Hip Lingo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(soundtrack)

Juno (2007)
Dir. Jason Reitman
Written by Diablo Cody
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman


The whole cast is talented and everyone shines in their individual roles. Comparable to His Girl Friday, there is the main triangle of protagonists that shifts, and then the rest is a sort of ensemble cast. Some films main protagonist hog all of the good lines, I like films that can share the good stuff with everyone. Ensemble casts Rule!

Rollo (Rainn Wilson): So what's the prognosis, Fertile Myrtle? Minus or plus?
Juno MacGuff: I don't know. It's not seasoned yet.
[grabs products]
Juno MacGuff: I'll take some of these. Nope... There it is. The little pink plus sign is so unholy.
[shakes pregnancy tester]
Rollo: That ain't no Etch-A-Sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, Homeskillet.

Comedies are sometimes tragedies in disguise with funnier dialogue. This is certainly true of Juno—serious issues are handled in a quirky manner that may seem light-hearted at first but its discourse is teen pregnancy and loss of innocence.

Leah: Yo Yo Yiggady Yo.
Juno MacGuff: I'm at suicide risk.
Leah: Juno?
Juno MacGuff: No, it's Morgan Freeman. Do you have any bones that need collecting?
Leah: Only the one in my pants...
Juno MacGuff: I'm pregnant.
Leah: What? Honest to blog?
Juno MacGuff: Yeah. Yeah, it's Bleekers.
Leah: It's probably just a food baby. Did you have a big lunch?
Juno MacGuff: No, this is not a food baby all right? I've taken like three pregnancy tests, and I'm forshizz up the spout.
Leah: How did you even generate enough pee for three pregnancy tests? That's amazing...
Juno MacGuff: I don't know, I drank like, ten tons of Sunny D... Anyway dude, I'm telling you I'm pregnant and you're acting shockingly cavalier.
Leah: Is this for real? Like, for real for real?
Juno MacGuff: Unfortunately, yes.
Leah: Oh my GOD. Oh shit! Phuket, Thailand!
Juno MacGuff: There we go. That was kind of the emotion that I was searching for on the first take.

Stereotypically there are a lot of “likes” thrown in to Juno’s dialogue. Otherwise her dialogue is atypical, I’m pretty sure teenagers do not typically banter in Junoesque fashion. Juno is the main protagonist in this film and exchanges delightful dialogue with everyone she comes into contact with: her baby daddy, potential adopted parents of her baby, and her parents, even the clerk at the corner store where she gets her pregnancy tests at the beginning of the film. A single screwball couple doesn’t exist there are many with Juno at the center of each one.

How does a film manage to be innocent and irreverent at the same time? Elementary my dear Watson, it’s in the content of the words and the deadpan delivery. You are almost convinced that these people exist in the real world somewhere firing one-liners at each other indefinitely. One reason this film works is because it takes something, teen pregnancy, which is usually milked (no pun intended) for emotional pull, and deals with it humanely and doesn’t resort to histrionic or melodramatic plot lines.

[at Juno's ultrasound]
Leah: Whoa! Check out Baby Big Head. Dude, that thing is freaky lookin'.
Juno MacGuff: Excuse me. I am a sacred vessel, alright? All you've got in your stomach is Taco Bell.

Another is the conspicuous lack of cussing, there are a few well-placed sh%ts, and instead there are some great stand-ins such as:

Bren: When you move out I'm getting two Weimaraners!
Juno MacGuff: WHOA DREAM BIG!
Bren: Oh, go fly a kite!

Juno MacGuff: [dog barking] Geez, Banana! Shut your freakin' gob!

Regarding pace in the movie, it doesn’t seem that fast but it is wordy and filled with references that are indie-specific it is youth culture oriented but not mainstream. There are no references to any social media and as a result also absent is internet-era initialisms like LOL and OMG, Thanks be to God. It is difficult to write about the dichotomous discourses that highlight the age differences and class differences in the film. Juno is often the figure who leaves other characters in the dust with her youthful conversation stylings.

