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Another reader knocks up... erm, I mean looks up JUNO!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a couple of reader reviews to post before I hit the sack.
I first saw JUNO at a film festival, but since then I've seen it another two times thanks to Fox Searchlight inexplicably deciding to send me tons of their screeners in preparation for the Austin Film Critics Association having their year end vote. The flick holds up and I've found it just as funny and Ellen Page just as adorable as I did the first time.
This will be in my top 10 of the year, without a doubt. We'll see how high up it ranks after seeing the last month of flicks. Anyway, we got a review in from a reader who also got a chance to check out the flick. Did he love it as much as I did? You be the judge:
Hello Harry, Moriarty and Capone,
Here is a review of the excellent new film "Juno." Hope you can use it on the site. In case you were wondering, "Arrested Development" alums Michael Cera and Jason Bateman share no scenes together.
On with the review:
Writer Diablo Cody (Brook Busey-Hunt) is generating plenty of buzz with the adaptation of her first screenplay, "Juno." Mz. Cody has a colorful past and has written a colorful screenplay, which has some calling her 'The Next Tarantino.' High praise indeed.
And not altogether unwarranted, as "Juno" is crass, funny, serious, and heartwarming, sometimes all in the same scene. The plot revolves around sixteen year old Juno MacGuff (Page, in a star-making role) who finds herself with child after hooking up with her best pal, Paulie Bleeker. (Cera, doing the 'who, me?' face he does so well.)
After weighing her options, Juno decides to give her child up for adoption, provided she can find parents she approves of. Nobody too square, of course. Juno is an post-grunge indie-minded young lass, in love with the Sex Pistols, but completely unaware of The Melvins.
Thanks to a classified ad (Hey! Give us your kid!) Juno finds Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), and deems them hep enough to take her offspring for their own.
Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons are pitch perfect as Juno's somewhat understanding parents, and Jennifer Garner takes a role that some would have played as a wicked witch and makes her character much more human. But besides the title character, Jason Bateman PWNS this film. The script is cute and winks at the audience with hip lines, but halfway though the tone spins on a dime, and Bateman nails it.
I'm happy to see Jason get more work these days. He's taking some real chances with the parts he takes, and he's usually the best part of the film he appears in, whether it's "The Kingdom" or "Smokin' Aces."
Ellen Page is one to watch, make no mistake. From her terrifying performance in the uneven "Hard Candy," to proving she could hang with SFX in "X-Men: The Last Stand," Page has been mesmerizing on screen. I wouldn't be surprised if she were nominated for an Academy Award for her work in "Juno," as she makes the title character live and breathe.
Director Jason Reitman has chosen a sort of Wes Anderson world in which to set these characters, and that's undoubtedly a big reason why this film works. Reitman's last project, "Thank You For Smoking" was excellent as well, so now he's two for two. I'm sure it makes daddy Ivan proud.
The final scene, featuring a s l o w pullback of our main characters as they sing "Anyone Else But You" by The Moldy Peaches, is just brilliant.
So is screenwriter Diablo Cody the next big force in filmmaking? The new Tarantino? It's simply too early to tell. Her script sounds more to me like "Heathers" era Daniel Waters anyway. (That's not a bad thing.)
"Juno" may be a bit too rough-and-tumble for some moviegoers who aren't used to seeing teens act the way they do in real life (some teens, I should say), but if you are or ever have considered yourself a misfit, then you'll feel right at home.
Check out my other reviews here!
Thanks,
Maxamillion
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she's preggie
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Actually read the book years ago.
Skipped the flick based on weak looking previews. I just remember the lame bit with Rob Lowe at the end.
Was this actually funny? -
You all know what I'm going to say, so I won't say it this time. :P
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but Juno is my favourite film of this year. So fucking good.
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To clarify, when I say 'new Tarantino,' I'm only passing along buzz I've heard. Only time will tell if Diablo has as much influence on cinema. If the review seems plant-like, it's probably only because I do this for a living. Trust me, I write bad reviews too.
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Doesn't look like it was even addressed to you, bud. ;)
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and oh yeah, Michael Cera RULEZ...but not so much in this movie I've heard...
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The one about the Christian teen who gets pregnant? I actually liked that movie.
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i'm sorry, The Bater PAWNS this film? is he really that hard up for ciza$h since _arrested development_ couldn't get arrested? spell check is this new technology that prevents you from being misunderstood in the manner outlined above. that aside, the trailers look great for this. i'm sure ms. page is brilliant, as usual, and even for a milf hunter like myself, powerful easy on these decrepit eyes. but, man, ever since _hard candy_, i don't believe i'll be able to watch anything else she appears in for the rest of my life without wearing a codpiece...
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What is the deal with this company?? They love to cram these little indie comedies down our throat, this movie looks like it cost $20 bucks to make. While they hide movies like Sunshine and Daywatch like they were just some small little indie comedy made for $20. Nothing against small indie comedies, but they are becoming the new blockbusters. I should have to search around and make sure I can make it to the theaters THAT week to see a movie like Sunshine while every movie theater and person with a dvd player has Little Miss Sunshine showing 24/7. I do like those movies its just, i don't need to see movies like Juno, the cigeratte movie, and Little miss on the big screen to fully appreciate and enjoy. While I am pretty sure when I watch Sunshine on DVD next year it is not going to have the same impact as it did in the theater.
