CRITICALLY BITTER - Juno

Critically Bitter is Johnada's chance to complain about things he has no business complaining about. Today, he takes on movies. If he really knows so much about movies, maybe he should make them, not write about them in a blog.

The Wife and I saw the film Juno last weekend. It was a good teen comedy that has a relatively happy ending and avoids a lot of dumb move cliches. Overall, I would give it 3.5 Hortons. But the movie includes one scene that is becoming a bad cliche in these "kooky" indie movies. This scene typically involves a hipster dude or dudette talking about how much s/he loves a song/band. The band/song is then played while the characters in the scene stare intently, sometimes nodding along. There is no way to make this work within the narrative of any film without taking the away from the plot. Every time I see this, it makes me want to vomit. It memorably happened in the film Garden State, when Princess Leia's mom tells the guy from Scrubs that the Shins, "will change your life."



Unfortunately, this has happened in many films other than Garden State (let me know if you remember any). In Juno, it happens when the Jason Bateman character plays Juno Sonic Youth's version of "Superstar" by the Carpenters. Through dialogue about Bateman's former band and his "cool" music room, the film had already established his rocker credibility with Juno. This part seems tacked on and totally unnecessary. It's basically the writer saying to the audience, "I like this cool song, don't you think it's cool?" I think this particular song would have worked spectacularly in the background in other parts of the movie. It's seems like a waste to pay for the rights and use it like this.

Music in movies should draw you in, make you feel closer to the character, not hit you over the head with the filmmaker's coolness.

P.S. The movie takes place in Minnesota, where I was lucky enough to live for six years prior to moving to Canada. All city references in the film are about MN towns, except for several references to a competing high school track team from Manteno. Manteno is in Illinois (just seven miles north of my home town, Bourbonnais) and a seven hour drive from Minnesota. This does not make any sense geographically. Despite the fact that no one else in the world cares, it bothers me a lot. I didn't find it cute. Here's a link to an article about the Manteno references in my hometown newspaper - the Daily Journal.