Juno Fucking Rocks
Before Christmas, Sizemore and I helped Think Jam organise the Bloggers/Twitter/Seesmic screening of Juno. The whole blogang was there plus a bunch of Twitterpeeps I’d never met.
The film was written by Cody Diablo who some of you may know from her blog Pussy Ranch. She was writing Pussy Ranch when she lived in Minneapolis and being from Minnesota myself I used to read her regularly. She stopped to go write a book and then I lost track of her… I was so surprised when I found out she’d written this film. She’s now blogging at MySpace - surely that must be some Fox/Searchlight/Murdoch-related thing cos, I mean, why use MySpace??!
Anyway, the film. It absolutely, completely and utterly rules. It’s about a teenaged girl - Juno - who finds herself pregnant and decides to put the baby up for adoption. That makes it sound boring and crap as all hell. It’s not.
The film is in the same vein as previous Searchlight dorkomedies like Little Miss Sunshine and Napoleon Dynamite, but is just so damned cool with it. The writing is beyond excellent, the soundtrack beats even Hallam Foe’s (and that’s saying something) and it’s genuinely laugh out loud funny - during the screening there were times when the laughter was so loud that it almost drowned out the film (100 people and one of the best sound systems in London). It was fab to see Jason Bateman who I LOVED in the 80s (he also reminds me of LondonFilmGeek!) and, I have to admit, the Minnesota accents from some of the characters made me grin like a goon.
I left the screening feeling so joyously happy to be alive… and it’s not that often that a film makes you want to skip down the street. Juno was one of those films for me.
Anyway, it’s out in the UK from the 8th of February and I would strongly, strongly suggest you go see it.
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6 Comments, Comment or Ping
jasmine
I saw it tonight and I would basically describe it as “Ferris Bueller Gets Pregnant”. It’s all about the dialogue, which is sharp and witty without ever getting too laboured. Nice.
Jan 14th, 2008
giagia
That’s an excellent description, Jas! Haha!
Jan 14th, 2008
Hugh
I’m liking your film recommendations…. I caught Hallam Foe on it’s very last screening time at the Curzon, mainly down to your on-going recommendations of it…
There’s another fantastic indie film that came out last year, that I think is probably your kind of film (definitely thought-provoking, and quite geeky too) - The Nines, written and directed by John August (Writer of Go, and screenplay adapter of Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, amongst others). It came and went in the cinemas over here in November/December (can’t remember exactly) and will be out in March on DVD over here…
And, if you’ve not come across it before, John’s blog (linked with his name above) is one of the best screen-writing blogs that I’ve ever read. At the moment, obviously, dominated by strike-related posts, but still will the occasional posts on the industry in general, or writing tips.
One of the coolest things that he did was release a load of source footage that was used for the trailer for The Nines, and allowed people to cut their own trailers. He keeps talking about wanting to do the same thing with the whole film! I’m not sure that that’s ever been even considered before!
Anyway, definitely check it out.
And sorry for turning this into a bit of a plug for someone else’s blog…!
Jan 14th, 2008
Amanda
Oh, I loved Juno! I got the soundtrack before I saw the film, and it’s amazing, too. I’m so excited for the reaction it’s getting. Ellen Page is fantastic.
Jan 15th, 2008
Mark
Weird how some things make you realise how fast time flies; you mentioned Cody Diablo and I thought “I used to read her too … ooh, back in the day … wait, how long ago was that again?” Years ago, yes, but it seems longer somehow. Good to see she’s doing well and the comparisons to Ferris, Napoleon, and Little Miss mean I’ll definitely have to look out for it now.
Jan 15th, 2008
tim clague
I’ve been a big pusher of Juno. For me it was quite a depressing Christmas. As a BAFTA voter I watched a lot of films. Great films - but wow, heavy. Juno was different. Dramatic situation. But not a film full of drama queens. Just people trying to get on with life. Amazing.
Jan 19th, 2008
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