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no sir, i don't like it.

holy crap was juno one of the worst movies i've ever seen. if you take take obscure boring indi music, vintage t-shirts, made-up phrases, and a desire to make garden state 2, put them in a blender and pour the said contents onto paper, you basically have the "i'm too cool for you" trite guano that is juno. good god, give me the accents in fargo over the dialogue in juno any day.

please discuss. and feel free to make up your own "hipster" phrases.

Comments

Gee Neal, what did you really think? At the risk of sounding like a pap loving idiot, I really liked the movie. But then, I saw it before I had heard anything about it - Guess if I had heard the backlash I might have listened to it and missed the movie.

However, I notice that most of the people I know that didn't like "Juno" (or wouldn't see it at all, due to their preconceived -pun intended- notions of what a movie relating to childbirth might entail) tend to be those of the human species who have never had the exquisite sensation of squeezing something roughly approximating the size of a watermelon out of an aperature that's roughly the size of a lemon.

My 16 year old really talks like Juno, too.


I can certainly understand the reaction of being too cool for a film too cool for anyone. But, I thought "JUNO" was terrific. Great performances all-around, funny as hell, sweet, refreshing and well-scripted and directed. Yes, it is full of affectations. It's a movie about teen-agers. They are walking affectations. Still, this was a story of the human drama that can occur in the midst of all of that nonsense.
Just one man's opinion.


Perhaps if you watch far more films than I, have seen Knocked Up and/or are either a Judd Apatow fan or a Diablo Cody hater, I can understand you disliking Juno. Also, I can understand a difference in personal taste. However, in case you haven't noticed Neal, a lot of people on PDD and elsewhere like obscure indie music, vintage t-shirts and made-up phrases.

I guess you're too cool for Juno. I, for one, am not. I thoroughly enjoyed it.


see now i thought the performances were stiff and boring. there was very little growth in the characters except the stepmom. i didn't really care about anyone in the movie, especially juno. she was a brat and the author and director didn't know whether to make her a naive girl or a wise old soul.

and i like obscure indie music and vintage t-shirts too. but they honestly felt like they were put in the movie to make it more hip. i've never seen knocked up and the last apatow movie i really enjoyed was zero effect. and i really knew nothing about diablo before seeing this movie. i just heard it was a great movie with incredible writing. i'm not too cool for juno, i just don't get the hype.

but i respect all of your opinions.


I think it's important to see a film on your own terms. For example, the new "Star Wars" movies seem like bigger pieces of shit than they are because they had so much to live up to. Still, one can watch them and enjoy the technical mastery of the artists working on them. Fortunately, I went to see "Juno" before anyone told me I had to. Word of mouth can set expectations waaayyy too high.
"Zero Effect" is a highly underrated movie. Great character. But Apatow had nothing to do with it. It was directed by Jake Kasdan who directed "Walk Hard" which Apatow produced and co-wrote. That's about it. "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" will make you laugh. I promise.


I thought the writing for Juno was trying too hard to be smart. I have to agree with Neal, the charecters, except the stepmom go nowhere. A lot of hype for a mildly entertaining movie. Every time the movie referenced any music, the actors sounded stiff. Rental, not worth going to the theatre.


Funny, just as I was reading the comments in this post they announced that Juno is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. I don't think it will beat out "No Country for Old Men" but I liked the movie. I even teared up THREE times. I hate it when movies make me do that.


Was Juno stilted and pretentious? Yep.

Was the dialog too good to be true? Yep.

Did the music intrude and draw attention to itself? Yep.

Did I love the movie anyway? Yep.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. Call me shallow if you want, but it was fun. Was it the best picture of 2007? Probably not, but it was a good watch.


Ugh, "Garden State" ... if "Juno" is anything like that overrated joke, I'll be skipping it. Thanks for the heads-up, Neal!


I liked Juno a whole lot more than I liked Garden State. I think Juno lacks much of the self-important, "I'm speaking for a generation" vibe I got out of Garden State.


juno was a little cheesy, a lot affected, and too cute--but i bought into it. it made me laugh. doesn't mean it deserves oscars, but then what do the oscars mean these days anyway? not much to me.


i can't care about juno too much right now though because my 13-year-old dog just puked IN MY SHOES.

i will pay you $50 if you come over right now to clean it up. anyone?


I'm too cool to care about shoes. I wear moccasins.


"was very little growth in the characters"
-king neal

"I have to agree with Neal, the charecters, except the stepmom go nowhere."
-mr ashley

The idea that the characters in a given work of art must develop, or demonstrate "growth" in some fashion, is not merely wrongheaded, I believe it to be a detriment to art and more generally, to the examined life itself. While the great "character arc" some so desperately seek may be comforting to the predispositions of the pattern-seeking human mind, it is simply not a realistic reflection of human behavior. The mechanics of "character development" often depend on an overly simplistic view of the world and of agency, and reinforce such simplicity in the minds of the audience.

Sure, sometimes characters (people) develop in the overly tidy manner of which you seek. But more often they do not. Arguments that so-called character development is a necessary (but, perhaps not a sufficient) condition for a given work of art to succeed are, I believe, asinine.

Miss Bessie,
Make mine messy.


Continuing on that theme, I considered Jane Austen, particularly "Northanger Abbey" a new version of which just aired on Masterpiece (Theater). Does Catherine change? Not really, though she learns not to rely on novels too much.

Sir Walter Scott said: "That young lady had a talent for describing the involvement and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going, but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me."

Not every movie has to be the "Big Bow Wow Strain", but rather, to show a little slice of life for some people, in some place.

As Hemingway said (about books, but I think this of movies too): "Afterwards, it all belongs to you: the people, the places, and how the weather was."


if you want character development, i suggest watching the stories. they start at 11 am monday-friday. shirley jones will be joining the cast of days of our lives on jan 31st!


Let me see billions of people on the planet. I'm not gonna go to a movie to watch a story about another birth. Wow like it's something new. I do like kids though.


And I liked the soundtrack too, so nyah! GAUNTLET!


I just got home from seeing Juno, and honestly I expected more.

I love Michael Cera and Allison Janney, and I think all of the acting was fine (especially theirs), but there was just something about this film that said, "I'm trying too hard"...The dialogue in the beginning was just excessive and tiring. Speaking of excessive, the opening credits were too. The musical references were kind of annoying - like a previous poster said, it was as if they were trying to add this hip feeling to the film to make the characters "weird-but-in-a-way-that-ends-up-making-them-cool". The soundtrack isn't bad though - it's got some great stuff. It was just a little obvious, that's all. It's a good movie, but I just kind of saw through it, I guess. Props to the apparent Minnesota location (the adoptive parents-to-be lived in a certain city called St. Cloud)- too bad I knew it was filmed in Canada!

I'd say it's worth seeing. The ending's sort of cute with a song that Cera and Page sing together, I'll give it that. I was also really glad to see Rainn Wilson - but his role was too short and it kind of stunk!


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