Hmm. I’m not really a Napoleon Dynamite fan, but I don’t see that it hates its characters (the ending is sweet, for instance). It certainly makes fun of them, but then Juno does that, too. I don’t really find either of them to be mean-spirited. I think the aesthetics of the two movies have a lot in common.
Having seen the movie again, I have to confess that the music drives me insane, but the dialog isn’t actually that bad. The instances of totally absurd and obnoxious dialog aren’t frequent enough to bug me.
Add Mrs. FtG and me to the list of people who love “Juno”. Great acting, music, etc. Love how the treatment of “Yeah, she’s pregnant and it sucks but let’s just get thru this.” approach works so well. Not the usual tear jerker stuff.
The parents stole the movie of course. Allison Janney always seems to do that.
As to Jennifer Garner: Hated the character in the first part, became sympathetic in the last part. That’s a hard thing to pull off. But: there are Certain Angles she should not be filmed from. The scene in the mall was just, er, scary.
I love the soundtrack choices: Buddy Holly, Kinks, Velvet Underground, Mott the Hoople all the way up to Cat Power and some unknowns. And they work together rather than clash.
As to the ND issue: Loved that movie too. The 3 main teen characters were treated love. It was some of the others that were jerks and were meant to be rudely treated.
Really enjoyed this film, and I though Jennifer Garner’s performance was spot-on for a character who was uptight in the first place and who had been disappointed before in her quest for a child.
I have to chime in and add my praise for this wonderful film. I thought all of the actors were great, including Jennifer Garner - but Allison Janney really stole this movie. She was fantastic as the stepmom and I hope she gets some Oscar recognition. JK Simmons too, as Juno’s father.
I know the music was off-putting for a lot of people, but I really enjoyed it. I thought it fit the spirit of the film well.
At first, I thought the ironically cool dialogue was a bit over the top, but once it settled into a groove, I was ok with it.
I haven’t seen No Country for Old Men yet, but this is the best movie I’ve seen this year - and I can totally see it taking Best Picture.
Oh, and also… the screenwriter, Diablo Cody, is super hot. Link might be NSFW (a bit of a see-through top). It should be ok, though.
Can we just add open spoilers to the title of this thread? I think most everyone coming in here has seen it.
I’m going to add that I really grew to love Jennifer Garner’s character. Agree on the mall scene–it was truly touching. They were setting her up to be this frigid, boring, neurotic yuppie…and then they pulled back and showed us that actually, she’s a beautiful character.
Now for the spoilers.
I knew about the flirtation/tension between Juno and Mark because I’d read some reviews. It did seem a little like she was flirting with him–when she shows him the perfume she’d put on her wrist when in the bathroom, or when she was teasing him about his music/films…but then, she’s only sixteen, so clearly she didn’t see it that way, whereas he did. Which sort of hearkens back to what she said in “Hard Candy,”–that kids are just testing limits and that when they act in this manner, we shouldn’t see this as flirting or as them making a come on.
I also adored the parents. They were loving and supportive and real without being cute walking cliches of “the heartlands.”
Oooh, also loved the scene with the Asian girl outside the abortion clinic.
As to whoever mentioned “Ghost World”–it does remind me of that one, which I love. Juno seems like a more emotionally together Enid.
Honestly just a vote in favor of. Loved it. The music would’ve been annoying in any other circumstance but the movie. Jennifer Garner’s role and her portrayal of it worked - I thought she earned Juno’s note.
Liked the movie a lot. Every performance seemed right, including Jennifer Garner, who had a tough job to do. Her character was not exactly likeable at first, but by the end of the movie I couldn’t help liking her – even though the character was very consistent – because of little ways we’d seen the humanity in the character.
Ellen Page is 20, but was very believable as a 16-year-old. Love to see what she’s doing in ten years.
Overall, a very well-done script, which avoided several cliches. For instance, a pivotal scene involves a brief, hand-written note instead of a big dramatic speech, and seems much truer for it.
I just saw this movie and also loved it. I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t been said other than I LOVED the music. I went to iTunes and downloaded the soundtrack and the Moldy Peaches album almost immediatly after finishing the movie. I have been listening to them both all day long.
I would compare this movie to Ghost World more than Napolean Dynamite (mostly because I actually liked Ghost World and I hated ND with something akin to passion). I am waiting for the DVD release because this is a movie I am going to want to own.
Remember That I Love You - Kimya’s second solo album - is a marvelous thing if you can ever work it into your life. It also is a demographic that isn’t really reached much in music, that of a middle age woman dealing with middle age problems, like her mom dying. Listen to “I Like Giants” or “My Mom” before making a decision of whether to buy.
With that being said, I haven’t seen the film yet, but I want to based solely on the soundtrack. “Sea of Love” is one of my favorite Cat Power songs, and “Piazza, New York Catcher” is the only BS song I’ve ever liked.
This is one of those movies that will lend itself to repeated viewings. There were a lot of little things that were funny which you might not catch on first viewing. For example, Juno’s friend’s apparent sexual obsession with Bill Clinton (as revealed by her room decor).
The dialogue was so contrived I was close to walking out in the first few minutes. It was like Dennis Miller suddenly woke up 16 years old with tits and decided to blog about it. Nonetheless, the plot was solid enough, the characters believable enough that I stuck around. Final verdict: too clever by 85%.
I thought it was kind of amusing in spots but that it’s being highly overrated right now (kind of like Little Miss Sunshine was last year). There were some funny one liners and I liked a couple of the secondary performances Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons as the dad), but I couldn’t get past the fact that I detested the title character. Juno is basically a self-absorbed bitch who insults people who don’t deserve it, who isn’t nearly as cool as she thinks she is (and neither his her oh, so hip taste in music) and who’s endless store of flip one liners keeps her from ever seeming like a real person (and what 16 year old girl listens to Iggy Pop and the Stooges? I call bullshit). Also, if she’s supposed to be so smart then why didn’t she use some effing birth control. That one decision alone kept me from being able to respect her or see her as intelligent.
I also thought the boyfriend character (the Superbad dude) was underwritten and that Juno’s realization that she was in love with him came out of nowhere and had no real justification or explanation from anything we’d seen beforehand.
Jennifer Garner was ok. The scene in the mall was pretty good. A lot of individual scenes were pretty good. The writing, for the most part, was sharp and funny and well-structured (not bad for an ex-stripper from Minneapolis). The movie doesn’t suck, but it’s not as good as it’s hype. Knocked Up is actually better and funnier and without a complete twat as a lead character.
Actually, I had this EXACT same experience - A few years ago my (at the time) 15-year-old played for me this incredibly cool tune she had just heard that was extremely cutting edge. It turned out to be Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes song by David Bowie. She could not believe that the song was from my youth and a good three decades older than she was. This bit was the one thing from the movie that I think the screen writer nailed - the kids’ beliefs that the world started when they were born.
Both my daughters have already seen this movie more than twice. It’s going to be the next Big Fat Greek Wedding.
I, for one, am sick of these films (Knocked Up is another example) of women toying with abortion then deciding against it. I’m ready to see the movie about the girl who gets the abortion and gets on with her life.
