Uh, yeah. Because putting your music in a Starbucks commercial is COMPLETELY soulless (eyeroll).
Are you kidding me with that analogy?

"The film is a downright offensive effort to market to the “indie demographic."

Or is it an attempt to market the indie demographic to the mainstream? In which case, it seems to have worked.

Seriously, you're just too cool for it, Ezra. Maybe it wasn't made for you!

yes. because putting your music in a starbucks commercial IS completely soulless. No eyeroll and no kidding. I don't feel the need to make any apologies for people who choose that route.

This movie looks even worse than Garden State.

I haven't seen it yet. I'm totally looking forward to it as I'm a sucker for movies like these and I have a totally hetero man crush on Michael Cera. I wish he was my nephew that I could see at family functions. We could make dry and witty observations about the obtuse.

This is off topic, but my thing on Chuck and Larry is this... Having never been a member of the gay community, I can still see the writing on the wall. Shows like Will and Grace, and movies like this are setting back any sort of progress by 30 years. I really really think that in 20 or 30 years, those that don't view it that way now, will look back on shit like this and be embarrassed.

It reminds me stuff like the black housekeeper from Tom and Jerry, the big buck toothed Asian's from Bugs Bunny, etc.

I grew up in Wyoming. There are very very few people that have ever been exposed to a gay person outside of Jack from Will and Grace or their wives descriptions of what the cowboys were like in Brokeback.

Ramble ramble ramble.

night think:
Please explain.

Wow, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Garden State (aka THE WORST MOVIE EVER) only got a 87%, which means Juno is either a little bit better or a whole lot worse.

funny, I'm pretty much apathetic about it for the exact reasons you pointed out. I loved all of the individual elements as well, love Michael Cera, Emily Page, Jason Bateman... the bands namedropped, etc.

it just felt really really over the top and that irked the hell out of me... it felt like they tried way way too hard to gain indie cred. Juno's character was obviously written by someone in their late 20's. My niece is the same age as Juno, and I dare anyone to find a 16 year old that talks like she does or makes Thundercats references.

The trailers for Juno make me want to take an icepick to the brain. The most pandering, unoriginal, cheaply sentimental tropes of the past decade, filtered through the emo/nerdcore posterboy of the new sincerity, Michael Cera, who overstayed his welcome 30 seconds after AD ended?

The rave reviews have been baffling me; thank you, Ezra, for taking one for the team and exercising some critical thinking in the face of impossibly twee quirk and shameless empathy pandering.

Also: Garden State Sucks, and Napoleon Dynamite Sucks.

Also: Judd Apatow=overrated.

The predictable cuteness/quirkiness factor of this movie does sound pretty annoying.

I haven't seen this movie yet, but I generally try to stay away from movies about teenage pregnancy/accidental pregnancies/pregnancy in general because I always feel they're too sugar-coated, and after the movie's over I'm pissed off about the "happily ever after" ending that portrays having children/parenting/giving a baby up/having an abortion is an easy thing, where everyone is unscathed in the end. So when I saw the previews for Juno, I immediately dismissed it. However, after reading some reviews, this movie seems maybe okay in at least that regard--showing how pregnancy isn't a bowl of cherries, especially if you're young and/or decide to not keep the kid.

Does the movie at least throw us that bone?

robot:
nobody is forcing any artist to shake hands with (ie. tacitly endorse the products, shady labor practices, anti-competitive tactics, questionable commitment to fair trade, etc.) a giant corporation like starbucks.
it may seem like a wide-eyed cliche, but you really don't have to engage with that kind of shit on the level of endorsement.
It's a sensitive topic in a town where half the stunning talent chooses to ally itself with WK, but i think it's two cents worth throwing in on occasion.
ha i'm a troll!

Also: the film reviewer on npr yesterday agrees with you re: juno, ezra.

Also: clever suburban angst flicks are a dead horse beaten to pulpy rot.

Also: knocked up, too. did judd apatow have something to do with juno? I guess they're both edgy pro-life comedies.

If this Juno movie is anything like Garden State, then it will royally suck. I was so pissed off at the end of that movie.
Seriously, so pissed off.

Garden State is awful. Made me hate everything involved: Natalie Portman (can't act!). Zach Braff (responsible for this shit!) even my neighbor, That One Guy From The Shins (overrated lifestyle music!).

And in regard to "marketing to the indie demographic", there's a word for that group: YUPPIES.

If anyone is keeping score, I'll take Mutual Appreciation FTW.

Hmmm, I feel like I've heard this type of complaint before....

"There are some things that should be left alone. For very good reason. When corporations, and local rags (not even good ones at that) start putting their noses deep into the stink, and arrange event's that are so far out of their element as to be effectively foreign to them, it is the local cycling population that pays."

Oh yeah, that was Gabby of P.U.M.A. decrying the Mercury's Alley Cat race. Seems to me you could replace "local rags" with "Hollywood Studios", "arrange events" with "produce movies", and "local cycling population" with "Indie subculture", and you'd have a carbon copy of Ezra's argument .

Subcultures get appropriated by the mainstream. It is what happens. Deal with it. Be flattered that your subculture is compelling enough to be marketable, and then move on and create a new subculture.

