Juno

By Mal -

6 out of 10

Juno tells the story of a hyper-confident 16 year old girl who falls pregnant, following it from first realisation to the search for adoptive parents to its final conclusion. While there are some strong indie performances here (notably Ellen Page as Juno and Jason Bateman as the adoptive dad) and characters do actually develop throughout the film, it feels like it's trying a little too hard at times. Scenes come and go that occasionally feel staccato in nature. "This is where Juno feels the pressure." "This is where Juno's step-mom shows her true colours." And so on. I think I'm being harsh here, as it's really not that bad, but it just didn't flow perfectly at times.

Style-wise, it's very self-aware, mixing scrapbook elements also seen in films like Napoleon Dynamite and Eagle vs Shark with self-consciously hip music that wouldn't seem out of place in Garden State or, again, Napoleon Dynamite. And, really, it's the film's style that's as much to the fore as the story itself. The kids are all very post-modern 'street', being, as they are, pretty much all white, middle class hipsters. And, frankly, everyone takes the pregnancy remarkably in their stride. Suspend your disbelief and you'll probably quite enjoy it (as I did), but I'm not convinced it's a great film.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downfall

By -
7 out of 10 Hitler, eh, he was crackers, wasn't he, or was he? This film sets about trying to get the bottom of this question, detailing the last few hours of his life in his bunker in Berlin as the red army approached. The film, some would say rather controversially, answers the question early on with his pie fight with Himler coming as the starting credits fade. What follows is a romp through the final desperate hours of a ridiculous regime as they all, but their leader, seem to have grasped the fact that they’re buggered. The film has many memorable and chilling scenes, such as Dr Goebbels’ wife killing her own children rather than letting them fall into Communist hands. And the bit where Hitler’s dog is given cyanide for a laugh, with some superb acting by the dog. Anyway, if you’re interested in the madness of what went on in that bunker in Hitler’s last hours, this is for you. I would, however, also recommend Das Bunker und Laughs for a ve...
Read more

The Brothers Grimm

By -
5 out of 10 On the face of it The Brothers Grimm is a perfect match for the dark surrealism of Terry Gilliam . However it fails to live up to its potential. The brothers (played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger ) are travelling con-artists who arrive in a village with a real fairy tale curse. For a Fairy tale the cinematography is very grey and brown. There is little of the Gilliam imagination that we might have expected. Most surprising of all is that the special effects ranged from the sublime (blobby gingerbread man) to the downright awful. A scene where a CGI scarf was floating down a river was particularly derisible. At times it seems that the script is a vehicle for referencing yet another fairy tale rather than to tell the tale that the viewer is actually watching. This is a shame because when the movie does get going there are moments to enjoy.
Read more