. . . is the that the dialogue seemed forced, along with the pretentious name-dropping that occured in the second act.

It came across as insincere. And it irked me tremendously.

I couldn't agree more. I've sat through this thing once, and I will not be doing so again, despite what slate says.

This is just a bad, poorly made film. That is basically the end of it.

Instead of the sweet emotionalism everyone else seems to find in this feature, to me the film seems like (imagine booming voice) "from the land of trying too hard, a name-drop-a-thon, faux meditation on nothing".

This is a film not of characters, but of automatons, spouting overwrought pop-culture referencing screed at one another until their metal eyes bulge out of their heads. For a film about "humanity", there is very little human present.

The problem with Michel Gondry's features is that they were written by a music video director. The problem with Juno, is that is was written by a "blogger". This is not a film written by a person that has an even passing interest in actual writing. "That is a doodle that can't be undid" just isn't getting it done for this moviewatcher.

Only Gondry's last feature--The Science of Sleep--was self-written (Gondry himself does come from a music video background). His first two features were written by Charlie Kauffman. While Kauffman has had his travels with music video directors before (Being John Malkovich and Adaptation were both directed by Spike Jonze, Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by the aforementioned Michel Gondry), he himself has no ties to the music video industry.

Moreover, the only outright failure among those films was Human Nature, which is interesting as a novelty, but nearly unwatchable. The Science of Sleep lacks a narrative core, which one might say arises from the narrative mechanisms of a music video director, but one can't argue with the visual genius he brought to Kauffman's script for Eternal Sunshine.

My thoughts exactly. It's not that the dialog is too smart or too witty, it is that it one of the most forced feeling things I have ever seen. It just wants to tell you how brilliant and clever it is rather than just being smart and clever.

It is just consistent with Diablo Cody. She used to (probably still does) write a blog at a Minneapolis weekly that is just more of the same self important and self absorbed dreck. It really feels like she just cut up 3 years of her blogs "greatest" hits.

I actually kind of liked the movie, but it is nowhere near a best picture contender.

In Diablo Cody's memoir, Candy Girl, she actually says, "I guess I was never molested as a child because I wasn't pretty enough."

Could she have said anything more thoughtless, shallow and ignorant about child abuse?

You are correct. I was referring to "The Science of Sleep" and "Be Kind Rewind" specifically.

I was NOT referring to the Charlie Kaufman features that Gondry has directed. I probably should have been more specific.

Thanks for the correction.

I will say though, that I actually really liked "Human Nature". I am one of the maybe five people who actually saw that thing in the theatres, and I have always thought it is something of an underrated film.

Also, if you are a big Kaufman fan, his new film, "Synecdoche, New York" is currently

that should read "is currently in post production" =)

On the other hand . . . (;^))

One has to wonder whether cinema is, or should be, a proper narrative art-form anyway. The associative model (sound + image =implication, reception = inference) in which music video directors use might actually constitute something closer to the "pure cinema" that Italian Neorealists and the French New Wave(rs) championed back in the day.

I quite enjoyed The Science of Sleep, though it was no Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which helps advance an argument that, even if they're not necessary, writers, as such, are still desirable in contemporary cinema).

As to Human Nature, I think I just found that it overstayed its welcome. It was quite intelligent, but Gondry hadn't quite found his game in maintaining interest for the length of a feature. I did enjoy the performances, though. Just my $0.02.

I'd heard about the project. I'm curious to see where it goes.

Well, I would have to disagree with you regarding a comparison between french new wave filmmaking and "music video" filmmaking.

Both of these styles break down the traditional narrative, but while "music video" type film directors tend to obsess over the mise en scene, the new wave filmmakers went pretty much with a solo handheld camera.

Somebody like Gondry likes to cut a lot, and edit the S&%$ out of everything. Godard and the french guys never did that.

So, essentially what I'm saying is that both groups of directors break the "rules", but I think that these two types of filmmakers subvert the standards of film in very different ways.