(One of Juno’s interactions with her Dad)
Juno MacGuff: I'm just like losing my faith with humanity.
Mac MacGuff: Can you can narrow that down for me?
Juno MacGuff: I just wonder if like, two people can ever stay together for good.
Mac MacGuff: You mean like couples?
Juno MacGuff: Yeah, like people in love.
Mac MacGuff: Are you having boy troubles? Because I gotta be honest with you; I don't much approve of dating in your condition, 'cause well... that's kind of messed up.
Juno MacGuff: Dad, no!
Mac MacGuff: Well, it's kind of skanky. Isn't that what you girls call it? Skanky? Skeevy?
Juno MacGuff: Please stop.
Mac MacGuff: [persisting] Tore up from the floor up?
Juno MacGuff: That's not what it's about. I just need to know that it's possible that two people can stay happy together forever.
Mac MacGuff: Well, it's not easy, that's for sure. Now, I may not have the best track record in the world, but I have been with your stepmother for 10 years now and I'm proud to say that we're very happy.
[Juno nods]
Mac MacGuff: Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person is still going to think the sun shines out your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with.
Juno MacGuff: Yeah. And I think I've found that person.
Mac MacGuff: Yeah sure you have - your old D-A-D! You know I'll always be there to love you and support you no matter what kind of pickle you're in... Obviously.
[nods to her belly]
Juno MacGuff: Dad, I think I'm just going to, like, shove out for a sec, but I won't be home late.
Mac MacGuff: Ok. You were talking about me right?

(One of Juno’s interactions with potential adoptive parents—Mark & Vanessa)
Vanessa Loring: You think you're really going to do this?
Juno MacGuff: Yea, if I could just have the thing and give it to you now, I totally would. But I'm guessing it looks probably like a sea monkey right now and we should let it get a little cuter.
Vanessa Loring: That's great.
Mark Loring: Keep it in the oven.

&

Mac MacGuff: And this, of course, is Juno.
Mark Loring: Like the city in Alaska?
Juno MacGuff: No.
Mark Loring: No? Hon, shall we sit down and get to know one another?
Vanessa Loring: Oh, I thought I would get some drinks. What would anyone like? I have Pellegrino, or Vitamin Water or Orange Juice or...
Juno MacGuff: I'll have a Maker's Mark, please. Up.
Mac MacGuff: She's kidding. Junebug has a wonderful sense of humor. Just one of her many genetic gifts.

Closing thoughts:

This is one of those films that immediately sprang to mind when trying to come up with a list of possible neo-screwball comedies. And I stand strong in saying that yes it is a neo-SC. It has all the ingredients; shifting triadic structures, snappy and smart dialogue, and some romance thrown in as well.

Hilarious blog about 10 Bromances if they were redone with female leads... I wish.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2009/11/12/bromances-with-cameron-diaz-kate-hudson/

10 Bromances Re-Imagined With Cameron Diaz and Kate Hudson
By Marina Zogbi
Posted Nov 12th 2009 5:00PM


While raunchy, outrageous comedies starring women aren't exactly unheard of (well, there was 'The Sweetest Thing'), funny female flicks tend to be a tad tamer than your typical wacked-out bromance.

We all know that women can be almost as crazed and desperate as the next guy, so we'd like to see a few films that reflect this reality. The upcoming 'Desperados,' starring Isla Fisher, is being billed as a female 'Hangover,' and thus seems to be a step in the right direction.

Here are some other popular bromantic comedies as Hollywood might rework them with female leads. And who better to star in most of them than Cameron Diaz and Kate Hudson, who not only possess the requisite screwball chops, but are also really cute? (We're are talking Hollywood here).
While raunchy, outrageous comedies starring women aren't exactly unheard of (well, there was 'The Sweetest Thing'), funny female flicks tend to be a tad tamer than your typical wacked-out bromance.

We all know that women can be almost as crazed and desperate as the next guy, so we'd like to see a few films that reflect this reality. The upcoming 'Desperados,' starring Isla Fisher, is being billed as a female 'Hangover,' and thus seems to be a step in the right direction.

