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What-juno ’bout Juno?
Two years ago, it was Napoleon Dynamite. Last year, it was Little Miss Sunshine. No prizes for guessing “the li’l film that could” for this year. With Juno in the running for 4 Oscars this year (Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Direction, and Best Original Screenplay), no wonder there’s so much hype around the little film. And believe you me, I’m happy for them. Really happy. After all, it’s an indie, and the brother- and sisterhood of the indie industry must support one another. And Ellen Page, you go girl. Way to bag that nomination. So of course, with all the buzz around the film, I had to go watch it.
Whether or not Juno is as great a film as it’s being made out to be is always debatable, since you can’t please everyone. Whether or not “I” think it’s a good film is even more immaterial, since who the F am I? Without getting too deep into my feelings about the film, I’ll just say I liked it, but the film also bugged me… A LOT. From the get-go at the starting credits, I started seeing a pattern with the other two movies I mentioned. The small town setting, the country music played on a banjo or ukelele, weird names for the lead characters (where in real life have you come across names like Napoleon, Olive, and Juno?) Is it really so necessary to give it that indie film ka dhabba (stamp)?
Unfortunately for me, I found myself concentrating on Ellen’s acting too much during the film, because I wanted to see what it was about her performance that got her the nomination. After the film, I thought she did a fine job, but I wasn’t sure I saw anything Oscar-worthy. So I took a look at the other nominees and realized I hadn’t seen the other films. So much for trying to pick a winner. The Academy does seem to have more mood swings than a pregnant woman in her third trimester though, so if it can give Halle Berry an Oscar for her histrionics, it could very well choose to go with a very real performance by Ellen Page. But I think we all know she won’t get it, even though we may want her to. My reasoning is that the Academy would think that kids have their whole lives ahead of them, so better for them to redeem themselves by giving it to someone older. We know this is why Allan Arkin got it last year, after having been nominated twice, back in ‘67 and ‘69. Even Denzel’s win for Training Day was a redemption award.
Another similarity I found between Juno, ND, and LMS was its costumes. What’s with the 80s style headbands, wristbands, really short shorts, and pulled up socks? Do people really dress like this in small towns? Are these films really set in the 80s? Not sure, but just another deterring factor for me.
Anyway, I vented about these frustrations of mine to some of the other authors, and here’s what they had to say…
Dpac
im waiting for dabba analysis of the script…
while watching the movie i could swear that i saw the writer - write a scene and then rewrite it with the characters reacting totally opposite to what was initially written… so as to get the unpredictablity and cute factor up…sheesh.. that was badly put…
dabba hope u will obligeRavptor
For me it worked big time. For me its the best written script in a long time sans all the hype and macho-ism. For me, watching it the third time made it look all the more better.I give it to cody banks. I think she did what very few writers could over the years, eliminate directors view point in while making the film. The best part for me was the movie being non-judgmental and giving equal weight age and intelligence to all the principal characters and not showing no one in bad light.
Dabba analysis, as always, looking forward to it. But Dpac, disagree with cutish spontaneity. I think that’s how she wrote it in the first go… very very impulsive, ver very very in sync with todays’ gen.
Dpac
ravi, i could take u up on that here… but it might be worthwhile if u post something on the main page and we will take it there…in sync with today’s generation?? juno is an anomaly man an abomination!!!
Phoenixnu
Dpac….dont u think its almost impossible to do…”write a scene and then rewrite it with the characters reacting totally opposite to what was initially written” … may sound easy but then why n how would someone react exactly opposite ?? think thats where it scores. give me example of any other film.
thought juno was good fun. the scenes n lines were great and ellen was so natural.Dpac
like i said that came out pretty lamely…
but yes it is pretty easy to write.. do u have any clue how many drafts maketh a film?and yeah juno was good fun… whichever way u twist out a story if its done with some level of ingenuity it is fun.. and it does communicate…
my dialog was merely cuz someone somewhere else metioned about ‘oscar hopeful’, greatness and all
Phoenixnu
how many drafts….plz enlighten!!dabba
i have not read the script of the film yet.when i watched it the first time, i liked it, but found it too cute and writerly. Second time, i loved it even more than the first.
It is easier to analyze a script when i see the mechanics of it. I didn’t see it in juno which makes me think it is very well written.
ravptor, i hope your statement “ver very very in sync with todays’ gen” is not based on experience hanging out with 16 yr olds. They’s jailbait, and u may be looking at some serious incarceration time.
Dazed&Confused
I liked it but somehow had higher expectations from it…am not a big fan of movies which go overboard on the subtle treatment…give me a Sideways anytime…Mainak
Striker, I was in a very very long Q&A with the entire cast & Director. The Director had a vision of each scene & thats how it was done. Everyone improvised for sure but it wasn’t chaos.The 1st 10 minutes of JUNO were the “worst 1st 10 minutes” of 2007. But after that the film picks up. I wanna watch it again though. Is JUNO a real character? is she too smart for her own good. I can understand if someone thinks the movie is too “writerly”. Thats why i want to watch it again.
