Word: juno
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...movie, based on screenwriter Shauna Cross' novel Derby Girl, is set in the heart of small-town Texas, where a high school senior and part-time barbeque joint waitress, Bliss Cavendar (Juno's Ellen Page) is doing her best to please her mother, Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden). Brooke, a faded beauty queen, would like her two daughters (Bliss is the older sister) to follow in her footsteps in the pageant world and then, after the triumph of coronation, go on to some greater future that while undefined, does not mimic her own fate of settling down with an amiable husband...
...recent years, Toronto has emerged as the launchpad of choice for producers with an eye on Oscar gold - There Will Be Blood and Juno in 2007, Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler in 2008 - and Precious now has the buzz of a sure-fire Oscar nominee, particularly given the Academy's decision this year to expand the Best Picture slate to 10 titles. The rollout of Precious seems to be following the familiar playbook: gaining momentum at three key festivals (Sundance, Cannes and Toronto) and looking to convert critical support into public intrigue and attendance when the movie hits theaters...
Kirn's novel inched into nightmare, as Ryan got mixed up with a company called MegaTech and became convinced someone was stealing his miles. Reitman, who previously scored with the quirky hits Thank You for Smoking and Juno, and who shares screenplay credit with Sheldon Turner, soft-pedals the satire and pumps up Ryan's relationships with Alex and Natalie. The movie's development of three strong personalities, each with grails the others don't seek, shows a maturity rare in modern movies. So does Reitman's refusal to judge any of the three. He doesn't force comeuppance...
...hard on the factory or its owner; it's Bateman's great gift to be able to make us inordinately fond of a rock-solid average guy. He's become so good at this that it comes as a delightful shock when he plays against type, as in Juno, in which his character turned out to be a jerk, giving the movie just the jolt it needed...
That's the problem with a lot of indie films: covering all the bases. For all the charm of its two leads, there's a cool calculation in Summer's chocolate-valentine heart: the urge to be the next Juno. When little films strain to be big hits, they turn quirks into formula and lose the romance of independence. They may as well be Wolverine...