This falls under my ban of 'quirky' movies...

I saw this with my girlfriend today. As soon as I remembered that THIS was the movie written by local-blogger-turned-"celebrity" Diablo Cody, I feared the worst. Stupid cliche hipster references and tired movie storylines aside, I thought it was "ok". Because it's easier to nitpick, here are the things I disliked about the movie:

-Whoever made reference to Ghost World: I had the exact same thought. I think this movie suffered not because Juno was an awful lot like Enid, but because this movie, on the whole, felt an awful lot like a lot of movies that have been released in the last 5 or so years. It seems like it was written by someone who watches and is inspired by a lot of present-day film. I do disagree with Dr. Awkward, though, and think that on the surface, the character is a LOT like Enid. Or, moreover, DIABLO CODY wanted her to be a lot like her, or to show her audience that she is cool enough to carve those parallels. It didn't feel like the character was delivering those lines, but that DC was forcing her way into her film.

-The soundtrack! Probably worse than even a current-day mainstream teenage grossout comedy. I'm tired of indie movies using "cute" music, but I especially hate this particular style of song.

-There was one other thing I was thinking about as we walked out of the theater, but of course now it's late and I'm blanking. So let me just say that, ultimately, the movie was better when DC let it step away from being her film and allowed it attempts to have its own voice. When she smothered it, it was incredibly distracting and pulled me out of the movie. While it was more positive than negative, I don't feel so strongly about it that it would necessitate a second viewing.

I was glad to see Michael Cera play a slightly-less neurotic/uncertain character than in previous outings, though. Hopefully he'll get more chances to show his acting range in future projects.

Everything I've been reading/hearing about Diablo Cody has led me to believe that she's probably a very obnoxious person.

But I don't really care in regards to this movie. EVERY actor in the movie is phenomenal. I couldn't believe how impressed I was with Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. Their characters were really well written and brilliantly executed. This is definitely the best film I saw this year, but I don't get to the theater all that much.

People are really going to be moved by it, and I expect an ensuing backlash to follow it.

I haven't left a movie theater that pleased with what I just saw in a few years.

Germ War wrote:I saw this with my girlfriend today. As soon as I remembered that THIS was the movie written by local-blogger-turned-"celebrity" Diablo Cody, I feared the worst.

It's funny you say this, because just this weekend the girl i'm currently seeing spoke to some of her really good Minneapolis friends, and they told her the same thing--that this Diablo Cody chick is pretty much universally reviled in the Twin Cities for being a complete poser. Ironically, the first thing i thought was "hmmm, maybe that's why Juno's character was so believable to me as a 16-year-old poser."

Apparently this chick thinks that having spent time as a stripper is somehow "shocking" and makes her empowered and bohemian or some shit? That's how it was told to me. Feh. I have two ex-girlfriends who have done the stripper thing; it's not all that novel.

That said, the recent news that the screenwriter is a complete douche does not affect my enjoyment of the film.

Germ War wrote:I do disagree with Dr. Awkward, though, and think that on the surface, the character is a LOT like Enid.

No, dude, we agree on this actually; maybe i wasn't very clear before. I think that Juno's character is in some ways more believable than Enid because while on the surface they are very similar, i think it's more obvious with Juno that all her detached "cool" is just a pose masking her very real insecurities, whereas i never really got that from Enid as much. Of course, this may actually have something to do with their surroundings in their two movies. Enid was very obviously surrounded by idiots in her town, whereas in Juno i think that's hardly the case (her parents have it together way more than Enid's).

I changed my vote to Crap.

CRAP.

Well, I haven't seen it, and I may or may not.

Another viewpoint on the crap/not crap argument (this more so from people from MN). The director is from here, the writer is from here, it's set in MN, yet, they hightailed production to Toronto.

They screwed people out of work here. But that certainly doesn't speak to the content of the movie which is in question.

Fuck the fuck off, Juno.

When is the Ann Coulter assfucking guy going to write a screenplay?

This movie could have went wrong at so many turns, but it didn't. I thought the actors were superb and the writing was witty w/out being to "clever". On a side note, props to this film for calling out Sonic Youth as the overrated crap they've always been. Juno=not crap in any way

Juno is not crap.

Went on a 2nd date with this great gal to see this. THAT could've turned out awkward. Glad it didn't.

Only annoying thing was all the Goddamned twee music, especially during the lengthy opening credits. I say it pretty much every time I hear one of their songs, but if I never hear another Belle & Sebastian song for the rest of my life, that'd be great.

This movie fuckin' sucked my dick off. Hipster bullshit.

Bateman and Garner are embarassing, the references are over the top. The whole script is overwrought scummy garbage. These tragi-comedies need to fucking end.