Sorry, I'm On My Mediocre-Phone

So, first, the good things about Juno:

What a compelling story! And the acting! Man, I wish Allison Janney were in more movies. Also, Jennifer Garner gave the best performance her tiny little brain would allow. Also, Ellen Page has the potential to really kick ass if she doesn't become her generations quirk girl...

*And now, we wade into the shit*

...Which, unless she spends the next film she's in reciting her lines on a unicycle, is impossible. Seriously, could a script be more dishonest and stupid?

Do you know how playing Dance Dance Revolution is like dancing, but not really dancing? The dialogue was so impossibly mannered that screenwriter Diablo Cody* must have written by playing Script Script Revolution. I mean, the characters were speaking, technically, but only in the strictest denotational sense of the word.

And I understand the need for flourishes and fun dialogue and wierdness. Not every film needs to be completely naturalistic. That'd be boring. But for Christ's sake, I can only take so much preciousness.

Becky wants to see it, so I might take another go at Juno. Tons of people I respect really loved it, so I wonder if my natural curmudgeonly-ness is coloring my opinion too much.

PS: Why didn't she get an abortion? Why does no one get an abortion in these pregnancy movies? They're legal! Please will someone get an abortion? Also, the clinic where she got an abortion--you know what? Fuck it. I'm writing a ten-minute movie that ends with the teenager getting an abortion and going on with her life.

*Fucking hell, that name.

The Boy in the Moon

Metafilter showed me this article about this journalist and his son, who has a rare condition. I'm not sure if this is exploitative, but I like it. It also has a very stylish video accompanying it. It's also part of a series, so I'll probably keep my eye on it.