I saw the clip on the BAFTAs last night where Juno, presumably born abound 1991, makes her Soupy Sales reference. FUCK THIS MOVIE.
Maybe she listens to Little Steven on the radio? He's always talking about Soupy.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Monday, 11 February 2008 15:44 (sixteen years ago) link
does he ever play "The Mouse"?
http://www.thewho.info/wfc/images/Mouse-SM.jpg
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 11 February 2008 15:47 (sixteen years ago) link
I think he has!
― C. Grisso/McCain, Monday, 11 February 2008 15:53 (sixteen years ago) link
When did Michael Cera turn into Beck?
― baaderonixx, Monday, 11 February 2008 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought Jennifer Garner was exceptional during Juno and totally redeemed the whole movie. She really managed to play being hurt in a very muted way while projecting that slightly insincere confidence of someone who is hurt but trying to impress. Did she receive any nominations for anything? Guess no-one else noticed. Was it just me?
― czn, Monday, 11 February 2008 16:33 (sixteen years ago) link
Also… Michael Cera is quickly turning into the Will Ferrell of awkward and sincere teenagers. Has he ever played it different? I mean, I love George Michael as much as the next guy but not for every role.
― czn, Monday, 11 February 2008 16:34 (sixteen years ago) link
xp: "very muted" and awards generally not a match.
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 11 February 2008 16:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Award shows usually omit subtler acting. I said upthread that Garner (and Cera, to a lesser extent) was the best thing in it.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 11 February 2008 16:37 (sixteen years ago) link
fucking hell this was atrocious.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Hey, now we're on a roll NRQ.
― Eric H., Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:49 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm quite the contrarianista, homeskillet.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Like I said previously, all the adults in this film were better characters than the kids, because they didn't work as vehicles for the writer's witticisms and fantasy fullfilment. I would've preferred if the movie had been told from the point of view of the adoptive couple, because their story felt more poignant and interesting than Juno's.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:53 (sixteen years ago) link
-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:32 (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
ha!
― caek, Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:55 (sixteen years ago) link
the audience was eating it up -- i think i will never use slang or make pop-cultural references in coversation ever again now. the 'sonic youth will change your life' scene was one of the worst things in any film ever; obviously the soundtrack in general was blogawful (see what i did?).
i liked rushmore when it came out.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:57 (sixteen years ago) link
The SY stuff nearly made me dislike Sonic Youth.
On the bright-side, this film is going to be unwatchably dated to everyone, even the people that like it now, within 18 months.
― caek, Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:59 (sixteen years ago) link
You also wanted Juno to get an abortion, Tuomas.
― Eric H., Thursday, 14 February 2008 23:59 (sixteen years ago) link
No I didn't.
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh maybe that was the woman who got knocked up in Knocked Up, then.
― Eric H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:01 (sixteen years ago) link
To make it clear, I'm not just criticizing Juno (obviously if she'd had an abortion it would've been a totally different movie) but the trend in American movies that abortion is simply something that never happens, even though it does in real life. I can't help but think this is because American movie-makers don't want to upset any potential section of the audience.
-- Tuomas, 28. tammikuuta 2008 9:40 (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Link
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:02 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh, my mistake. You just wanted American audiences to be different than they are.
― Eric H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:03 (sixteen years ago) link
btw, i am teasing et al
― Eric H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:04 (sixteen years ago) link
So yeah, I wasn't criticizing Juno as an individual film, just pointing out a trend. As for Knocked Up, I found it weird that the female protagonist, who didn't seem very conservative, never even considered abortion as an option.
(xx-post)
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:04 (sixteen years ago) link
She didn't have an abortion because she didn't want Judith Light coming in and turning her into a Lifetime movie.
― Eric H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:05 (sixteen years ago) link
or the other blonde woman sitcom mom, rather
― Eric H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Knocked Up was self-serving ass. Juno was wonderful. The end.
― Alba, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:06 (sixteen years ago) link
czn is right that garner is, agains the odds, sort of the best thing in it. though i am a sucker for women characters telling fuckwitted perma-teen dudes to man up, for some reason.
cera can't do another movie in this persona.
xpost
we've done this tuomas, but the girl in 'knocked up' does consider it. she doesn't have a badly dramatized scene where she goes to a clinic and decides against even seeing a doctor on the grounds that uhhhh it smells like a dentist and a minor character from a wes anderson film is picketing the place.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:07 (sixteen years ago) link
alba that's BS. this film was ersatz rubbish.
we've done this tuomas, but the girl in 'knocked up' does consider it.
Er, no she doesn't. It's her mom who broughts up the option, and she's like "no". Plus the mom isn't depicted very positively in that scene.
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:09 (sixteen years ago) link
NRQ, I am seriously with you 100 percent on this.
― Eric H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:10 (sixteen years ago) link
broughts = brings
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:10 (sixteen years ago) link
that's one bring that can't be unbroughten, homeskillet
― Eric H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:11 (sixteen years ago) link
tuomas, she considers it. that doesn't mean there's a scene where she "considers it."
there kind of is in the deleted scenes tho. i know irl non-christian people who just would not have an abortion if they were in her position, though, if you can handle that idea.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:12 (sixteen years ago) link
the narrative was a 5/10 but there were so many things in this film that were disgusting or lazy (dialogue, art design, music, ellen page) that it has to be one of the least enjoyable things I've seen at the cinema in years.
