Sunday, January 13, 2008

Juno

I saw Juno on Friday night with a whole passel of people. It was great; I loved it. I figured I would, and that might be my biggest complaint - I feel a little bit like the movie was too perfect. Like maybe someone made it just to be popular, which I think is the worst form of selling out for the "indie" genre. The only other "problem" was that, as Slate's Dana Stevens said in her review, no one is as quick as ALL the characters in this movie are. But that's part of what makes it so fun; and it is SO fun! I would totally recommend it. Michelle and I are actually considering buying it when it comes out on DVD, and we don't buy many DVDs. On the positive side, there's your obvious stuff - it's hilarious, with great characters. Juno's dad in particular is a great character. I think what I liked most about this movie was that it had a redemptive undertone running through it. The obvious example being that a teenage pregnancy might not be a tragedy ("what you meant for evil I meant for good"?). But there were other examples too, like Juno's step-mom Brenda who was supportive, caring and motherly. Maybe step-parents can be good parents too... I also liked that Juno's dad wasn't portrayed as a relational failure because he'd been divorced. I guess there were subtle encouragements that I really appreciated. It's definitely worth seeing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whenever I see this I will think of your review Jared... I hope I like it too, so much nicer than not liking a movie... Lives of Others is my current recommendation for you.
eric

Jared said...

Thanks for your recommendation - I checked out the website and it says now playing in LA and New York. Have you seen it? Was it released in Canada already? I watched the trailer and I'm pretty excited to see it.

Jared

Anonymous said...

_Juno_ was a good movie. I thought it was going to be kind of lame, so I put it off and just watched it recently. It was incredibly witty, and I thought Ellen Page (Juno) did a great job (as she did in Hard Candy).

Raskolnikov is on to something with _The Lives of Others_ which is a great film too. Right now, it would probably rank on my current top ten list. Definitely a must see. It should already be out on DVD by now; I rented it a while back.