Zarles wrote:Damn you Diablo Cody! Stop making me fall in love with you more and more every day. It's just not fair.
Saw this last night, and while I do think it's a good movie, I couldn't help but want Juno to just SHUT UP for a minute. Yes, we get that you're smart and precocious and ever-so-cool, but you know what else? It gets really annoying to have those facts jammed down our throats every 2 seconds. The writing in this movie is really top-notch and rather intelligent, but I do think the dialogue could've been toned down a bit. Sure, maybe that's what teenagers are like, and maybe that's how the character was written, but as ever-present dialogue for a main character that you kinda have to pay attention to in a movie like this one, it got really old and a little annoying kinda quick.
Everyone's talking award nominations for Ellen Page, and while she was exceptional, I think Michael Cera blew her the fuck away by bringing the exact opposite of what she was doing - a quiet, sustained, subtle performance that was ten times as powerful. If he doesn't screw up somewhere and end up becoming a Beck impersonator, I can't wait to see what this guy does in the future. He's awesome. Excellent supporting cast, too - Bateman, Garner, Simmons, all of 'em.
Overall, I think I give it about a 7 or an 8. It got a little too cutesy-wootsy-schmoopsy-boopsy for me at times, especially with the soundtrack. Wes Anderson uses the same kind of music in his same kind of movies, but he still has the ability and good sense to throw in a Stooges song here and there to liven things up. I mean, come on - Juno goes on and on about old-school punk, but we never get to hear any of it on the soundtrack? I liked a lot of the music and I LOVED the animation in the opening credits, but I just think a bit more contrast and color could've been brought in here and there to spice things up a bit. Maybe we'll get some of that in the Megan Fox cannibal movie.
Damn you, Diablo Cody. Damn you.
I would agree with a couple of points here, mainly that the dialogue could have been toned down at times (especially Alison Janney's protracted dressing-down of the sonar technician, for... what? Making a true observation?). I don't think it's a huge offense because I think that screenwriters in general don't really try to give characters their own "voices" as much as they should; it's just that with writers like Tarantino or Whedon or Sorkin, or Diablo Cody, who have very idiosyncratic voices themselves, it stands out more. I also think that the actors here do a lot to ameliorate any problems that I might have otherwise had with the script, especially Michael Cera, who it seems to me actually went against the grain of his dialogue a lot of times and in the process crafted a very self-conscious and sweet performance.
Nordling wrote:Yeah, Mark was an extremely lonely man. That dance was him reaching out to a kindred soul. Not appropriate, but understandable.
I don't think the film sets him up as a "villain." How Mark acts is something that people do every day. Juno has this fantasy set up in her head, and again, that's just not how life works. Sometimes things don't fit.
While I sort of agree with this, especially your analysis of the film, I would say that there was an intentional "role reversal"-type story structure in that Vanessa wasn't seen as especially sympathetic at the beginning of the film, and by the end Juno had (arguably) come to like her more than Mark.