Juno

In what could had been a quirky,'Afterschool Special','Juno',the movie,is a fun
filled surprise.The acting is terrific(especially the delightful Ellen Page,as the title character,Juno),the plot engrossing and the music...

...Well,I have never 'heard' a soundtrack-not a score,mind you,but a soundtrack-that fits so well within the actions of a movie.Every song more than fits.Every song fits perfectly.


What makes this movie so fresh,also makes the soundtrack so refreshing.Neither is over produced to the point of blandness.Neither feels like they are produced by a committee of generic people just for the pointless reason of make beau·coup bucks(think Opie Taylor's "The Grinch That Stole Christmas')...

...And unlike some rap videos where renting out mansions,monsterous amounts of bling,Royal Royces and a thousand party girls is considered keeping it 'real',Juno feels so true to life,that you almost wish your teenage life could have been this real:And the whole point of the film is that Juno is pregnant!

Reading the liner notes to the cd,I discovered that the music all came together when the maker of the film,Jason Reitman,asked his female lead,Ellen Page,what she thought Juno would listen to.Miss Page downloaded,'Anyone Else But You' by The Moldy Peaches and they were off.

It seems a main part of The M.P.'s is a singer-songwriter named Kimya Dawson.When contacted,she brought tons of wonderful songs that make up the back bone of the Juno soundtrack.Kimya Dawson's work rocks!Not in the 'bang your head & scream your head off' way that seems to pass for rock and roll now-a-days,but more in the 'you can tell she just loves to play music' variety.She whistles,sings off key,laughs,harmonizes with what can only be her friends or siblings...I just loved her sound.So,when I played the cd for my boys(whom had not seen the movie) I was expecting radiating joy coming from their faces.

The were not immediatly impressed.They thought the first song('All I Want Is You',by Barry Louis Polisar) hokey;'My Rollercoaster',by Kimya,pointlessly short.Though they had heard of the Kinks before(hell,they are even fans),'A Well Respected Man',seemed just OK.They liked Buddy Holly,but the 'Up The Spout' song by Mateo Messina was,to them,just another short bunch of nothing.

WoW! I wasn't expecting this.Could the very strength of this cd-that it fit so well in the context of the movie-also be it's weakness:Could it be that it fit only within the movie,and that it could not be totally appreciated without it?One comment was that 'it seemed like they were making up the songs as they went along'...

...Damn.Was this an 'American Graffitti' nostalgia type movie...meant more for forty somethings reminiscing about their teen years then a movie meant to play to today's youth?The same with the music?

Then,we got to Kimya Dawson's 'Loose Lips'.Of course,this changed their minds.It wasn't just a good chorus of 'Fuck Bush/Fuck this war' that changed their minds(I don't know what it is about the word 'fuck' in music that makes it seem so hip),it was the rest of the lyrics (if you want to burn yourself/remember that I love you/if you want to cut yourself /remember that I love you/and if you want to kill yourself/remember that I love you).They loved this song.The positiveness of the music...and then everything else somewhat,somehow made some sense to them.

Not that the cd is totally perfect.The movie played very little of Sonic Youth's version of The Carpenter's,'SuperStar',and for good reason.I agree with Juno's assessment of Sonic Youth-they're a bunch of noise(Hey!I like noise,but I have heard noise done way better than this).And I have heard ,'All The Young Dudes' a quadtrillion times too many already.But,If I wasn't a Mott the Hoople fan or if I was a teenager,I know that I would have appreciated it being on the Juno soundtrack allot more than I did.

All in all,this has been the best cd that I have had the honor to review,yet.But...if I hadn't seen the movie...I don't know.

A If you have seen the movie

C+ If you haven't