Here are some other popular bromantic comedies as Hollywood might rework them with female leads. And who better to star in most of them than Cameron Diaz and Kate Hudson, who not only possess the requisite screwball chops, but are also really cute? (We're are talking Hollywood here).

'The 30-Year-Old Virgin'
Diaz -- in 'Being John Malkovich' mode -- is a goodhearted department store saleswoman whose more sexually experienced yet unfulfilled female co-workers cook up various schemes to get her laid already. Includes hilarious bikini waxing scene and a creepy floor manager who offers his services (Rainn Wilson). Diaz's character finally finds sex -- and true love -- with a shy customer who happens to be a cool, divorced dad (Paul Rudd).


'The Wedding Hijackers'
Diaz and Hudson are two romantic/delusional single women who impersonate wedding planners and charm/force couples into throwing weddings based on the wacky duo's own twisted fantasies. After many mishaps and a few tears, they find love with two equally romantic/delusional groomsmen (Bradley Cooper and Owen Wilson).


'Superhot'
Kat Dennings (who gains 20 pounds for the role) and Ari Graynor play two high school losers who are invited to a blowout the last day of senior year by a popular jock classmate (Zac Efron). The girls' even geekier friend (Ellen Page with prosthetic dentures) uses the name Fluffy Kitaen to buy booze for the party. Amazingly she winds up scoring the most male attention. Ultimately the Dennings and Graynor characters realize that their friendship is more important than hotties like Efron. (Cameron Diaz and Kate Hudson play party-busting cops.)


'Pomegranate Express'
Hudson and Diaz play a neurotic, New Age health fanatic and her equally neurotic herbal remedy guru. After they get high on a super-potent blend of Valerian tea with pomegranate infusion, the Hudson character accidentally witnesses the guru's supplier cutting the Valerian with Lipton tea. The duo become fugitives from an international health-food cartel.

'Super Models'
Diaz and Hudson are two fashion models who must do 100 hours of community service in a Big Sister program after mauling a photographer who said they looked fat during a shoot. Assigned a depressed, anorexic kid and cheerful, chubby inner-city teen, they learn a lot about life and healthy body image.



'Ingrid and Ludmila go to Whole Foods'
Multicultural friends Diaz and Hudson (of Swedish and Russian descent, respectively) get the munchies one night and embark on a mishap-filled journey to the nearest Whole Foods. Cameo by Neil Patrick Harris as foulmouthed womanizer who tries to pick them up. Much humor involving defying stereotypes about Scandinavians and Eastern Europeans.


'Salesclerks'
Low-budget talky film about one day in the life of clothing store salesclerk (Hudson) who is called into work on her day off, and of her buddy (Diaz) who works in the nail salon next door. They visit each other's workplaces and mock customers, discuss their favorite reality TV shows, and wind up doing Power Yoga on the roof.


'Knocked Up'
Katherine Heigl is a sloppy, immature (but goodhearted) party girl who has a one night stand with slick, successful TV executive (Seth Rogen). She gets pregnant and has no desire to either contact him or keep the baby, but he finds out and talks her into having the child, despite the harping of his brother and sister-in-law (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann). Includes hilarious scene in gynecologist's office with Heigl character's freaked-out female friends (Diaz and Hudson).


'Step Sisters'
Diaz and Hudson play two super-competitive, high-level executives who've lost their jobs due to the recession and are forced to live at home with their parents. When Diaz's mom and Hudson's dad get hitched, the two must learn to share bunkbeds and get along.


'I Hate You, Woman'
A recently engaged woman (Hudson) with an overabundance of friends begins ceremoniously 'breaking up' with them as she struggles to narrow down her wedding party. When she winds up virtually friendless and too emotionally dependent on her fiance, she realizes the error of her ways and mends fences, opting for city hall nuptials.

An Aside

My Bromance Proposition

Film critic Andrew Sarris has defined the screwball comedy as "a sex comedy without the sex”.

Why are women superfluous in Bromance? They serve two functions: the to-be-looked-at women, usually strippers or random women that are displayed for viewing pleasure only, the second type is the shrew or the cruder term would be a bitch who serves to remind the male protagonist/s why they need or prefer their male companions. Other than as eye candy woman are underdeveloped character-wise. I am often left wondering why they are there; they are literally wastes of space. In comparison, there are very few films with genuine women friendships are depicted and men are the throwaway characters.