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for a lot of reasons...but one reason it worked is it wasn't self-referential and full of cute pop culture references. i gotta say i'm fucking sick of the napoleon dynamite syndrome. uh, duanejones? 'pwns' isn't 'pawns', it's pronounced 'pones', look it up on the inter-webs.
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I should have to search around and make sure I can make it to the theater should read I shouldn't have to, fucking no edit function making me look stupid.
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She just annoys me. I can't give you a good reason for this and I'm probably the only person in the world who thinks this way but her performances just leave me cold.I therefore shall not be watching this!
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i'm feeling you in a wholly hetero-, non-threatening manner, even though i thought _sunshine_ was hugely overrated, except for wm. hurt's cameo -- mr. hurt does him some good cameos these days, don't he? - and the supernal ms. ehle. but your larger point is well-taken, and i'm afraid sure to be ignored. here in the early 21st, we're all bollicksed (sp?) up by mad media convergence, and the promise of filthy lucre for those seeking to converge. thus, dvds and downloads available the same day as "general release," and small releases little more than an excuse to trawl for positive pullquotes from reviews for the dvd box set to be released two weeks after that "general release". i'm sure you're intelligent enough to appreciate why quirky comedies like _little miss_ get the attention and number of screens in those releases, where _daywatch_ confounds those residents of los angeles fortunate enough to make a living in cinematic marketing. their fortune, of course, and our loss. for me, i MUST see art films in theaters, with other humans, and nyc-area resident that i am, i try whenever i can to see them on 42nd st. not because the deuce is anything even remotely like a shadow of its former grindhouse self -- sweet jayzus, far from it. it's just an incomparable experience to (for one example) watch ms. ziyi zhang on a stadium-sized screen confounding the thugs who somehow parted with their ciza$h to see _2046_...
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the inter-webs...that's them series of tubes, correct? i hate video games, so i'd've never known...but thanks for filling me in. how do i apologize with an emoticon?
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No I concure, fuck Ellen Page. She looks like she has acute down syndrome. Also when I heard this random rumor (because there were 1,000 of them) after X-3 came out that David O Russell wanted to make a movie about her charcter, I almost made a deposit in my pants. She was SOOOO fucking horrible and lame in the movie. Not saying the movie is tops but she was definitely the bottom. Plus the fact that she beat up Vinnie fucking Jones, who was by far the best part of that moive, was just lame. They should have had Kelsey Grammer School and the Juggernaut fight. But yes totally agree I hate her.
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Thank You For Smoking was excellent. Good enough that I think most people would regret it if they couldn't squeeze it into their top ten lists the year it came out. I do agree that the previews looked a little weak, but the film itself was outstanding-- intelligent, well-acted, and dealt deftly and humorously with the politics, managing to play smartly to all audiences. Not sure how it would compare to the book, because in my experience books are almost always superior to film versions.
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I sure about a lot of what you said. And I think we are talking about different movies named Sunshinie THOUGH Mark Strong is in both?? It sounds you like seeing quirky comedies in theaters? I was trying to say that Fox Searchlight is a horrible distributor of movies.
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...and i was agreeing with you in my needlessly prolix manner, as befits my legend. i did think you were making a distinction between _little miss sunshine_ and _plain ol' sunshine -- the jewish historical epic that's, feh, not so great_. i suppose all i'm sayin' is, yes, fox searchlight is one of far too many horrible "indie" (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!) film distributors, and that these "boutique" distributors are only going get worse in the media convergence age, not better. you read it here last!
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Series7, you must be DAFT! Or (hopefully) joking?? Vin was hand down one of the WORST parts of the movie...he looks so uncomfortable I was afraid he may have dropped a load in his pants.
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Then what was the best?
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Keeping (slightly) on topic, I'd say
Ellen Page was pretty good as Kitty Pryde. It is pretty tough I admit to defend X3 when almost every major actor appeared to be phoning in their performances. IMO, Mr. Jones just stood out in a crowded field. ;^) -
i'm married to a video game designer so i'm a complete poseur when it comes to the jargon the cool kidz are using nowadays. but i don't do too badly for a girl.
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xiphos, you know how to make a lady feel all warm and tingly in her naughty bits!
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My male ego wanted ex-stripper Diablo Cody to fail -- I've always taken comfort in the fact that most strippers aren't good at ANYTHING. And although she occasionally borders on pilfering Kevin Smith's style, for the most part she has a unique comic voice. Comparisons to Superbad are not fair. Superbad was great, but Superbad is to Porky's as Juno is to Ghost World. It's a comedy that starts out brutally sarcastic, but slowly morphs into something completely romantic and devoid of cynicism. I adored this film, it's probably in my top 10 of 2007 as well. My only criticism: More Michael Cera! His delivery is so unique; I love that kid.
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YOU BASTADS!!!!! YOU DON'T KNOW HEAVEN WHEN IT VISITS THIS HORRIBLE, CRUEL HORRIFIC WORLD!!!!!! ELLEN IS WONDER, MAGIC, TALENT AND BEAUTY AND IF ANYONE HAS A PROBLEM WITH HER THEY GOTTA DEAL WITH ME!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER!!!!!! ELLEEEEEEENNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU READING THIS!!!!!!!!!????????? ELLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNN!!!!!!!!! CAN YOU HEAR ME!!!!!!!!!???????? ELLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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harashoi!
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pwned is poned.
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and is emperor of the moon, and was elected president, just that squatter bush got there first.
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