For what it's worth, Smart People was filmed before Juno (but released later), so to claim that Ellen Page's character essentially reprises her turn as "a wise-cracking adolescent" in a manner "straight from the Juno playbook" is chronologically inaccurate. A technical point more than anything else, but in the movie's defense, it cannot be called derivative on that account.

Adam

(Source of this fact: a very close friend of mine happens to be the co-producer of Smart People.)

Wow!

You get two little S's by your name.

Does that mean that you get to park diagonally in two reserved parking spaces?

Yeah, but we all SAW "Juno" first, so we bring "Juno" to the new movie (which, actually, I haven't seen) as the mother rather than the child

I guess the performance is actually from the Ellen Page Playbook.

And so it begins for her. A bunch of critical praise and jumping up and down for her wry and refreshing line readings as Juno...and now Ms. Page has to prove herself in more movies. And if she keeps on doing the same delightful line reading schtick she did in "Juno," critics will grow tired of her. The same thing happened with Johnny Depp; what was refreshing in a "teen heartthrob" has, 15 years later, come to seem like the same old same old to the critical community. It's called being a star. (Me, I love what Depp does, and I don't care if he keeps doing it for the next 15 years.)

"Smart People" seems to have sunk without a trace, so Ms. Page has now learned one of those lessons about Hollywood. 'You're only as good as your last picture."

Give me a break -- of all the actors of limited range, you choose one of the few who actually brings a whole host of fresh interpretations to virtually every role he does?

Compare Depp in Cry Baby, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Don Juan de Marco, Ninth Gate (my fave), Fear and Loathing, Sleepy Hollow, Willy Wonka, and of course Pirates

and then get back to me.

If this Hollywood axiom held true, that 'You're only as good as your last picture' -- Nicholas Cage and Lindsay Lohan [insert your own fave stinker here] would not have a career.

Favorite roles of mine, all. And Depp certainly has a certain range within them (though the Sleepy Hollow, Pirates, and Sweeney Todd characters are roughly in the same reange.)

Johnny Depp is abosolutely one of my favorite actors, who has both the quality of a great old time movie star ,and compelling acting chops.

Consequently, I guess I simply made my point with poor clarity. "My bad."

My point is that the critical community saluted Depp's talent early on, when it was considered "new and surprising and different"...and then settled into taking it for granted and rather reacting against it. THEY (not I) see Depp as "doing the same thing over and over." I agree only to a point: Depp's essential star quality always shines through. As it did with all the great stars before him.

I think Depp was always great, and is still great, and I'll be there for his next release.

P.S. Ed Wood is Depp's triumph to date, but I also really liked his Hunter Thompson -- absolutely perfect AS Thompson (the voice, the manner), but most Deppian. Better: the late Hunter Thompson in old photos now carries a strong resemblance to..Johnny Depp!