The significance of Bromance is the true romance and coming together is between the men. Women’s friends in films, like women in Bromances are not crucial they might provide momentary distractions and small amounts of comic relief but they fade into the background and never fully reappear. Male companions are actually present through the entire film; much to the dismay of screen wives and girlfriends. A case study of this would be the film The Hangover, the last scene of the film centers around the four main male characters. They have made it home from their Vegas trip half alive so that Doug can get married. They arrive just in time and he gets married, at the reception we have a brief glimpse of the bride and then no more the film ends with the men lounging in chairs discussing their wild trip. What a way to begin a marriage—hanging out with your male friends.

Classic Screwball was unique—women and men were equal or at least verbally equal, they sparred, they flirted, but mainly they had fun. For some reason this is no longer the case. The non-traditional couple is now the space for this type of relationship. Mother and Daughter a la Gilmore Girls or male/male combos via buddy films and bromances. One theory is that sex during the production code enforcement was absent and now that same sex-less state for obvious reasons is absent so it adds that missing element of sexual frustration has been funneled into common everyday frustrations.

Obviously the friendships and romances shown are fantasies and not real depictions of those relationships. Not many people can afford to keep the same routines that they have with friends in college into life after. Movies such as Knocked Up with Seth Rogen where he has no job except for a website that he runs with his friends and some money leftover from a lawsuit and he manages to live quite nicely without an actual job. Can you imagine female actresses in the male roles in Bromances? Are audiences even ready for such a thing…

I am very interested to see the new film, Bridesmaids (May 2011) starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, John Hamm. I’ve only seen the trailer a few times and it seems like it will be funny. It is being lauded as the female version of Hangover and I am hoping that it is in some ways. Much to my dismay I love Bromances—they embody things that I love most—they are raunchy, irreverent and funny; unfortunately, they only portray women as stereotypes. Trying to find a film that is the female version of a Bromance has been elusive and it will continue to be until I break down and write it myself. Like ethnicity is dealt with in films so is being a woman. There are many conclusions to be drawn from the depictions of women in films. What stands out to me the most is that as long as sex stands in the way women cannot have fun like their male counterparts. Plus the whole “looks” thing, if you have any sexual appeal, which you usually have to have in order to make it in Hollywood, then you are a sex object and the power that this creates cancels out anything else, and if you are unattractive, god help you, there is no place for you except as a creature to ridicule. Back to the original question can women have fun, be funny, and not be so concerned with finding a partner, and be likable, and simultaneously not be made a sex object? Is there even a market for this type of product? All questions for the future. Stay tuned for a post about the film Bridesmaids.

Screwy Ain't It!: Looney Toons Personified

Screwy Ain't It!: Looney Toons Personified: "http://media.photobucket.com/image/looney%20tunes/Leg81012/looney-tunes-original-screen.png?o=9&sortby=sevendaysview His Girl Friday (19..."

Looney Toons Personified

http://media.photobucket.com/image/looney%20tunes/Leg81012/looney-tunes-original-screen.png?o=9&sortby=sevendaysview


His Girl Friday (1940)
Dir. Howard Hawks
Written by Charles Lederer adapted from a play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
Starring: Rosalind Russell, Carey Grant, Ralph Bellamy

*Note—dialogue is all shared, every person is special and provides something to the overall wonderfulness of the movie, it is definitely an ensemble cast.

I have watched this film many times: when I was a child my parent’s played the VHS rented from the Library every so often, when I was older when they would show it on Turner Classic Movies, and now as an adult as because it never gets old. I’ve watched it about ten times now and written about it already for this blog. I thought I would have another go and focus on how they use language in the film.

One day I a month ago I put it on and then I laid down—bad idea as I was falling asleep a few moments later I had a brief thought that I would somehow absorb and be able to understand the dialogue in the dream state better than I have before. Wrong, but I did come to the conclusion that no matter how much you concentrate on just the words they still manage to slip away. I was bolstered later after reading an article, Treatise on Hawks by Bosley Crowther, a New York Times movie reviewer from 1940 to 1967.

