Juno

[SiliasRuby]

This is a really sweet movie with extremely sharp writing. It made me laugh out loud and tear up and cry.

[Stefen]

It made you cry? I was going to take my girlfriend to see this but I don't know anymore. Is Die Hard still playing ?

[Gamblour.]

It made you cry? I was going to take my girlfriend to see this but I don't know anymore. Is Die Hard still playing ?

I also cried. A lot. Maybe act like you have to go to the bathroom and watch from the stairs/near the rear of the theater for the ending. It's a great cry.

[cine]

SPOILERS
yeah, anyone who doesn't cry over Juno's death has a heart of stone.

[picolas]

motherfucker. did you fucking bold a massive spoiler? i've whited it. what the shit! how could you think people wouldn't see that. it was like

SPOILERS
i'm writing something very spoily!!!!!


FUCK. i hope you were spoofing spoilers.

[Pubrick]

FUCK. i hope you were spoofing spoilers.

i think he was.

more than that, i havn't seen the movie but i think the main joke was to completely misrepresent the reason everyone was shedding tears. it was a good gag.

i don't think it's a spoiler to say this is a FEEL GOOD movie. it's sweet, it's life affirming. man movies are so easy to review without seeing them these days. this is why i usually don't bother. and why last year almost EVERY review of mine was a fake -- apocalypto, INLAND EMPIRE (twice), babel, heaps more -- to the point where ppl were agreeing with my points. i didn't even see babel until a month ago.

it's really simple. you just have to know what the movie is supposed to be about. what are its aims? the aims are easy to gather from the premise, the ppl involved, sometimes even the title. if it's a good movie it will follow its premise/hypothesis to some kind of insightful conclusion. if not, it will fail somewhere along the way and get to a muddled ending that has little to do with its original idea. if it has one. a good movie gives you a chunk of rock and tells you there's gold inside and you're gonna get to it by the end. a good ending is shiny and pure and reveals a truth that can be traced all the way to the start.

Juno is no exception, it's an oddly precocious film that aims to put you in the shoes of someone forced to mature earlier than most ppl. is it about dumb kids? me and you and everyone we know was mature about child sexuality, because the film itself was from an innocent perspective it wasn't creepy or lecherous like it would be in the hands of larry clark. likewise this film is PROBABLY about a girl who "stays ahead of the game" despite the odds against her. the motto could be: "ain't no shame ladies do your thang." it's empowering and sweet because that's what diablo cody has always presented of herself.

i misjudge movies sometimes. but it seems nowhere near as often as everyone else. you're all wrong about speed racer right now.

[picolas]

after googling some terms i think there's an excellent chance that wasn't a true spoiler. i'm clearly very high-strung about spoilers right now due to twbb. sorry for not getting the gag

[72teeth]

it wasnt a very good gag anyway... SIDs should never be joked about, cine...

[john]

Diablo Cody is still a piece of shit.

Her script delivered a masssively overpraised, if not above average, sitcom.

Jason Reitman's directing, however, has grown increasingly solid.

He pulled tender, genuine moments from silence - and delivered clever shots and set pieces without being overly quirky.

I feel like I am now very excited to see whatever Reitman does next. I also want to see Jason Bateman again, very soon.

[hedwig]

ebert has lost his fucking mind. diablo cody should not win a single award. her script absolutely kills this movie.

nobody can deliver these lines without sounding stupid. the witty exchanges between the characters just don't make sense in the context of the story. rainn wilson's useless cameo is only the tip of the iceberg. it cripples almost every scene. this is exactly why the best parts in Juno are NOT FUNNY: the characters speak and relate to each other like actual human beings instead of quirky movie characters. there's truth in their behavior. the most affecting moments have no dialogue at all. although reitman is a competent director and the performances are excellent, it's not enough to save the movie.

And you provide a good example, I hated Me and You, though many seem to love it the same way I love Juno.

Juno is NOTHING like Me and You and Everyone We Know. me and you is unique. it truly exists in its own world, in miranda july's world. it's not trying to be indie-quirky. if anything, its "quirky" qualities complement its meaning rather than suffocate the shit out of it.

there's good stuff in this movie. there's potential. too bad.

[cinemanarchist]

"Honest to blog?"

I think everything that is wrong with this film can be distilled from that one line of dialogue. The quiet moments in this film do play really well and Jennifer Garner blew me away but it wasn't enough to make up for lines such as the above.

[polkablues]

ebert has lost his fucking mind. diablo cody should not win a single award. her script absolutely kills this movie.

nobody can deliver these lines without sounding stupid. the witty exchanges between the characters just don't make sense in the context of the story. rainn wilson's useless cameo is only the tip of the iceberg. it cripples almost every scene. this is exactly why the best parts in Juno are NOT FUNNY: the characters speak and relate to each other like actual human beings instead of quirky movie characters. there's truth in their behavior. the most affecting moments have no dialogue at all. although reitman is a competent director and the performances are excellent, it's not enough to save the movie.

The dialogue worked for me on a similar level as Brick's did, where it is not actual speech, it bears no resemblance to actual speech, but it creates a stylized story world in which it becomes actual speech.  A lot of people talk about the first scene, with Rainn Wilson, and how the dialogue was so stylized at that point, but they liked it after that.  I think that was intentional to a large degree, where Cody and Reitman knew that they would be throwing people into this world of unrealistically clever characters, so they hit you with it full force at the beginning, like teaching you to swim by throwing you in the lake.  And, of course, much like Brick, there are going to be a fair number of people who just can't stay afloat with it, and the movie loses them.  It's a shame, only because when you love a movie you want everyone else to love it the same way, but I know that's an unreasonable thing to expect.

[Pubrick]

The dialogue worked for me on a similar level as Brick's did,

HOLY SHIT. i take back my faux positive review. that right there is the worst thing anyone has said about this movie and what's worse is you think it's a compliment! i still hope it's more Me and You and less Brick but i've been ignoring all the signs. 1. ebert liked it. 2. cinephile liked it. and now 3. the dialouge is as ridiculous and laughable as BRICK. jesus christ.

And, of course, much like Brick, there are going to be a fair number of people who just can't stay afloat with it

haha., ohhhhh yeah, poor little old me drowning cos i couldn't "stay afloat" in the great depth of Brick's dialogue. if anything i couldn't stand the LACK of depth and shitty spectacle of the whole thing. it was less than a kiddy pool. it was a baby flailing about in a puddle pretending it was a kiddy pool. the FILM was out of its depth and tried to make up for it by relying on a gimmick, because a useless convoluted plot that meant nothing wasn't enuff. and everyone is SOoooo clever for being "in" on it. what? are hedwig, alexandro, and i the only ppl who survived the invasion of the Brainspawn? Brick was like a radioactive mutation of a kevin smith movie.

we talk about "us" and "them".. ppl who hate Boondock Saints and those who love it. the assholes and those who like asshole movies but for different reasons. well this year we establish the NEW kind of asshole. the indie asshole who falls for these movies against their better judgment, because it's easier to pretend something that uses big words is smart than to try to see beyond it. just like some ppl here with otherwise good taste fell for Crash. still, i hope there is something beyond the dialogue in Juno.

oh, i havn't seen the movie, so if this bothers you on principle pretend it was either another (more accurate) faux review or that it was about Brick. god, i hate brick.

[polkablues]

Wow.  Did I just run over your cat or something?

[cine]

no, i ran over his cat. which is why i'm listed as #2 before you.

also, here's the footage: