More movie criticism

The Man Who Is Thursday comments on Juno:

What makes Juno interesting is that it is a strenuously hip film (the soundtrack is filled with the songs from all the best bands people like you and me have never heard of) that dares to question the value of hipness. The film is in love with how cool it is, but is harsh in its disdain for those who would let coolness keep them from doing their duty. Unlike many defenses of conventional morality, it recognized just how, well, cool cool stuff really is. It doesn’t flatter middle class vulgarity; it just refuses to make coolness the ultimate standard of value. The film sets us up to dislike the Jennifer Garner character, what with the cloyingly romantic pictures on the wall and the perfectly set towels in her bathroom. Juno, like many arty girls, has something of a tomboyish disdain for the stereotypical trappings of romance (arty girls tend not to care about China patterns or the perfect shade of paint for the nursery), and we are expected to agree with her. But over time we warm to Garner’s Vanessa. On the basis of dreck like Daredevil or Elektra, designed to showcase her big, healthy, fit body more than her acting chops, one would never have thought Garner capable of such a performance. She is warm and feminine, deftly adding in a restrained touch of the baby mania and domestic perfectionism that often goes along with the admirable desire for home and family. In short, her Vanessa, good but not faultless, is an authentically rounded person, as opposed to the walking tics that seem to inhabit the rest of the movie.

I do have a small quibble with Thursday. There's no reason, pace Juno, to consider this any more vulgar than this. In fact, I'd probably argue quite the opposite. But that's a subject for another blog post, I suppose.