Films: Juno & Sweeney Todd

C and I don't see movies much. You know, two little ones does that to you. We have been making a concerted effort to rent DVDs a bit more often, however. With that said, you're not going to be finding reviews here of the au courant cinema darlings...we'll be a bit (hopefully not too far) behind the curve. Also, we're usually not ones for the big blockbusters or anything that's going to make me cry for a week. All superhero films are of interest because of C's earlier-life comic book obsession.

Last night we watched Juno. Really liked it. Our type of flick. Ellen Page was absolutely great...what a character she developed for Juno. And while his role wasn't all that big, Michael Cera was great, as always. We saw him in Superbad and thought he was excellent.

And Jason Bateman was ultimately (um, spoiler alert, I guess) kind of a big jerk...which he was good at, but I'm not used to that with him; now we typically associate him with Arrested Development and being the responsible guy. Jennifer Garner was good, too, though I am not typically a fan...something about the way she enunciates bothers me...but this was good casting and you really felt for her.

Of course, having just had a baby, I was a little emotional about the whole baby thing so there were a lot of tears at the end. It didn't rip your heart out, but you were able to get the emotions that Juno was going through, as well as everyone else. A mention of Allison Janney as Juno's stepmom--also a great performance. Honestly, everyone was, and they really delivered the great writing. I hope Diablo Cody writes another one. So, thumbs up.


We rented Sweeney Todd a few weeks ago. I should say that pretty much anything with Johnny Depp makes our list, too. My Lord, it was the goriest thing I've seen in a very, very long time. (Clearly, we don't watch "torture porn"...stuff like the Saw movies etc.)

And set to music. Mr. Depp is not great singer but I don't think he was pretending to be.

All in all, there was a lot to Sweeney Todd we liked--story, characters, music, costuming, Helena-Bonham Carter, Tim Burton kookiness--but there was a little missing in the emotion department, or in what makes a movie really grip you. But, enjoyable in an oddball and kinda gross way.