February Movie Review: Juno

I just got out of Juno.

IMDB tells me it is by Jason Reitman, who apparently also did "Thank you for Smoking". Which makes me even sadder I could not watch it...

Juno speaks of...
Oh yeah, sorry, be warned, this will not be SPOILER-free. Possibly far from it, even.

Juno speaks about the unwanted pregnancy of a 16 year old girl, Juno (or Junebug, as her parents affectionately call her) and of how she deals with it.
Well, she deals with it with more maturity than I would, I fear. And I'm 9 years older than she is. She decides to give him/her/it to a couple who do not manage to have their own (its own?).
We accompany her during the 9 months of her pregnancy. The movie is not about the physical aspects of the pregnancy (nausea and all those great things mothers have and will live(d) ), but more on the effects on others: she's seen as a freak at her school, the wannabe mother of the adoptive couple looks at her as a lucky one, the father of the child, a lanky dude rather off-beat, see her as a wizard, as he calls her.

Juno's character is an energetic girl, who lives life without giving up. I... Ihave said I am french, but english is my second language. Well, I was happy to have the french subtitles >___<. I have never heard so many slang terms, and I will get the DVD just to write and learn them :D. Ellen Page is here in the kind of roles she plays to their fullest. She needs characters with a lot of energy: she was great in Hard Candy , chasing pedophiles and giving out Justice, but not so great as the timid Kitty Pryde in the third X Men (I know, I know, "there is no third X Men Movie". I concur; but still...). She needs to talk, more than she moves. Her voice carries many emotions.

But she is not alone in this movie.
To quote her, Juno is "a planet", around who orbit many interesting characters. Her family is disfunctionnaly functional: the father (J. K. Simmons or J Jonah Jameson from Spider Man 3; I knew I knew him from somewhere!!) does not really show any emotions even though he seem to boil with them, and has this kind of dry humor I'm rather fond of. The mother in law (Allison Janney) [Allmighty Zeus?! Prudy from Hairspray?!] is a no-nonsense woman who takes control of the situation after Juno tells them the news. She doesn't take shit from anyone, but has a heart of gold. The little sister is... transparent. So much, in fact, that they start to forget her when Juno finally "dumps her thing".
The father of the child, with who she faults, is played by Michael Cera, whose head tells me something, but I can't quite place my finger on where... He's one of those kids in high school: they do not talk much, they are intelligent, a bit "different", not the ones in the spotlight, and who still shine in some awkward way.
Olivia Thirlby is the cheerleader best friend. Nice smile, not always up to speed with the action, but supportive all the way. I hope my friends would do the same would I need them (and I'm sure some would ;) )
And let's not forget Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the wannabe adoptive couple. She plays well the working girl and I'm sorry to say I'm supportive of Jason's character reaction. I have been confined to a cave and part of a room, let me tell you, it is not something you like to live with...

Anyway, this post is already quite long, and I have rather lost what I wanted to say in the first place, but this movie is one I have tremendously enjoyed and thus, I recommend it to you, o readers!

Podcast on Webcomics

I have a dream.

That one day, I'll draw and publish my own comics/webcomics. So, I tend to gather everything I can on the subject: books (Scott McCloud for the win!), links, "how to draw" books (handpicked: I know some (most) of them are trash in a can) and so on.

So here's a new one I hadn't tested: podcasts
Particularly this one

I do not have the opportunity to listen right now, being at work and without headphone, but I shall have it.
I SHALL HAVE IT!

Look as time flies!

Ok...

Almost FIVE months ago, I created this blog. And this here, is my second post. I guess I have many things to learn from this :p.

It appears I do not have so many things to say about comics after all. But, I browse the Internet, I... I live in the outside world as well.

So I guess this blog will become even more random :D


Let's start, shall we?

Old Video Games

I like them. Who doesn't?
But for many years, I had a Mac at home. The only way for me to play most games was to do so at friends' homes, and it is rare that they let you play for hours on end. I bought my first PC 5 years ago, and have tried to fill the hole of my youth.

But, it seems, I have passed some gemstones.

For exemple, I just found out about System Shock:
http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/SystemShock/SystemShock.shtm

I mean, come on! Adventure, FPS and puzzle game all in one? And you can choose how much of each you want? They don't do that no more, no siree...

This makes me really want to install DOSBox, now...

New Video Games

When I see games like this, I realise I really want a Wii...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Symphonia:_Knight_of_Ratatosk

The graphics makes me drool, and I'm far from a graphics fan.

Just saw the trailer (which can be found at the bottow of the wikipedia page). The characters seem cliche at best (the girl and boy who are best friends, but maybe love interest, the brooding and intelligent older guy, a rival of the first boy, etc), but you do not always need originality. The animation seems fluid. Ah, well, I'll try and see.

Novels
This novel just made my day:
http://jjtone.com/wp/archives/2007/10/02/interviewing-leather/

Imagine a journalist, used to interview rockstars, that suddenly finds himself interviewing Leather, a super villain, complete with super speed, super strength, and super agility. And quite a personality to boot.

What I liked about this story is that, although she is clearly established as a super human, and a super villain (and she establishes that herself early in the story), she is also very human in terms of feelings, thoughts, etc. Sha has longings, desires, goals, and regrets.

There's also a rationalisation of why Villains always manage to get away to plague humanity again and again (an organisation, much like our insurances, exist just for that)

Not to mention that the style of writing is excellent.

Well, that's all for today, folks!