"Like OMG, are we in a Wes Anderson movie?!?"
The hype machine is chugging along at full speed for "Juno," and it's amazing what a little festival attention can do. A well-timed Telluride premiere, to an already almost legendarily appreciative audience, was soon followed by Toronto and Austin unveilings, all of which led award pundits and Entertainment Weekly columnists to mark it as a Serious Oscar Contender. Fox Searchlight, who proved irritably savvy when it came to promoting its surprise Academy magnet "Little Miss Sunshine" last year, now can position "Juno" as the designated underdog of choice -- that "little" movie that seemingly came out of nowhere, that was directed by that guy who had that buzzy debut "Thank You for Smoking," and, did you hear, was written by that ex-stripper, one-time phone-sex operator, and all-around New Voice in Cinema, Diablo Cody. Shrewd marketing, and Cody's tantalizing, oft trotted-out bio, may make "Juno" the flavor of the season, yet, taking a step back from the hype, it's hard not to feel like this aggressively clever, ultimately sentimental high-school comedy is less true seasonal counter-programming than just another Hollywood wolf in indie sheep clothing. Click here to read the rest of Michael Koresky's review.
Don't forget the Elbert Ventura take up on the main site.
We didn't like Thank You For Smoking either.
