When I watch Juno, I totally want to punch Jason Bateman's character in the mouth.

[Orrex]

Selfish asshole. Look, if you don't want to be a father, at least have the goddamn spine to fess up about it before your wife has fully committed herself emotionally to the prospect.

Jerk!

[aquaman]

1. As a father.....

I agree with you, I hated him in the movie too! When my ex told me that I was going to be father, I danced around the room with glee. And my son is three now, and so dear to me!

[Orrex]

2. That's excellent!

We have two young cherubs as well, and whenever I see that kind of asshole would-be father portrayed on screen or on tv, it sort of sets me off.


Nothing against Bateman himself, of course; I just hated his character!

[aquaman]

4. Yeah......

I have an issue with shit parents whether they be male or female. I was just saying the whole time during the movie, "what an ass".

[Orrex]

5. What kills me is that he seems pretty cool at the beginning, while she seems annoyingly uptight

But as the film progresses, we get a truer sense of their respective characters, and then I want to bust his kneecaps for him.

[proteus_lives]

3. Yeah, he was a sleaze.

Sometimes they can fly under your radar and then blam!

[EndersDame]

6. That movie was like having an indie flick poured into my eye

First of all I went to an at risk high school with pregnant students and parents.Teen pregnancy ain't that easy . Hell she couldn't even continue going to regular public high school.

Second Who the hell talks like that?

Thirdly all of the characters are in desprate need of psychiatric help aside from Juno's parents.

All in all I think that Diablo Cody wrote to see how many obscure pop cultural references she could name drop in the alloted time


disclaimer
I love independent films arthouse Hong Kong flicks cheesy kung fu movies, and hell even french new wave

[Orrex]

8. I'm very bored with the anachronistically hypercool teen character-type

Ghost World features two of them as well. Sure, the dialog is an affectation, but then again so is all dialog. Still, I wonder how many current teenagers have encyclopedic knowledge of (or even interest in) 70s and 80s pop culture portrayed in films like these...

I would suggest that the pregnancy in the film is "easy" because the film isn't actually about the pregnancy per se; it's about what the pregnancy does to the various characters.

However, I think that Juno is actually quite a good film, and I'd dispute the idea that all of the characters need psychiatric help. Bateman's and Garner's characters clearly have issues that need to be addressed, but the rest of the characters seem like (cinematic versions of) fairly typical personalities.

Which characters did you think required help, and why?

[EndersDame]

9. I love love love coming of age movies especially centered on smart girls

I love the Brat Pack movies Saved (another teen pregnancy movie) and Ghost World just to name a few. I understand incorporating slang but I felt that this was over the top and it really felt very forced much like the movie on a whole (to me anyways)


Mostly Bateman's and Garner's characters need intensive psychiatric care Juno could benefit from some counseling (but not as intense) as well.

I really couldnt get over the unrealistic teen pregnancy having seen it upclose. You say it is not about the pregnancy but what it does to the various characters , yeah it does alot especially to the girl (and yes girl) going through it. Right from the beginning when she talks about drinking her weight in Sunny D and casually taking the pregnancy test. I remember one of my classmates fainting when she found out .I think that is my biggest problem with this movie.

I just want to clarify that I think your impressions of the movie are perfectly valid (sometimes when I post on the internet it gets misconstrued that I am attacking the poster or not respecting their views .) :hi:

[Orrex]

10. No worries--I know that I'm sensational, so I didn't think for a minute that you were attacking me.

:evilgrin:

I really like Ghost World (we own the DVD), but what I meant was that it likewise featured teen characters with unrealistically deep interest in pop culture that predated their births!

You're certainly right about teen pregnancy in the real world. I went to a small high school (graduating class of 180), and we had I believe five or six pregnancies before the end of senior year. In all cases it was a source of monumental stress and upheaval for the mothers, and the film certainly doesn't pursue that aspect of it. I believe that this was, in fact, one of the criticisms of the film when it came out.

And I agree with you about Bateman's and Garner's characters, too. She's clearly somewhat damaged at the film's outset, but I think that she develops quite nicely over the course of the narrative. And Bateman's character is enough of a jerk to have inspired this thread in the first place!

[EndersDame]

11. Heh when I was a teen girl I was interested in pop culture that predated my birth

I also own Ghost World (Dvd and comics that inspired it .) On the whole into pop culture that predates our births I think it stems from the fact that we think we would have belonged or fit in but in the real world we still would still be awkward and trying to find our selves. I just think that the name dropping needed to be toned down

[Orrex]

12. I know that there are really people out there like that (male and female)

But in a lot of indie films that archetype is used as an easy shortcut to establish the character as "quirky and interesting," and for that reason it's become cliche. It also ties into your complaint about the dialog IMO.

Another film with eclectic dialog is Brick, which I really enjoyed as well.

[EndersDame]

13. Attack of the uber hip Alterna- Girl!

I will be sure to check out Brick

[Orrex]

15. Read about it before you rent it; it's not at all like Ghost World or Juno

It's kind of like a noir-style mystery set in a high school, but IMO it works for the most part.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. Jason Bateman could use a good mouth-punching, whether he starred in Juno or not.

Of course, that's AFTER Pauly Shore. Yeah, first, Pauly gets CLOCKED. BLAM! Then Jason. But only after Pauly.

Life is good.

:rofl:

:toast:

[CreekDog]

14. Jason Bateman turned out okay

he played brats and smartasses as a kid and then as an adult played a lot of utility roles.

he's one of those teen actors who turned out okay and luckily not known for off screen exploits and tangles.