I know little about Edith Piaf but if Marion Cotillard doesn't at least get a nomination for best actress it is an all-time travesty. I don't think the film is anything spectacular or groundbreaking but her performance is so great it elevates everything and the movie. It is what DDL has done many times over for weaker films.

I just thought I'd drop in before the lovefest for this film begins and say that I absolutely despised this film. Probably in my bottom three of movies I've seen in 2007.

 

If Cody wins a screenwriting Oscar it will be the most undeserved award the Academy has ever issued. This is no hyperbole. There have been a lot of questionable Oscars dished out over the years but this will take the cake.

 

Every single Thundercats reference, stupid one liner, and usage of "fo shiz" (and every similar uttering) is so forced into this film that I had more $5 Sierra Nevadas afterwards at the movie theater bar than I could even count.

 

So you're opinion hasn't changed from before you saw it. So, I'm assuming you had no intentions of liking it then?

Saw the movie tonight. I thought it was good, although I really hated the soundtrack. There were also several blatant boom mike appearances on screen.

Saw the movie tonight. I thought it was good, although I really hated the soundtrack. There were also several blatant boom mike appearances on screen.

 

Totally agree, that soundtrack was like a major buzzkill. This was a very funny movie with some great dialogue that was given a soundtrack like it was a movie exclusively for 14 year-old girls, all that twee, Belle and Sebastian nonsense. I don't know; the soundtrack was just too blatant, like it was trying to squeeze every last drop of melancholy out of the movie. There movie's emotional core was strong enough not to need that patronizing BS. So, yeah, that's my major complaint about the movie.

 

Other than that, it had some of the sharpest lines of dialgoue I've heard this year. There were a lot of jokes that were growers somehow, like the audience wouldn't start lauging until like 5 seconds later, and the laughter would keep building and building.

 

Oh, no boom mics visible for me. I've had it happen before where I saw a movie in theaters and there were boom mics all over the place, but other people had different experiences with that same movie, and then when it came out on cable, no boom mics there either. It was like the cut of the film I saw was somehow mishandled. I don't know.

Projectionist misframed the print.

That happened to me once this year.

Saw the movie tonight. I thought it was good, although I really hated the soundtrack. There were also several blatant boom mike appearances on screen.

 

Projectionist misframed the print.

Yea FutureGM that was the projectionist's fault. Most prints extend beyond what you see on screen and include boom mikes and things like that in them. It's the responsibility of the projectionist to frame it so that those things are not seen on the screen.

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=Y_3PAWCwS...09sIRmhuHrRiuuY

I saw it tonight, enjoyed it, thought it was really funny, but there were times when I could not stand the characters, especially Juno and her female friend. The way they talked and acted annoyed me to no end, almost to the point where I couldn't get over it. Michael Cera and JK Simmons saved the movie for me, and Ellen Page had her moments where I practically fell in love with her. I just wish she wasn't annoying me the other half of the time.

Going to see a matinee of this today, hope it's worth admission.

I know why it got such good reviews, but it just wasn't that entertaining to me.

 

And I thought Jason Bateman was pretty awful.

Jason Bateman did his awkward, uncomfortable role well enough, I think.

There's definitely a hipster trend that is seeping into mainstream comedy these days, and I also kind of agree that the pop-culture references in Juno didn't do a whole lot to strengthen the movie. I don't think any of those lines got a big laugh out of me or the crowded theater I was in, especially since most of the audience didn't seem to get it. But I really don't think those lines played that big a role in this film. There were a ton of great lines that were just funny on their own. And, no, people don't talk like that in real life. I don't have a problem with that.

There weren't too many pop culture references, were there?

I'm being serious when I ask this as I'd like to go tomorrow and see this with my wife,

 

Are there any complications/bad things with the pregnancy in the film?

 

With being non spoilerish as possible but direct, can anyone help me out?

Like miscarriages? No.

Like any medical things...

No medical issues. The pregnancy kind of a took a backseat to the actual story though, it was merely there as a maguffin.

Tits.

 

Thank you.

Jeniffer Garner looked really good in this movie, fwiw. I think I like her as more as she ages.

Jennifer Garner has never done it for me. Objectively, she is a beautiful woman, but something about her face seems very harsh to me.

Her body > Her face.

Juno

 

You're a part time lover and a full time friend

 

Jason Reitman follows his brilliant satire on political correctness, Thank You For Smoking, with the very different yet equally exceptional Juno. Although they are different in almost every way possible, showing Reitman's directorial talent, they both share a similar backbone which makes them both succeed: intelligence, consistent humor, and a tremendous performance by its lead.

