Juno is marked by some lovely moments unembroidered by music. Reitman, 30 years old and son of a successful director, should know better. The difference is that one cannot expect 18 year olds to be schooled in the craft of filmmaking, which is much more difficult and subtle than one might think.
#Juno soundtrack movie
Ultimately I wanted to shout at Reitman, “Dude, were you making a movie or creating a soundtrack?” Reitman’s comments reminded me of film school production classes, where students picked music to put into their films before actually plotting out the film itself. What a salient observation too bad he didn’t stick to it. How about a movie that breaks my heart through its movie-ness, not because it’s filled with songs that break my heart? Another: “Absolutely Cuckoo” by the Magnetic Fields was left out because, “it always overpowered the actors’ the dialogue”. In a telling comment on why Thee Headcoatees punk “Sticks and Stones” was left out, Reitman explains that they wanted music that “would break your heart not your bones”. In his iTunes Celebrity Playlist, Reitman cops to having culled music for the film before even making a cut and fills his list with songs that didn’t make it into the film. Their song “Expectations”, about the horror of going to school, is used in a scene about guess what, the horror of going to school. Belle & Sebastian, the most narrative enthralled of Scottish popsters, make a few very ham-handed appearances here. Every other scene is like a twee music video. Unlike say The Graduate or even rom-com queen Nora Ephron’s fetish for Harry Nilsson songs, wherein the music supplements but does not define the film, Juno relies entirely on a veritable score of indie pop songs to communicate every nuance of the lead character’s inner dialogue. Not to mention, it is monumentally unfair to the music used, no matter how many royalties it may reap for the artists. Though it is a deadly effective way to people who have already formed an independent emotional relationship with the music, it is straight up lazy artistry from all involved.
Instead of creating believable emotional undercurrents through fine dialogue and interesting visuals, Cody and director Jason Reitman fall back on heartfelt, familiar sounds to inform the scenes and affect the audience. Juno, like a regrettably too many films before it, uses established “good” music to buttress bad writing and gets away with it, somehow. A few days later, when viewing the Simon and Garfunkel scored The Graduate, it came to me: I didn’t dislike Juno because the music used in it was, in DeRogatis’ words, glib and insincere – I actually love many of the bands included – but because the music was used in a glib and insincere way. I felt vaguely ill used by the film, ashamed of the tears I shed during the birthing scene, and unsure as to why I couldn’t cleave to a film that has 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. DeRogatis, was filled with mild sense of distaste and not only because I really, really hate the Moldy Peaches. However, the majority of Americans are usually wrong about pretty much everything (see: Bush, George W.) and Juno is one of them. Grammatically challenged reader “S” berated him for this, writing, “You seem to have forgotten about all the teenagers who aren't caught up in rap and hip-hop music.” Obviously the majority of Americans sided with S, as the film’s soundtrack went to number one last week and is still holding onto the top of charts as I write this.
Almost immediately, responses began to pour in accusing him of being out of touch with teenagers and out of touch in general. Though the column itself was a bit muddled with no clear thesis other than a burning hatred for Juno, the main argument seemed to be that the film itself was “anti-rock” and that the music used, exemplified by pre-school wonder brats the Moldy Peaches, was “glib and insincere”. His list of complaints was long varied, including gripes about the lightness with which screenwriter Diablo Cody treated the not funny topic of abortion, the unrealistic, pop culture laden blog-speak spewing from the title character’s mouth, and the “sickeningly saccharine” music used throughout the film. In a January 13th column entitled “Get Real ‘Juno’: You’re a phony”, pop critic for the Chicago Sun-Times Jim DeRogatis took a rare swipe at the much lauded indie film and received a raft of shit for his efforts.
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