Drillbit Taylor (2008)

This is by far the worst movie I have seen this year. It might be the worst movie I will see all year. It is the second worst movie I have seen in two years. The number one worst movie in two years being Reno 911.

Watching this movie you see why Owen Wilson tried to kill himself. When I first heard about that, I thought it was sad for a human being to try to take his own life. Now, I respect Wilson for the effort.

So, is there anything good about this movie? Well, yes there is one thing. In the movie, the kids are being bullied, seriously bullied, by two kids. The movie got this right. It showed a world almost invisible to adults of kids brutalizing other kids. It shows the humiliation of this. It shows how these bullies appear so cute to authority figures. How parents don’t get it either. In the end, the kids who are victims get in trouble for bringing it up. I think it is only now with school shooting that this is getting any kind of attention. There is something so unconscionable about this that it can only be thought of as a common phenomenon.

There is some where serious satisfaction when the bullies finally get their ass kicked in the end.

Other than that the movie tries to be another SuperBad, and fails miserably. The two Laurel and Hardy, fat guy and skinny duo, fail by a lack of chemistry or charm. The hero Drillbit, Wilson, has as much presence as Pauley Shore. The plot is so bad that I won’t even get into it. OK, three kids are getting the sh*#t beat out of them hire homeless body guard Drillbit, and all hell breaks loose.

The worst part was that somehow the whole movie didn’t to work in this day and age. I kept on trying to see if it was suppose to be get 20 or 30 years ago when the plot would have made more sense. But the technology always gave it away. Still there few cell phones except for a couple of adults. School security had a pre-columbine aspect to it, which meant that there was none. A few myspace or facebook jokes would have been good.

Despite adorable, 18 year old, Valerie Tian from Juno, none of the actors have any likeability including Wilson. I really can’t say enough bad things about this movie.

Juno (2007)

Coming to the Lifetime network for women soon, is the new movie Juno. Juno had all making of a woman’s movie, except for the man screwing the woman over part. There are women helping women. Every woman is a heroine. Every man is nebbish. So, it is a like a heterosexual feminist movie.

The movie tries very hard to be a cool indie film a la Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and Rushmore (1998), which are the archetypes. It might have faired better taking a bit from Ghost World (2001), which is a similar and superior movie with the same themes as this one. I see this as the fault of the director, Jason Reitman. Actually, movie tries so hard at the beginning to be artsy film of the year that it is a bit boring at the start. There is the very pretentious animated introduction, which was like so cool, like seven years ago. The symbolism of cross country male runner being sexuality gets old real fast. Luckily, the story kicks in and the film becomes very enjoyable. I think the biggest reason that the film is lacking at the beginning is that you don’t really understand the true nature of the relationship between Juno, Ellen Page and Bleeker, Michael Cera.

In the film, Juno is pregnant, and Bleeker is the father. ( I think that the name Bleeker is a side referring to the Muppets Bleeker in a gen-X way, because the character comes across as a teen Bleeker from the Muppet show. ) It is towards the end of the movie that you realize that Juno and Bleeker are two friends that hang out all the time and decided to have sex one day, as oppose to typical boyfriend-girlfriend dynamic. It would have been good if that was clearer in the beginning.

When the story does kick in, you fall in with the dramas and character of Juno, who is an angelically delightful. Juno is pregnant, and is supported by friends and family, plans, to give her baby up for adoption. She finds the perfect yuppie couple to take the baby. After that she has to deal with the pregnancy and a love triangle of sorts between the baby’s father, Bleeker, and the husband of the yuppie couple; who is played by Jason Bateman, and a he looks a lot like a slightly younger Bono. It sounds cheesy but it works.

Juno, herself, was a joy. Ms. Page brought a lot of good energy and youthfulness to the role. It sort of makes the film. I am always impressed by the generation 9/11. I always get the impression that 90’s were so weird and the era 9/11 has been for horrible that this generation is somehow looking for normalcy. I see this in the way they speak and dress. Somehow it seems both youthful and straight forward. In some ways it is hopeful where previous generations have tried to be so extreme or iconoclastic. It is refreshing to get away from that.

I think what I like the most about Juno, the character, is that she just goes on. This is a coming of age film, probably the millionth one this year. In the end things work themselves out but not without some working at it. I liked that too.

One of the more interesting aspects of the film is the attention to detail in the film. Take a look at the walls in the film, like an old Simpson’s episode, it is filled with interesting stuff. Bleeker has Hebrew letters on the back of his door, Juno’s friend has a picture that has Bill Clinton’s face and really built guy’s body, which I am not sure if really funny or disturbing. On the wall by the staircase, there is really cheesy couple of pictures of the couple who wants to adopt the baby.

I think I will see this movie again. It is not the greatest film ever made, and it has plenty of flaws but I would say that it is one of the ten best films of the year. If Rocket Science (2007) was the male equivalent of this story this year, Juno is the female version. The dialogue is charming and fun. In the end, it is a cute movie.