 

Juno tells the tale of 16-year old and newly pregnant Juno MacGruff (Ellen Page) whose personality, wit, and sarcasm is almost needed to back up such an epic name that she has. Initially convinced to do away with the baby as she is absolutely over her head in caring for a child and because it was conceived with the timid, turtle in his shell, friend and possible object of affection, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). This plan quickly falls apart as Juno is mortified by a visit to a woman's health clinic and decides to keep it and give the child up to a family who can take care of it.

 

Convinced by a friend to involve a prospective adopting family in her pregnancy, Juno picks a couple she finds in the Pennysaver. This begins a journey which has Juno juggling her responsibilities and life at school, with the prospective parents (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), and her own parents (JK Simmons and Allison Janney).

 

As the belly grows, Juno's personality and interactions with the above groups shifts and changes in ways that at the beginning of the film didn't seem possible. Juno may thinks she knows it all but that slowly melts away as the ups and downs of her own love life with Bleeker takes different turns as does that of the affluent adoptees. That journey is mixed in with Reitman's aptitude for creating a world that is painfully real and accurate on a variety of subjects and emotions.

 

Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody help their project immensely by showing a great deal of restraint in never letting their characters become caricatures or letting their dialogue go over board. I have a feeling this work will stand up to multiple viewings and time much more than 2006's indie love child Little Miss Sunshine has.

 

Besides the great story, characters, and setting, the plot is backed by a fantastic soundtrack that couldn't fit its accompanying scene more. The transitions in the movie are backed by lyrics and notes that are absolutely perfect in expressing the mood of the film and character as the work progresses. There is no more perfectly utilized song in any film this year than The Moldy Peaches' "Anyone Else But You".

 

For as much praise as Reitman and Cody should deserve, the real praise should be heaped upon Ellen Page in the starring role. Juno is a character that has to be projected near perfectly for the film not to fall flat on its face. She delivers complex and sarcastic lines perfectly but also sheds her hard outside shell in glorious fashion to showcase a soft and scared interior that really makes a mark on the audience and delivers the best performance by an actress this year. For a film that has good performance after good performance it is even more impressive to be that much better than anyone Page shares screen time with.

 

The foul yet accurate and fantastic Superbad will have to step down a step and make way for the best comedy and one of the best films of the year in Juno. Great direction, performances, lots of laughs, and appropriate restraint in spots makes Juno a delightful work that won't leave your conscience for some time.

 

9/10

Jason Bateman was indeed awful. The revelation that:

 

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

He wanted out of the marriage and wanted no part of the baby.

 

 

...was likely supposed to be a surprise. From the moment he is introduced onscreen he gives it away. His performance was as subtle as a car bomb. However, one can't always blame the actor for these shortcomings. I first blame the screenwriter and then the director for failing to transcend the shortcomings of the script.

I don't consider that the film's zenith in any way nor do I feel it was supposed to be a big reveal.

 

I think Juno's relationship with Bleeker was overall the main plot point. (This was also when the film was at its best for me)

 

"It all started with a chair"

 

The use of the cross country/track team running through town was alluding to her constant thoughts about him to me.

I really want to see this movie and think I would enjoy it, loved Thank you for Smoking, but I am worried that I will find it to be too 'quirky' and trying too hard to be formulaic.

 

I am such a snob(for lack of a better word) that when an 'indie' movie like this starts to receive lots of hype before I see it I write it off in this sense. Foolish, I know. I need to just go see it and hopefully enjoy it for what it is.

If you let yourself get wrapped up in the dialogue I guarantee you won't like it.

 

The reason I think the dialogue is so good in this is, as unrealistic as it may be for you or me to converse like this, its completely natural and realistic and not out of the ordinary for the setting Reitman has created.

Jason Bateman was indeed awful. The revelation that:

 

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

He wanted out of the marriage and wanted no part of the baby.

 

 

...was likely supposed to be a surprise. From the moment he is introduced onscreen he gives it away. His performance was as subtle as a car bomb. However, one can't always blame the actor for these shortcomings. I first blame the screenwriter and then the director for failing to transcend the shortcomings of the script.

I don't consider that the film's zenith in any way nor do I feel it was supposed to be a big reveal.

 

I think Juno's relationship with Bleeker was overall the main plot point. (This was also when the film was at its best for me)

 

"It all started with a chair"

 

The use of the cross country/track team running through town was alluding to her constant thoughts about him to me.

I agree. I guess they wanted to make it obvious that Bateman was not comfortable being a father. I think the whole climax of that subplot was his finding in Juno his true goals in life, which obviously was not to be the traditional family man. I think her calling him a "sellout" resonated more than she intended it to.