"He believes that it [dialogue] should be written almost like music, with the important words emphasized or scored and the rest of it allowed to flow off indifferently. That’s the way most people hear conversation anyhow, he thinks."

Great—how am I supposed to analyze something that for all intents and purposes is not meant to be heard as a whole? Well, all I can do is try…

Major themes and sub-themes and tropes worked out through dialogue in the film:
➢ Code switching
➢ Gender
➢ Pace
➢ Tragedy {silence}


Code switching

Opening sequence:
A lot of things happen in a relatively short amount of time. First the newsroom setting with its frenetic energy and pace is shown and then Hildy arrives by elevator with her fiancé Bruce. Below is summary, in order, of Hildy’s many different code-switching moments just in the first part of the film.

“Hiya Skinny”—newsroom boy

Telephone operators—knowing, joking

Bruce (fiancé)—soft tones

Fellow newsmen—“Hi Hildy”—earned respect from her—both in opening sequence and later in the jail newsroom bantering back and forth and joking about her hat etc.

Conversation with fellow woman, in the newsroom, gossip columnist condescending because Hildy is different she is/was one of the guys and holds a certain status as such

Walter-ex-husband, talking down, insults flying back forth, ramping up of conversations to climax, ebbs and flows and eventually crashes against the shore as tempers flare and cool alternately
o Gender: Battle of the Sexes
• wants to be spoiled by a man, Bruce “…treats her like a woman”
• “Newspaperman” because she is so good, she is allowed to be a “newspaperman” she has proved herself but by the end of the film she has backpedaled a lot
• Wants to be a “woman” AKA a Housewife after having experienced being a career woman
• one scene when she reverts to stereotypical behavior :the closing scene which has never jibbed well with me; it kind of sits there in film leaving a bad taste in you mouth in film that otherwise shows a smart, intelligent, and capable women. She begins as a “fast talking dame” and ends as a patsy, reduced to tears—effectively silenced—back in her old job tied to Walter again who continues to use her for his own purposes.
• the title actually hints at ending with the “His” attached to Girl Friday
• Pace
o * “…comedy that set the standard and style for fast talk.”
o * “…film reproduces speech at 240 words per minute, compared to the average pace of 100 to 150 words.”
o I will see how pace functions in the neo-screwball films so stayed tuned for that in other blog posts we will see if “verbal fluency” and “verbal sparring” are still important
• Moments of Silence or at least it seems silent because it quiets down but only momentarily:
• “The heroines of comedy know that silence is not a natural state but a moral and emotional one reached through speech. The heroines of comedy also know the difference between a silence pregnant with emotional or moral meaning and a silence born of or burdened by inarticulateness (DiBattista 19).”

An article I read, Making Light of Dark: Understanding the World of His Girl Friday by James Walter, lights upon the fact that the film combines elements of comedy and melodrama to create a world. The “tonal shifts” in the movie necessitates “acknowledging the film’s fictional world as a world”.
o Molly’s suicide attempt Newspapermen heckling Molly/very short time as they look down upon her broken body/out of place in this comedy Molly unlike Hildy is unable to communicate with the newsmen. They treat her differently because she cannot speak their language. Only in death or suicide does she merit their attention.
o End sequence when Hildy cries…stands out because most of the film in contrast she can hold her own with him. Walter meanwhile has constant stream of words coming out of his mouth as he cons and spins yarns out of the air and the constant click-clack of Hildy’s typewriter keys as she does what she does best but that all stops when finally becomes she becomes a stereotypical “woman” trailing behind Walter, willing to put up with him because she loves him


Closing thoughts
This film is not perfect but it is a perfect example of Screwball comedy during its heyday. Many of the themes that it deals with sub-textually are still struggled with in more modern films. Can women be smart, capable, and in love? Gender issues with regards to workplaces. Can women be funny? Many times, if modern films are any example, that answer would be no.



