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Juno film review
Feb. 16th, 2008 11:41 pm[Ugh this entry was filled with typos - am going to attempt to edit it because it is bugging me, even though I realize it is close to impossible to successfully proofread stuff solely on a computer screen, you have to print it off.]
Lovely day, if a bit on the chilly side. Wouldn't say it was exactly bitter or really cold - not like last week. But then I hail from the midwest - where temperatures often sank to below 0 with windchills in the double digits. Course - in the midwest we could happily stay inside with limited exposure - driving to and from everywhere on the planet. One does not walk to places in surburbia - not because one does not want to, but because it is often physically impossible to do so without getting hit by a car. Ironic that. You'd think it would be easier to walk around in surburbia than an urban environment - after all there is more grass. But it's not. I remember trying to walk to the movie theater once when I lived in Johnson County, Kansas (one of the biggest surburbs in the US), the movie theater was within viewing distance of my apartment complex. I could literally see it. But I could not walk to it without being hit by a car. Why? I'd have to cross four, four lane streets, all with racing non-stop traffic, no sidewalks, or walkways but the street and the narrow curb and busy parking lots. Sure if I could walk it - it would take ten minutes tops, but I couldn't. I had to drive and deal with parking - which with traffic usually took thirty minutes. Here? I can walk to the theater in less than twenty minutes, no problems. In fact it is easier to walk than drive to it.
Saw the flick Juno today. It's okay, I guess, wasn't impressed by it. Not as good as Waitress, which also dealt with an unwanted pregnancy but felt more innovative and oddly more realistic and authentic. Oddly, because of the two, Waitress is filmed in a surrealistic manner and is not trying for realism, while Juno is clearly trying to be realistic and failed miserably in my opinion. May not be fair to compare the two - since they are very different films. I don't really care about the Oscars and other award nonsense, learned a long time ago that the Oscars and other "awards shows" aren't about quality or talent so much as industry politics. (If Ghandi's win didn't teach me that, Titantic did. I stopped taking them seriously after Titantic.)
At any rate, Juno's a sweet if somewhat trite little story about a pregnant teen who finds a pair of parents to adopt her kid, things don't quite go as well as planned but still turn out nice and rosy in the end, with quirky music filtered throughout. The first half was entertaining, the middle drug so badly that the lady next to me decided to start text messaging her friends during the film and did not stop until the guy behind her, aided by me, politely asked her to stop. She sulked for about twenty minutes, then packed up her things and stormed out of the theater, never to return.
Pause for a public service announcement: IF YOU CARRY A CELL PHONE TURN IT OFF WHEN YOU SIT IN A MOVIE THEATER or ANY TYPE OF THEATER THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE IN WITH YOU. AND BY OFF I MEAN COMPLETELY - NOT ON VIBRATE, NOT ON BUZZER. IF YOU CAN'T BEAR TO DO THAT, EITHER DO NOT BRING IT OR DON'T COME.
Even without the mad text messeger, I can't help but think that this would have been a better film to watch on tv than on a movie screen. It really doesn't require a big screen - it's a small film, without much cinematography to speak of, mostly dependent on close-ups and quirky dialogue, both of which work far better on a smaller screen and within the comforts of one's own living room.
( Review of Juno with sporadic and potentially major plot spoilers )
Lovely day, if a bit on the chilly side. Wouldn't say it was exactly bitter or really cold - not like last week. But then I hail from the midwest - where temperatures often sank to below 0 with windchills in the double digits. Course - in the midwest we could happily stay inside with limited exposure - driving to and from everywhere on the planet. One does not walk to places in surburbia - not because one does not want to, but because it is often physically impossible to do so without getting hit by a car. Ironic that. You'd think it would be easier to walk around in surburbia than an urban environment - after all there is more grass. But it's not. I remember trying to walk to the movie theater once when I lived in Johnson County, Kansas (one of the biggest surburbs in the US), the movie theater was within viewing distance of my apartment complex. I could literally see it. But I could not walk to it without being hit by a car. Why? I'd have to cross four, four lane streets, all with racing non-stop traffic, no sidewalks, or walkways but the street and the narrow curb and busy parking lots. Sure if I could walk it - it would take ten minutes tops, but I couldn't. I had to drive and deal with parking - which with traffic usually took thirty minutes. Here? I can walk to the theater in less than twenty minutes, no problems. In fact it is easier to walk than drive to it.
Saw the flick Juno today. It's okay, I guess, wasn't impressed by it. Not as good as Waitress, which also dealt with an unwanted pregnancy but felt more innovative and oddly more realistic and authentic. Oddly, because of the two, Waitress is filmed in a surrealistic manner and is not trying for realism, while Juno is clearly trying to be realistic and failed miserably in my opinion. May not be fair to compare the two - since they are very different films. I don't really care about the Oscars and other award nonsense, learned a long time ago that the Oscars and other "awards shows" aren't about quality or talent so much as industry politics. (If Ghandi's win didn't teach me that, Titantic did. I stopped taking them seriously after Titantic.)
At any rate, Juno's a sweet if somewhat trite little story about a pregnant teen who finds a pair of parents to adopt her kid, things don't quite go as well as planned but still turn out nice and rosy in the end, with quirky music filtered throughout. The first half was entertaining, the middle drug so badly that the lady next to me decided to start text messaging her friends during the film and did not stop until the guy behind her, aided by me, politely asked her to stop. She sulked for about twenty minutes, then packed up her things and stormed out of the theater, never to return.
Pause for a public service announcement: IF YOU CARRY A CELL PHONE TURN IT OFF WHEN YOU SIT IN A MOVIE THEATER or ANY TYPE OF THEATER THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE IN WITH YOU. AND BY OFF I MEAN COMPLETELY - NOT ON VIBRATE, NOT ON BUZZER. IF YOU CAN'T BEAR TO DO THAT, EITHER DO NOT BRING IT OR DON'T COME.
Even without the mad text messeger, I can't help but think that this would have been a better film to watch on tv than on a movie screen. It really doesn't require a big screen - it's a small film, without much cinematography to speak of, mostly dependent on close-ups and quirky dialogue, both of which work far better on a smaller screen and within the comforts of one's own living room.
( Review of Juno with sporadic and potentially major plot spoilers )
