Loose Lips

“I gotta be honest; I don’t much approve of dating in your condition, ’cause well… that’s kind of messed up.” 
Mac McGuff to his pregnant daughter in Juno.

There’s a genuine naivety about people bluntly speaking out their minds. May that be in movies or in real life. Particularly when the point they’re making is as awkward as the way they’re doing it. It might look overdone but this post is really about Juno. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. And I’ve already watched it a couple of time. And I know how risky it can be, writing about something around which there’s already been such a buzz.

But my point here is not to talk about the inner qualities of the direction, the ethical conundrum around teenage pregnancy and abortion, or even the underlying clash of classes in the movie. There are far more competent and involved people to discuss it out there. Really. But I do believe there’s something to be said about the words, or the way they’re told, the narration of/in the movie.
One the things I found most interesting and amusing, is the way that kid speaks out her mind. So bluntly, blatantly, that she’s always creating a sort of gap between what we’d expect her to say and what you hear in the end. She’s not talking in an hyper-articulated fashion like most of the kids in hollywood movies, making all-of-a-sudden loads of sense when they’ve been second-rate pooping a-holes characters for two hours before that. No really, Juno McGuff’s got some things to say. Even if she ends up being wrong, she’s almost too naturally outspoken. Stating whatever she sees and thinks, even if it’s shenanigan. She’s cool in a very un self-conscious way that builds all her charm.

In a very parallel fashion, the music that’s interwoven tightly with the rest of the movie is mainly made of a collection of anti-folk pearls. Displaying old-shool-but-good-school Moldy Peaches, insanely well-known-for-a-folk-singer Kimya Dawson and living-myth indie-star Cat Power (in her earlier-great work). This seemingly innocent choice sticks to Juno much better than the Stooges she listens to (whatever the incredible quality of the band in another context). All bands whose inner quality and beauty lies as much in the music they create (their actions) as in the words they use and buid up. Juno shares with those bands the same innocence and naive outspoken manner of expressing the world that sometimes seems to hit more acutely than any long articulate discourse, may that be solely about love or even politics.

And that’s the beauty in it. They keep it simple but they make it good.

The Moldy Peaches – Anyone Else But You (that’s about love)
Kimya Dawson – Loose Lips (that’s about politics)