Juno Backlash

After all the gushingly good reviews that Juno received, I thought I must have been mistaken to write it off as Knocked Up meets Superbad and decided to go see it.

I was underwhelmed.

It was a good movie. It was a cute movie. But all the fuss? What was that about? The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a confluence of perfection in every aspect." Good grief! Perfection in every aspect? Puh-leeze!

This hive mentality got me to thinking that movie reviewers must be participating in a version of the Emperor's New Clothes. Each lavishing more and more praise so as not to display their lack of coolness or not being hip enough.

I thought it was a bit too glib for its own good. Too self-consciously quirky and more than a little contrived. Apparently, I am no longer alone in that regard. There's an article on Slate about how the backlash against Juno started. Writer Dana Stevens asserts that Juno's Oscar noms precipitated the change in attitude. Fox is even marketing it as "the little movie that could." Hmm, maybe--but in my opinion it's no Little Miss Sunshine. I think maybe that all the overwhelmingly hyperbolic acclaim brought it down. It's hard to be the underdog when every one is fawning all over you.