And I Know You Weren't Bored That Day...

I've been trying to stay pretty busy and distracted, so even though I've been done with finals for a couple days, I already feel like I've neglected any writing.

One more day until I'm actually going to be busy with Christmas, Cincinnati, New Year's, and my annual CD City residency.

So after an excruciatingly painful yet delicious meal at Fogo de Chao on Wednesday, I lied on the couch over at Jon's and we watched some movies.

Juno:
Thankfully due to my living arrangement, I've been able to see Juno twice now, and strangely, over the last couple days, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. After that first viewing, I thought it was a decent but pretty standard indie, but it's really starting to grow on me. When I finally catch up on the rest of what I've missed this year, I really won't be surprised if it sneaks onto my top 10 (if I ever get around to making one).

I'd read and heard plenty about Juno after it seemed to wow critics and audiences at Sundance, went in with the expectation that it was just going to be overhyped and overrated, and have read and heard plenty since, and in a lot of ways, I don't have much new to say that hasn't already been said. I really am walking the critical line with this one.

The film's greatest strength is the depth of emotions it's able to display of a young girl who as she says, just hasn't decided what kind of girl she wants to be yet. The final stretch of the movie is just so heartfelt that it's hard not to be won over. When Juno narrates about how her and Paulie didn't want to see the baby, it's really heartbreaking stuff.

This time around, I was also much more sold on the romance between Paulie and Juno. Where it seemed more of a romantic subplot hurriedly dovetailed in for a seemingly happy ending the first time around, it really does work. These are just two confused high school kids. The fact that one day Juno is consumed with the thought of being pregnant and finding people to adopt her baby, and then when everything falls apart realizes that she just misses the simpler times of just hanging out with her friend really plays naturally.

It's the film's attempts at being clever that really stand in its way. While I appreciate some pop culture references, the film just has too many. Here's just a few: Sonic Youth, blogs, Herschell Gordon Lewis, The Melvins, The Blair Witch Project, Etch and Sketch, slurpees, hamburger phones, and Thundercats. While Blair Witch Project being on Starz might be the funniest line in the film, that "Thundercats are Go!" after Juno's water breaks is cringe worthy, and is a glaring mistake in what is almost a flawless final act. It's also the film's own cleverness that really makes it difficult to get into at the beginning with a ridiculous Rainn Wilson cameo. I get that some of what makes the character of Juno so likeable, besides Ellen Page just being outstanding, is her cleverness and verbal quips, and that as the film goes on, that tougher exterior begins to fall away, but the film still really struggles due to its dialogue and survives because of its story. Just based on the two screencaps which I think really capture the film for me, it's really the quiet moments that are the most memorable and effective.