Did Juno work for you? What did you like or hate about it? Do you think its buzz is justified?
12 Responses to “What-juno ’bout Juno?”
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I enjoyed Juno. No questions about it. But thats it. Its an entertaining film with a really good performance from Ellen Page.But I will always keep Little Miss Sunshine ahead of Juno. It had a much darker undertone and characters even more bizarre(suicidal gay Proust scholar ditched by boyfriend?? beat this!!) and some faboulous sequences (the lunch table talk at the beginning comes to my mind first) with more maturity and depth than Juno which is really a feel good movie. LMS was really a black comedy.
Juno worked for me because of its insane dialogs and Page. I went in expecting a feel good movie and thats exactly what I got… nothing more nothing less…
Page deserves the nomination… but I don’t think it deserves the best movie or direction.
I agree with Vikrant. Ellen Page deserved a nomination (not the award) but best movie/direction? Ah… cmon!
Talking bout wierd names… wasn’t the little girl called ‘Liberty Bell’ or something?
And the dialogues…
“You should’ve gone to China, you know, ’cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.”
Offensive maybe… but heck it was hilarious!
Hell.. I was itching to write on this issue striker but you did it..anyway..I think Ellen Page’s nomination is justified but an award may nt be.Again also taking her age into consideration,she gets all the attention.Nevertheless beautiful effort.At times a bit overboard.But cool.
But somehow her oneliners at times got a bit irritating.Incorporating them in the script for the funny element was fine but there has to be some subtly invilved.Rest..a good watch..rest of Juno’ nominations are debatable.So monday morning we get to know the verdict.
Wasn’t it produced by Fox, so how is it an indie movie? Wannabe indie maybe, what with the style and all.
I think the script was absolutely fabulously intelligently hilarious, not brainless funny like ND. Comparing it with LMS, LMS was more fun to watch, Juno was more LOL fun, if you know what I mean. LMS was much more than just a comedy, Juno is more comedy oriented, but both are similar.
The best direction nomination was maybe a bit too much, but I agree with the Page nomination and hope she wins, brilliant performance. The best picture nomination shouldn’t matter with the 2 heavyweights fighting it out. I hope the taut brilliance of the script also gets the original screenplay gong.
I haven’t seen Juno, but this woman Diablo Cody can be entertaining.. check out her column for Entertainment Weekly, esp the first paragraph.. hilarious..
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20171386,00.html
Is there anybody there who hated Juno???? I watched Hard Candy and absolutely digged Page in it. But seeing Juno I felt the writer cody is trying to cheat us..she mite be the star stripper and columnist and her characters are ultra cool..but she just tries to shock with the “cool” factor of the characters..hw many 14-15 year olds speak like Juno?? thats diablo cody speaking for Juno..why did she flip out completely when the adopting couple divorce..the movie and character has a know all fakeness which is supposedly hip and makes the character lovable and extremely annoying at the same time.. if that was the intent then maybe but i dont think so..
the scene which worked for me was when Michael Cera confronts Juno in school..it was real..maybe i’m overreacting but i felt queasy watching aaron sorkin/seinfield type dialogues disguised as a teen romance.
doremi, juno was made by fox “searchlight”, the indie division of fox, at a budget of $3million.. and as far as i know, films under $10mil qualify as indie
praneet, “lovable and annoying at the same time”.. you nailed it. and except for katie holmes’ character in the dawson’s creek series, i honestly dunno what 14-15yr olds speak like juno
anand G, thanks for pointing out LB.. i forgot about that!
” think we all know she won
I think it’s important when evaluating a film to evaluate which lens we are looking at the film from. Juno is an independent film, in the sense that it’s not a studio commissioned film, but it was eventually bought and distributed by a studio. And more importantly, it is in the tradition of American independent film making, which always had this sort of underground intellectual tilt to it. It only makes sense that the Academy recognizes a homegrown indie product. And what’s the big deal with Juno? It’s brilliantly written, acted, and directed. Yes, the script appears writerly because normal people don’t talk like that at 15-16, but Juno is ANYTHING but normal(even her name suggests so) and much like Little Miss Sunshine, the film has a certain affection for its loser-like protagonist. In fact, the film has great affection for characters who aren’t traditional heroes. And that’s been the vein of American independent film making. It seems to be that the critical framework we should be using is what does Juno mean in the context of the Academy Awards? I just think that just because a film doesn’t address a grand pathos or doesn’t tackle a great cognitive dissonance or make an overt political statement…doesn’t mean its not a great film. What do we consider a GREAT film and does Juno challenge those definitions? I guess the real question we may want to ask ourselves is that is the big deal with Juno the fact that there is no big deal about it?
holy shite… missed this post completely… no juno review huh? Where is Dabba’s analysis?
lame film. saw it finally. napolean was coolest. its downwards from there. wonder what the next in line would be.
superbad any day. I believe the better indie were less talked about, but always happens I guess. good analysis, brother. and all the best for the shows. :-)