the actors were good throughout and JK Simmons and Allison Janney especially good. So I'll put the blame for the initial distaste on the direction and writing.
I'm surprised the reviews are as good as they seem to be. I think it's a lot more comparable to the Garden States and Napoleon Dynamites than the Rushmores of the world. If I was going to make my own metacritic-esque score, I'd probably split the difference between those films and put Juno in the mid 70s.
At the end of the day, I liked Juno but I'm worried about anything inspired by it.
1 comment:
I haven't seen Juno yet but this review intrigues me. I get the feeling that one reason people are championing this movie is because it features a quirky female character this time around. Maybe that's an unfair assessment, but lately I've been wondering where the smart girls are in film, and maybe some other people are wondering this too, and desperately want something to believe in. That said, from what you said, this just might not be it.
I also want to say, as an aside, I think it's wrong to automatically equate sarcastic with smart. But that's just my own frustration with society. Sarcasm for it's own sake is always a defense and is very adolescent.
One thing that bothers me about all these pregnancy films is how they treat abortion. I guess if abortion was really taken seriously (the way most women have to think about it in an unwanted pregnancy situation) then the films in question would have been entirely different films. That said, I think literature does much better on this score than film does.
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