― caek, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:12 (sixteen years ago) link
i think the *idea* was that beneath her brittle, amazingly annoying exterior, there was hiding an emotionally immature girl in juno. they spectacularly failed to get this idea over by making it a metronomic one-liner-fest with a couple of 'big scenes' thrown for the pros to get them to work below their quote.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:15 (sixteen years ago) link
it's hardly an "idea". cera specifically calls her on it.
― Simon H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:18 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/diablo-cody-screenplay.php
― Eric H., Friday, 15 February 2008 00:19 (sixteen years ago) link
apologies if that's already been linked. no way do I want to reread this thread.
or to get award noms, one of the two. felt really mechanical either way -- no chemistry between any of the performers -- i guess they have to fit their five days of shooting into their schedules as best they can.
xposts to me
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:20 (sixteen years ago) link
this thread is harsh. predictably.
― Gukbe, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:20 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Simon H., Friday, February 15, 2008 12:18 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link
he doesn't know the half of it -- i mean that juno doesn't 'get' the situation she's getting into with garner/bateman, and that she gets burned, and we see that beneath the brittle, punchable exterior, etc etc.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:21 (sixteen years ago) link
big lols @ eric's link.
i didn't even think that 'garden state' was THAT BAD; i was totes meh on 'napoleon dynamite', but this was some next lev awfulness.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 15 February 2008 00:27 (sixteen years ago) link
tuomas yknow it's possible for a person to, like, not want to personally get an abortion and yet not be one of those scary conservative americans that horrify you so much
― J.D., Friday, 15 February 2008 08:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, I know - like I said in the Knocked Up thread, the film could've had a scene where she explained that she didn't want an abortion for personal reasons (rather than religious or ideological or whatever reasons), and that would've fine by me, but it didn't even have that. The film simply didn't give her any sort of motivation or justification for keeping the baby, as if it weren't an issue at all.
If the film doesn't have any scenes where she considers it, how do you know she does? Can you read the minds of movie charcaters?
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2008 08:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Juno IS an abortion next to 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days lols amirite?
― Cosmo Vitelli, Friday, 15 February 2008 08:28 (sixteen years ago) link
'tuomas, she considers it. that doesn't mean there's a scene where she "considers it."'
-- Tuomas, Friday, February 15, 2008 8:19 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
i love that you think it's possible to split 'personal' from 'ideological' or 'religious' reasons; but anyhoo, you don't need justification or motivation for *not* having an abortion. some people just don't want one because (in her case anyway, one infers) they have a diffuse desire to have a child, they don't want to go through an abortion, and they worry it might mess up their junk, worry they might regret it (which, shockingly, some women do). you make having a kid sound abnormal. allowing all this stuff isn't 'anti-abortion'.
in the deleted scene it's a combination of unspoken stuff (it being a movie rather than a psychological novel), and also seeing the baby's heart beating on a monitor -- or at least, that's how she explains it to rogen. you kind of *can* kind of read the minds of movie characters -- if you relied solely on what they said you wouldn't get what was going on most of the time.
(the weakest thing in the movie, plausibility-wise, is heigl's living situation -- she's financially independent but living at her sister's house, and doesn't seem to have other men in her life.)
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 15 February 2008 09:46 (sixteen years ago) link
you don't need justification or motivation for *not* having an abortion. some people just don't want one because (in her case anyway, one infers) they have a diffuse desire to have a child, they don't want to go through an abortion, and they worry it might mess up their junk, worry they might regret it (which, shockingly, some women do).
And these are not justifications or motivations for keeping the baby? Like I already said, I totally agree that people decide to keep unwanted babies for a variety of reasons, but the movie didn't bother to shed any light on her specific reasons. So I'm not really saying that Knocked Up is explicitly pro-life rather than that the character wasn't very well written.
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2008 10:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Hmm, naybe "unwanted" was the wrong word, what I meant is "unplanned".
― Tuomas, Friday, 15 February 2008 10:19 (sixteen years ago) link
wokay, i'm back-reading a bunch of stuff on juno. this was andrew sarris's *favourite film of 2007*?????!!!!!! what the shit bro.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 15 February 2008 11:11 (sixteen years ago) link
I enjoyed this, but I don't really have any interest in defending it. I think NRQ is correct about this not being anti-abortion in itself but actually the fact that there was a baby involved AT ALL didn't quite seem plausible until the last 20mins or so because it was all so cartoonish.
Abortions or lack of them or otherwise, there isn't really any great psychological motivation for anything anyone other than the Garner/Batemen characters. It's glib as fuck and that's mostly why I enjoyed it but also why I can see it being hugely annoying.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 21 February 2008 09:56 (sixteen years ago) link
oh the film i was saying wan't anti-abortion is the ol' alexander payne film 'citizen ruth' (1996). i don't think this is anti-abortion either ftr, but yeah the plot point in 'juno' of her yucking out on the clinic and therefore deciding against was pretty weak.
garner i bought, but bateman -- i semi-lolled at his line that 1993 was the high point for rock music, but wasn't sure if we were meant to feel his pain a little, if it was even a joek! doesn't he have any bros to tell him that his chances of becoming a rock star in his mid-30s are approx nil and that he's a big skeez?
reminded me of a film only i have seen, the recent terrible gwyneth paltrow-martin freeman-simon pegg-penelope cruz vehicle, 'the good night', in which freeman plays a, yep, former britpop dude-turned-jaded advert-jingle-writer, who, yep, tries to pursue a diastrous 'romantic' dream and fucks up his loveless relationship.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 21 February 2008 10:05 (sixteen years ago) link