So I think I’m probably the last person on earth to go see Juno, but I went a few days ago and the movie was all deserving of its critic acclaims. The movie and the experience of going to a small theatre was pleasant and new to me and also quite a change from going to big box office theatres. As I was waiting for the movie to start, I was confused by the audio that was playing. It was very simple in acoustics and vocals and I didn’t understand why I was listening to it until later into the movie when I realized it was the soundtrack for the film. You don’t get that kind of preview when going to a big box office theatre.
As for the film, its visual style, camera technique, storyline and acting was not what I had expect form an independent film. In class, we’ve mostly watched low visual quality films with extremely controversial plots and to watch an independent film that’s funny and has substance like Juno was refreshing. Sometimes it feels like because we only have a limited time to watch films in class, we only get to watch certain films and in doing that, it sets our expectation of what an independent film should be.
Juno used the invisible camera style like that of most Hollywood film. There were a lot of cut reverse cut shots between two talking characters and the acting wasn’t cheesy or noticeable like Clerks. The plot of a teenage girl getting pregnant and her experience going through it can be made by Hollywood, but the way Juno is made with personality and emotion is very different from what Hollywood does today. An example of a really bad Hollywood movie made in the same genre is Knocked Up. I saw this film when it was in theatre and the story structure was very predictable; irresponsible guy gets nice girl pregnant and ends with an epiphany calling for a change. The whole movie was dry and filled with forced humor.
In class we talked about the budget as being a big part of defining an independent film. Juno by far is the most expensive movie I’ve seen made in the independent genre. It budgeted for around, I believe, $6.5 million. Sex, lies, and videotapes was made with the same quality as Juno but budgeted only for $1.2 million. Knocked Up, a similar storyline budgeted for $27 million but grossed in at about the same. Juno is a film that definitely blurred the border between independent and Hollywood.
3 comments:
Like many other girls, I was totally hyped to see Juno. After the last few uber masculine films I'd seen, like There Will Be Blood, I was ready for something with a little more bounce. The hard part was convincing my boyfriend to go with me. Eventually he gave in when I said it would be quite the feat if we had seen all three of the films on the Oriental marquee at the time (we had already seen No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood).Quite reluctantly,he agreed to go, basically just to make me happy.
Going in, he felt uncomfortable and out of place. He was only one of like three guys in the whole joint, which during the early hours of the weekday was filled with mostly elderly women. Although still unsure during the opening credits, he was completely sucked in within the first couple of minutes of the film. It turned out to be one of our most enjoyable film-going experiences we've had together.
The humor and modernity of the film was unlike anything we've ever seen. I'll admit, "honest to blog" pushed it a little, but I think the lines were great and were constantly making the audience laugh, including my boyfriend.
I thought the film, as mentioned, really bridged the gap between Hollywood and independent cinema. The film did indeed have a rather controversial topic, teen pregnancy, and abortion, but I think the film did a good job covering those issues without offending anyone. I also found this film to be quite a relaxing relief from some of the other intense independent films I've watched lately, such as Slam (which I highly recommend) and Brick. This is the type of film I could watch over and over again and not ge sick of it.
And walking out of the theater, my boyfriend said he was glad we went, and that it wasn't just a typical "chick flick" like he thought it would be. I highly recommend it.
When I went a saw Juno in theaters, I knew it was an independent film, but not too much struck me as being independent. It featured Michael Cera, who is huge after Superbad, and JK Simmons of Spider-Man fame. After watching, I still did not notice too much about it that was independent. I suppose the budget would be the most important thing here, and the fact that they made pretty much the same storyline as Knocked Up for way less money and was still as big of a success.
The main thing that I thought was independent about Juno was Ellen Page's portrayal of the character Juno. She pulls of the portrayal of the female antihero perfectly, and she does it as the lead in the film. This is something that is usually not favored in the film genre, having a female be the antihero. The stereotype of that is more relegated to males, the James Deans, Johnny Depps, and etc. In an interview, the director, Diablo Cody, states her frustration with females in films in the past, "There was a lack of authentic teen girl characters... I saw writing this screenplay as an opportunity to create an iconic female."
You can't say that she didn't do that. Although the dialogue that Juno sometimes used in the film was annoying, she is still a phenomenal and unique character. She is a 16 year old pregnant in high school, and she just doesn't care. That is what was independent about the film for me - it's ability to go against the Hollywood norm and cast a female antihero as the lead, and be successful.
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