Notes From The Toronto Film Festival

Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, the biggest hit of this year's Toronto Film Festival, is his follow-up to Juno, the 2007 Toronto favorite about a verbally dexterous pregnant teen looking for a home for her unborn baby and a happy ending for herself. Up in the Air is closer to Reitman's first feature, Thank You For Smoking, a stylishly tight film about a tobacco industry lobbyist having second thoughts on his life's work.

Three other films in Toronto are much more Juno-esque than Up in the Air, and they are the vehicles of three Juno alumni: Diablo Cody, who won an Oscar for Juno's screenplay; Ellen Page, who got an Oscar nomination for her portrayal as Juno herself; and Michael Cera, who may not have gotten an Oscar nomination, but won a lot of hearts for his turn as Juno's love interest, Paulie Bleeker.

Three films, three relationships to Juno, after the jump...

 

The first of these films to debut in Toronto last week was the Cody-penned Jennifer's Body, which premiered during the festival's Midnight Madness showcase and opens in theaters today.

Jennifer's Body is being sold as a feminist comedic horror film, and it's about two best friends: the super-popular Jennifer, played by the super-popular magazine staple Megan Fox; and her nerdy friend Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried, who's been in Mamma Mia, Big Love, and Veronica Mars.

I was a little surprised by Megan Fox. I didn't think she would be able to handle the verbal gymnastics required of a Diablo Cody script, but she does all right; that's the good news. The bad news is that too many characters in this movie talk like Juno; it can get a little exhausting. And although the film is supposed to have a particularly female viewpoint because it was written and directed by women (the director is Karen Kusama, who wrote and directed Girl Fight), it doesn't deliver on that promise. It's an fun conceit, and a fun play on how girlfriends can grow apart — what do you do when your childhood best friend turns on you, becomes a flesh-eating demon succubus, goes after your boyfriend, and tries to kill you — but it doesn't provide enough clever subtext. (Perhaps Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer has ruined us for less thoughtful forays into this genre.)

Diablo Cody may need to take a breath, or may need her characters to take a breath. That much verbal preciousness is hard to sustain. Still, the film is not a total loss; it does provide a lot of laughs and some suspense, and will likely do well at the box office.

Ellen Page plays a character similar to Juno in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It. Bliss (can somebody give this girl a character with a normal name?) is less snarky than Juno, but more physical. Bliss wants out of her small Texas town, and finds her mother's attempts to turn her into a pageant queen to be stifling. When she spots a flyer for female roller derby during a trip to Austin, she knows she has discovered her escape hatch. She lies about her age, makes the team, toughens up, and makes a name for herself in the derby world.

Whip It shows some signs that it's a first feature, but Barrymore does elicit solid performances from her actors. The film succeeds in being funny and dear and, dare I say, even a little empowering. It certainly means well, and of the Juno spawns, this is the one that a teenage me would have gotten behind.

Although Jennifer's Body sounds most like Juno and Whip It feels most like Juno, perhaps Youth In Revolt looks the most like it. It even features a jaunty, animated opening sequence and has many scenes of Michael Cera running all over the place (although this time he is not wearing running shorts). Cera plays Nick Twisp, a dispairing virgin, who toils alone in a world populated by odd adults.

Nick is a less well-meaning, more desperate Paulie Bleeker, who finally finds love when he takes a vacation to a trailer park and meets an intelligent, French-film-loving Sheeni (Portia Doubleday), who actually gives him the time of day. The young pair decide the only way to be together is if Nick starts getting into trouble. Then he can get expelled, and will have to move in with his dad, closer to Sheeni.

Nick can't muster up the confidence to misbehave on his own, so he creates an alter ego named Francois, also played by Cera, a mustachioed, bad-boy dandy who bullies Nick to set fires, steel cars, and make advances. This alter ego is the most we have seen Cera stray from his standard flustery, nice-guy character. Youth In Revolt is getting mixed reviews. I enjoyed seeing Cera in a different light, but there are movies that could use him to better effect.

Just one last word on Juno alumni. At a press conference for Reitman's Up in the Air a reporter asked Jason Bateman why he liked working with Jason Reitman (first in Juno now in Up In the Air). Bateman said he looks forward to any opportunity to work with Reitman, even if it is just to watch him direct ... because Bateman aspires to be a filmmaker one day.

Jason Bateman as the driving force behind a film? I can get behind that.

Ann Marie Baldonado is a producer for Fresh Air.