A note on Canadian films at the Oscars – Canadian films ONLY qualify if they’re not in English (French or Aboriginal). The Foreign Oscar has some rule about English language films not making the cut (hence why The Band’s Visit got shafted this year – too much English). As for “Juno” – it was indeed filmed in Canada – Vancouver to be exact. The scenes at the school where filmed out in White Rock while the rest was the Burnaby/Vancouver area. As for it not being Canadian – to be “Canadian”, the film needs to be funded by Canadian dollars, regardless of the talent involved. “Juno” was all US cash whereas “Eastern Promises” was partially funded by Téléfilm and Corus Entertainment making it a Canadian co-production.

Look forward to next week’s show!

You will probably want to hang yourself, but it needs to be said. Your posts over the last couple of days regarding Be Kind Rewind and Juno are exactly like the posts that you give Henrik shit for posting.

Just an observation. You two should move in together.

when I said adlibbed i actually really meant the regular non-sweding scenes. but i guess you could apply it to both.
the silly DIY things were the best parts, but there weren’t very many of them, and by the time they were recording their final movie I simply didnt’ care anymore, I just wanted it to be over.

to me the closest thing to anything funny whatsoever was Jack Black’s facial expression when taking a piss.

One thing specifically that I think really pulled me away from everything was an absolutely rotten score, which at times reminded me of the atrocious score in Bruce Almighty, too bouncy and quaint and genuinely annoying.

As for finding better impersonations/re-enactments of classic movie scenes on YouTube, I’m sure there are plenty, but none of them have Michel Gondry’s particular sensibility to them. I think the fascinating thing about how Gondry did his re-enactments was that it was from a lo-fi filmmaker’s point of view. It wasn’t about imitating the scenes exactly and coming up with the funniest spoofs, it was about all the silly little DIY methods he used to recreate big budget movie effects. That was what made the movie special for me. And this coming from someone who thought The Science of Sleep was too chaotic and unfocused.

I think the big thing though is that I really liked Mos Def and Jack Black’s performances, and if they didn’t sell you then there’s not much else to get into here.

I’d known well in advance that the movie was going to go for a somewhat different feel than the trailer represented, and not to expect too many film recreations. I was fine with that. Its just that in the end other than what I’ve listed above that I found annoying, with this film I wasnt seeing things to pick on and be upset about so much as there was simply so little to enjoy. I squirmed in my seat convincing myself it would get better, debating with myself whether it was time to walk out on it. I almost did. Its too bad that such a simple “SAVE THE REC CENTER” cliched plot couldnt be colored in with anything creatively interesting by someone like Gondry.

man, I was so disappointed with this… when I wasn’t bored I was flat out annoyed. The characters were grating, it wasn’t funny, it was sloppily paced. Perhaps someone wants to argue that the movie is an extension of Jerry and Mike’s films and meant to be loose, but I think it may be giving Gondry too much credit. Without Kaufman his work has been unentertaining and self indulgent in a bad way. His gimmicks become annoying and I end up wishing he’d go back to just doing music videos.

0.5/4

I also found the typewriter bits in the score to be cheesy. The movie teetered between being unintentionally funny and absolutely boring.