Overrated movie? Juno'it!

:Tim Seigfried

Every once in a while, a film comes along that captures the hearts and minds of the country, hitting all the right notes as it rides a steady word-of-mouth campaign before turning itself into a full-on Titan at the box office. Sometimes, these movies are even able to impress even the most jaded movie critic, whose icy façade is cracked, if only for a moment, to revel in the beauty of a skillfully crafted film. Even rarer still, that movie is able to snag a much deserved Best Picture nomination; the ultimate prize for a movie worth its weight in Oscar gold. However, Juno is not one of those films.

Don't get me wrong, Juno is a fine little movie. It's a solid 7 out of 10, a fun little romp that is enough to distract you for about two hours, but a nomination for Best Picture? Not so much. It's like Natalie Portman: Cute and smart, but at the end of the day, just can't compete with the likes of Scarlett Johansson.

Here's the story: Juno (Ellen Page) is pregnant at the hand of her friend Bleeker (Michael Cera), who is okay with Juno giving their baby away to a couple of yuppies (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), while her father (J.K. Simmons) and stepmother (Allison Janney) look on, armed with a steady dose of advice and humorous dialogue. All the while, some other stuff happens that Juno comments on like she just got finished watching a Kevin Smith movie (thank you to the three people who got that joke).

That's it. That's the whole movie, a dark-horse indie film that becomes overly schmaltyz and gooey by the end, and you realize about a week later that you didn't really enjoy it.It's the opposite of a dumb comedy that gets better with time (Dumb and Dumber, for instance), because for a few days after you've seen it, you start to think about it more, and the flaws start to appear, until you realize that you liked the movie, but didn't love it like you thought you did.

One of the problems with Juno is that the dialogue is so painfully crafted that it loses its sense of realism. In the first 20 minutes, the audience is treated with such quotable quotes as: "Your eggo is preggo," "Honest to blog?" and "I am for shiz up the spat." The verbal assault tapers off after a while, but the entire film is so peppered with these confabulatory gems that it never allows the viewers to fully immerse themselves into a scene because it is so over-the-top and manufactured.

I like dialogue to be smart and well-written, but Juno surpasses that more than any movie that I've seen in recent memory…and that's not a good thing. Quantity does not equal quality.Another issue I have is that Juno is ostensibly an independent film, almost to the point where it becomes pretentious. It's no secret that indie films are noticeably so, but nearly every aspect of Juno is coated in it. From the colored pencil opening credits, to the entire makeup of Juno's bedroom, to the musical and film tastes of Juno and Jason Bateman's character, all the way up to the end of the film when Juno and Bleeker sing, "Anyone Else But You" by The Moldy Peaches, who are, guess what? An indie band out of New York. Shocking.

So... I liked the movie Juno. It's a fun picture that makes you laugh. But that's it. It isn't worth any nominations that are combination of the words "best" and "picture," nor is it worth a place on the Internet Movie Database's Top 250 list, where it currently ranks at #135 (this will change by the time you read this), where it is ranked above such films as Gone With the Wind, Heat, and Dog Day Afternoon. Shameful.

Edited to add: I disagree with the Scarlett/Natalie comparison. I also enjoy the song "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches. But everything else I'm pretty in check with.