http://everygame.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/


*Fast-Talking Dames by Maria DiBattista

Changin’ the Game

http://hugereviews.com/Movies/Young%20Frankenstein.htm


I am a black and white equals gray kinda person. It was and continues to be difficult for me to write anything with certainty. Everything and anything can be disproved or proved for that matter. Reading and writing about Screwball is enjoyable and also endlessly frustrating. I recently tried to track all of the movies and television shows that I’ve watched in search of a formula that in my opinion does not and cannot exist anymore. Censorship actually benefitted film, in my opinion, it created tensions and dialogue that is funny to this day. Not saying and showing things requires more of an effort and it paid off. Saying that I don’t believe in censorship and I don’t think that it would work the same way anymore.

I firmly believe that the precepts set forth by the Hays Office in the 1930’s created a self-reflexivity that would have otherwise been absent. This particular case of self-reflexivity resulted in a more introspective shaping of a touchy subject: sex. The creativity this type of censorship constructed forced the screenwriters and directors to fashion their films, which could not explicitly handle subject matters such as sex, and use dialogue in a way that was smart and funny.

This coercive sanitization of film engendered a dialogue so fraught with undertones, doublespeak, and allusion that everything became about a touch, a glance, and even a certain angle of the camera carried subtext. These have become vehicles through which they all convey the things that they are not supposed to—SEX. The values that were behind the creation and enforcement of the Hays Code were a fantasy even then; the audience knew that when a real husband and wife went home they were not going back to separate beds à la I Love Lucy.

Just for kicks here is piece of the Hays Code:
“II. Sex
The sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing.
1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.
2. Scenes of Passion
a. They should not be introduced when not essential to the plot.
b. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown.
c. In general passion should so be treated that these scenes do not stimulate the lower and baser element.
3. Seduction or Rape
a. They should never be more than suggested, and only when essential for the plot, and even then never shown by explicit method.
b. They are never the proper subject for comedy.
4. Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.”
(Excerpt from the Hays Code).



Settling on a topic with my advisor has helped tremendously, now I can watch things with a purpose. Trying to watch a film in search of a lost “genre” has proved impossible. I watched over 30 movies and shows in total and if I hadn’t decided to look at how language functions, more specifically dialogue, in a set amount of films I would have been driven mad.

I’ve settled on five films that reach across the comedic spectrum:
1. Barbershop
2. Superbad
3. Pillowtalk
4. Young Frankenstein
5. I have a few options: Juno, Get Shorty, Birdcage, or anything Richard Pryor

His Girl Friday will be the classic Screwball Comedy tape measure for the other films. It has some of the fastest dialogue ever written and it is inventive to boot.

See I'm all about them words
Over numbers, unencumbered numbered words
Hundreds of pages, pages, pages forwards
More words then I had ever heard and I feel so alive
-Jason Mraz (You and I Both)

I will pay particular attention to pace, cadence, modulation, tone, timing, inflection as well as what is said. A major difference between Superbad and His Girl Friday would be the content of the language; one example is cursing, like sex, was verboten in HGF’s filmic world, and SB wouldn’t be the same without it.




Igor: Dr. Frankenstein...
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: "Fronkensteen."
Igor: You're putting me on.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: No, it's pronounced "Fronkensteen."
Igor: Do you also say "Froaderick"?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: No... "Frederick."
Igor: Well, why isn't it "Froaderick Fronkensteen"?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: It isn't; it's "Frederick Fronkensteen."
Igor: I see.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: You must be Igor.
[He pronounces it ee-gor]
Igor: No, it's pronounced "eye-gor."
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: But they told me it was "ee-gor."
Igor: Well, they were wrong then, weren't they?

Semiotics Rule!

It is one of my greatest joys that I can write essays about Maurice Sendak’s book Outside Over There, David Bowie’s package in Labyrinth, and now the film Superbad and track how many times they say different variations of male and female genitalia. The larger picture is that the essay topics above concern the part of culture, film and children’s books that inform our lives—we think only in small ways but are actually have much bigger impacts. Why does the fact that in Superbad they say vagina 20 times and penis/balls over 60 times matter? I don’t know but I want to figure it out.