I've read a lot of similar reviews -- where the reviewer really wants to dismiss Juno as over-hyped, sentimental crap, but can't actually point to any specific problems with it. There's a frustrated tone to these reviews -- like you're mad at the movie for NOT being as bad as you were hoping.

Honestly, Ezra, the subtext of your review says to me that you really WANTED to hate it (I'm guessing because hype turns you off), but ended up enjoying the movie despite yourself.

It's okay, man. It doesn't mean you're any less discerning to admit to liking something that other people also like.

totally not interested in juno. and this is coming from a person who just saw Margot at the Wedding--which was borderline ok--and thumbsucker last night. Granted, i wasn't expecting much from either of these films, they still managed to produce a message greater than the sum of there parts. (ps, this sort of stuff should be straight to dvd)

totally not interested in juno. and this is coming from a person who just saw Margot at the Wedding--which was borderline ok--and thumbsucker last night. Granted, i wasn't expecting much from either of these films, they still managed to produce a message greater than the sum of their parts. (ps, this sort of stuff should be straight to dvd)

I saw it and overall liked it. The only thing that bothered me was the nonstop hyper-witticism. It just took me out any sense of believing the reality. Every thing that came out of everyone's mouth was witty as fuck. No one talks like that.

Re comment #9:

Juno is pretty hard-headed about the whole pregnancy- I actually appreciated the lack of sentimentality- but there are moments where the difficulty of actually giving the baby up is driven home really effectively. However, the film’s ending is one of the most nauseatingly sappy things I’ve ever seen, so it might be a bit happily-ever-after for your tastes.

I think the pro-life question that somebody mentioned is an interesting one. Movies in which a woman makes a decision not to abort a pregnancy, even when abortion would be the most practical option, can and sometimes do reflect the ambiguity that a lot of women feel toward the procedure. I appreciate that Juno presents adoption as an option that doesn’t have to be traumatic or horrible— it can be a sensible decision made by a clear-headed woman about what she feels most comfortable with.

However, I'm sick of seeing abortion portrayed as the emotional equivalent of, like, seeing your mom get gang raped in front of you. Sometimes women make the sensible, clear-headed decision to have abortions and they AREN’T totally fucking traumatized by it. It’s one thing to portray adoption as the viable option that it of course is, entirely another to trot out the "tiny fingernails" argument that dissuades Juno from having an abortion. To the extent that the film is about her pregnancy, the plot hinges on a pro-life talking point. It’s not unrealistic-it’s a talking point ‘cause it works- but I found it almost as off-putting as the film's overreliance on Kimya Dawson songs.

All that said, I still think there was some good stuff in this movie. Great performances and some decent writing.

Eck!

This movie was no more and no less than its trailers portrayed it as.

If you expected more then I'm sorry but movies in general are supposed to be entertaining and not life altering, and for that Juno was entertaining.

seems like they did a better job making an indie rock movie than justin theroux did w/ dedication

"...Honestly, Ezra, the subtext of your review says to me that you really WANTED to hate it..."

I'm sure Ezra decided to spend his evening and his money on something he wanted to hate. That's an impenetrable psychological insight, Beaton.

You are wrong Ezra. I hate movies like that as well, but this is a great one.

Really great. Really, so very great. Everyone see this movie. Please. We need more like this and less like just about every other movie.

Sometimes the hype is earned.

Ezra and Alison, I disagreed with both of your (questionably similar) takes on the movie. It's like you watched the first 20 minutes and then walked out. Instead, I share A.O. Scott's very accurate take on it:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/movies/05juno.html?ref=movies&pagewanted=print

'The first time I saw “Juno,” I was shocked to find myself tearing up at the end, since I’d spent the first 15 minutes or so gnashing my teeth and checking my watch. The passive-aggressive pseudo-folk songs, the self-consciously clever dialogue, the generic, instantly mockable suburban setting — if you can find Sundance on a map, you’ll swear you’ve been here before.'

'But “Juno” (which played at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, not the one in Park City, Utah) respects the idiosyncrasies of its characters rather than exaggerating them or holding them up for ridicule. And like Juno herself, the film outgrows its own mannerisms and defenses, evolving from a coy, knowing farce into a heartfelt, serious comedy.'

Exactly. It does start out overly self-conscious, trying much, much too hard to impress us. But at some point the fantasy gives way to the reality.

eg, we see Mark and Vanessa's relationship not as the stereotypical yuppies, but as a much more authentic pair, a woman who desperately wants a baby and can't have one, and a man unwilling to settle down and be the husband his wife and society expect him to be. They play out their parts with increasing subtlety and truth.

The movie becomes more real as Juno's situation becomes more real to her. Hell, it could have been intentional, like the use of color and b&w in Wizard of Oz. Reality reaches its peak when Juno breaks down in the van ride home. There's a settling as she has the baby and Cera lays next to her. Then we're back in the world of youth, of immaturity, of fantasy, of innocence when Juno and Bleeker are playing their guitars.

Yes, it's in the same vein as Napolean Dynamite and Rushmore, eg, or even Heathers, or the Breakfast Club, or Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Some of those are more successful than others. I'm not a fan of Napolean Dynamite or Heathers, but love Rushmore and Fast Times. All quirky movies about high schoolers are not created equal. Juno isn't perfect, but it will rightfully become a modern classic, I hope, that teens of today look back on proudly and nostalgically.