Juno
Awhile
back there was this guy called Kevin Smith who wrote these low budget comedy
features where dudes hung around in parking lots drinking slurpees and talking
about their dicks. Those movies were
pretty popular, but then this Judd Apatow guy came along and figured out a way
to cut costs by ditching that whole script writing part. He discovered that if you just get some
cameras and some dudes and some slurpees and go to a parking lot and start
filming, they’ll just talk off-the-cuff about their dicks without prompting or
rehearsal. But this new Juno film
which I’ve just watched is somehow a comedy movie that actually has a script,
does not star a stand-up/Saturday Night Live comedian, and actually isn’t even
vulgar. I know you’re beating me to the
punch of classifying it as one of those “indie” (an expression meaning that a
film has fiercely declared independence from that whole community of filmmakers
who make movies without regulated conditional financing and studio production
interference) comedy movies, but it defies that indie genre also in that it is
not about a dysfunctional family Thanksgiving gathering. The family in this is actually really
functional and supportive.
The
closest thing it resembles is maybe a Wes Anderson movie. It’s got all the same hallmarks of presenting
quarky characters who surround themselves with precious novelty objects and
accomplish lots of things through montages of warmfuzzy folksie music. But here’s the freaky part: in Juno
the visuals aren’t as crisp, the shots aren’t as well-framed, the editing isn’t
as precise, the delivery of the dialogue isn’t as sharp and in this case that
somehow adds up to Juno being better directed than most of Wes
Anderson’s movies (I’m excluding Rushmore, because that movie is better
than Juno).
This movie being a little sloppier around the edges actually kinda
worked in its favour and helped me get into it more. A lot of the time I feel Wes Anderson is just
too removed from his characters and makes films that seem to dryly mock them
from a distance. And I guess I find that
cruel, inventing a character just to embarrass them is like having a baby just
to beat it, which is ironic since Juno is a movie about having babies.
But
this isn’t your typical movie about having babies. They don’t waste your time with more of those
‘jokes’ about pregnant women acting hysterical, pissing constantly and eating
lotsa wacky stuff and there isn’t even that typical birth scene where the woman
shrieks and grabs some dude’s hand and crushes it with accompanying cracking
sound effect for them big-big gold laughs.
I’d like to not just recommend this film for what it isn’t, but that
seems to be what I’m doing so far.
Sorry.
Okay,
I guess what I’ll say is that this film’s core theme is maturity and I like
that. The main character is a very
mature teenager who becomes pregnant and deals with it in a very mature
way. She seeks to give her baby to a
yuppie couple, and what’s interesting is that she’s more mature than they are,
she’s just not at an age to take care of a child. I’m not going to call Juno a hero, because
what’s a hero? But she inspires
everybody she meets and I found her self-confidence attractive and admirable.
And
it’s no accident Juno turned out so well.
She’s got a good family supporting her.
I like the way they developed the character of her father, he’s a simple
man but not a simpleton. And her
stepmum’s not afraid to throw the smack down at an uncouth ultrasound
technician.
I’ll
admit that I came into this film a little tainted. I’d read several reviews and heard a fair bit
of discussion before renting this. A lot
of fuss was made over Diablo Cody (the writer of this film, and I’m guessing by
that name, also a lucadore) invented an ‘alternate reality’ for this film in
which mobile phones do not exist and people still watch VHS cassettes. Honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed any of this
shit if it hadn’t been overdwelled upon by every reviewer on the internet. I guess we live in a day and age where the
idea of people using a phone with a cord is considered far-fetched sci-fi but I
mean, c’mon guys, this isn’t some alternate reality like fucking Speed Racer
or something. It’s not like this movie’s
got a bunch of wookies ‘n shit wandering around. If you want, you can actually experience life
without a cellphone in most parking garages right here in our own reality. Your signal totally go-goes all Heath Ledger,
honest to blog. Seriously, if you don’t
believe me go to P2 and check it out yourself.
Another
major point of contention was the dialogue style. But again, the direction kinda took the edge
off what could’ve been an incredibly annoying film. The way the actors delivered their lines
kinda communicated that some of their characters’ quarkiness was forced. The characters seem less like them Gilmore
Girls and more like real people who actually watch the Gilmore Girls
and try to imitate them in their lives with mixed success.
I
know since lots of you find the idea of a world without cellphones far-fetched
that I might lose you with the following analogy, but here it goes, you know
how there’s lots of people around who endlessly quote The Simpsons? These people in our lives aren’t as zany as
the show they’re quoting and the quotes don’t always fit the situation, but it
still denotes an effort to make oneself more amusing to the people around
them. The characters in Juno are kinda like that to me. They are funny quarky people, but they are
forcing it a bit, and the movie itself seems to recognize that instead of
acting like everybody is oblivious to how offbeat they are. For example, you know the early scene where
Juno decides she wants to greet her boyfriend as he leaves his house by arranging
a living room set on his front lawn and sitting in an armchair? Well, in a more Napoleon Dynamite type
movie they wouldn’t have shown Juno loading up the furniture into her van and
driving it there and discussing the intended effect, they would’ve just cut to
the boyfriend leaving the house and have it like Juno and the living room set
magically appeared there and that neither of them found it odd.
I’m
not sure I agree with Mr. Roger Ebert (the screenwriter of Russ Meyer’s Beyond
The Valley of The Dolls, but not a lucadore) who is quoted on the box of
this film calling it the best film of the year.
I could’ve done with maybe two fewer warmfuzzy folksie music montages,
and it’s not a flick I’ll revisit right away, but overall I really liked this
movie. It had heart. Call me a softie if you’ve got to.
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