Juno
Written: Mar 01 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Mott the Hoople, Cat Power.
Cons: Note to Kimya Dawson: stop writing about feces!!!
The Bottom Line: Well, at least I finally have "All the Young Dudes".
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| cdm72's Full Review: Juno by Original Soundtrack |
One day in 2008 I found myself with a 20% off anything coupon from Borders. Well, it’s 20% off, you can’t NOT use it, right? So that day after work I went to Borders and tried to decide what to use my 20% on. Books? Nope, none looked appealing enough. Cds? Possibly. I’d been getting into soundtracks a lot lately (can you tell?), so that’s the section I browsed. I’d been seeing commercials left and right for this JUNO movie. I didn’t think it looked all that appealing--precocious teens irk me--but that doesn’t mean it won’t have a good soundtrack. And looky looky! It’s got Mott the Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes”.
That’s all you hadda say!
Man, I gotta stop being so impulsive.
When director Jason Reitman asked JUNO actress Ellen Page what kind of music she thought her character listened to, Page replied “The Moldy Peaches”. And this is why you get professionals to score your movie, not actors barely out of their teens whose biggest gig has been the last and worst in a trilogy of super-hero movies. No offense to Page, I’m sure her intentions were good, but The Moldy Peaches?
The Moldy Peaches were an indie band in the early half of the 2000s led by Kimya Dawson and Adam Green, and as far as I can tell, they don’t have a good song in their catalogue. And considering Dawson appears on the JUNO soundtrack in one guise or another (whether solo, with The Moldy Peaches, or with another Dawson band called Antsy Pants) a total of 8 times (out 19 tracks), JUNO winds up being just a little too heavy on the nonsense and not near enough on the rockin’ tracks.
This soundtrack features some really good stuff. Mott aside, there’s also the Kinks’ “A Well Respected Man”, Sonic Youth’s “Superstar” cover, and Cat Power’s beautiful rendition of “Sea of Love”. Luckily these songs are included and make the purchase of JUNO almost worthwhile. But then, inevitably, another Dawson song appears.
Look, I don’t care how anti-folk or indie-scene you think you are, there is absolutely no reason to ever ever ever include this line in a song that will eventually be released to the public: “my war paint is sharpie ink and i'll show you how much my sht stinks”
And it doesn’t end there. The movie’s big theme song, “Anyone Else But You”, the one the stars sing so lovingly to each other at the end is another offender. Most people might not be aware, but the full Moldy Peaches version contains this bit of poetry: “Squinched up your face and did a dance / You shook a little turd out of the bottom of your pants / I don’t see what anyone can see / In anyone else but you.”
Oh, indeed. He’s a charmer, isn’t he? Now, I think we all know I’m no prude, but seriously there are some things you just can’t make fit into a song in a pleasing manner. And that is one of them. I don’t care how childlike and innocent your voice sounds, that’s not something I ever need to hear a song about.
I get the theme of the soundtrack, all the well-known bands performing their lesser-known songs (The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Sticking With You” and Buddy Holly’s “Dearest” included), and with either a little more variety or a little less Dawson-reliance, I think JUNO could have had some great potential. And it’s not just the lyrics to those two particular songs, most of it is indeed just because almost half the soundtrack is devoted to one artist. If you’re gonna go that far, just give her her own soundtrack. It worked for Tim Burton’s BATMAN, which had 2 soundtracks, one by Prince and the score by Danny Elfman. For me, most of the better songs, the ones I feel I should be enjoying, get lost in the Kimya Dawson shuffle and become irrelevant.
There are, however, a few standout moments, songs that are so great the Dawson mess is put aside. The best and brightest is Cat Power. I’ve heard “Sea of Love” in many different incarnations, but none have ever choked me up like this one. Somehow, in only 2 minutes and 20 seconds, this Georgia girl crushes any competition in her path with her sparse guitar and wispy voice. Simply gorgeous.
In the end, though, the whole thing feels a little . . . desperate. It’s like the soundtrack is trying too hard to be hip and different, almost like Juno herself. I’ve listened to this thing a hundred times, trying to make myself like it. The most I’ve managed is being able to tolerate it. In truth, for a while I forgot I owned it. That seemed to work the best so far. Maybe I’ll give that idea another shot.
Other Soundtracks in My Collection:
10 Things I Hate About You
300
Boogie Nights
City of Angels
Daredevil
Death Proof
From Dusk Till Dawn
Garden State
Godfather Trilogy
Grosse Point Blank
Independence Day
Jackie Brown
Recommended:
No
Great Music to Play While: Reading or Studying
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Epinions.com ID:
cdm72
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 in Music, Movies, Books |
 - Top 500 |
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Location: St. Joseph, MO, USA
Reviews written: 778
Trusted by: 113 members
About Me:
That's me in front of Trent Reznor's house in NOLA several years ago.
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