"Juno", "KInsey", "After Hours"

I'm at a friend's house and just wanted to check in and see how you were doing. Things are going good for me, but I miss being here at RJ Battles everyday.

Last week I caught Juno- it got off to a rough start but it was cute. I liked Ellen Page, and especially liked Allison Janney (The West Wing) and the guy who played Juno's father. Janney was perfect as Juno's stepmother. I bet she must've loved playing the role after the weak last few seasons of TWW. It's like they stopped writing diologue for her. I think the script would just say "CJ sits in her office and stares into space looking troubled".

Here she's got a lot of good lines (though I think her speech in the ultrasound lab is too wordy).

I love the line Juno's father had when he told Juno he was gonna come with when she went to meet the couple looking to adopt: "I don't want you getting ripped off by a couple of baby-starved wingnuts".

My major problem with the movie, aside from Michael Cera and his one-note earnest delivery (The Weekly Standard said he's the new Jack Lemmon), is the way abortion was just jumped over. They never really addressed why she backed out. They would've done better to never even bring the subject up. Instead, Juno became a movie that pro-life people could claim as a victory for their side. The Weekly Standard gave it a good review- probably mostly because Juno decides against abortion.

I watched Kinsey this morning. I liked it though it was only occasionally interesting.

After Kinsey I popped in After Hours. I was curious to see it because I wanted to compare it to Cape Fear, Goodfellas, and The King of Comedy. It's not the usual type of movie you'd expect from him, though from the very first scene you can tell it's one of his movies.

I didn't like it, not because it wasn't well made or because the characters weren't likable- it's well done and the cast is great. I just don't like that type of bad luck movie. It's just one bad thing after another for Griffin Dunne. Even though After Hours got good reviews and people consider it a smart dark comedy, I don't think it's half the movie that Who's That Girl? is.

Right now I'm reading a book on Stanley Kubrick and one on Gus Van Sant. Actually I'm only reading chunks of them. In the Kubrick book, all I'm interested in is The Shining and Full Metal Jacket (the book was written before Eyes Wide Shut came out), and in the Van Sant book (2001) I'm only reading about Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, and Psycho. I didn't realize, maybe because I was so young at the time, that a lot of people blame River Phoenix's drug use and OD on his involvement in MOPI.

I'm thinking the next time I'm at the library I'll look for a good biography of Phoenix.