My Thoughts on The Oscars and Juno

I love movies, but I’m not a big fan of the Oscars. Their taste in films has always seemed a bit stodgy and mannered for me. I like comedies more than dramas, on most days, and any movie that aspires to be an “epic” tends to bore me, especially by the third hour. These days, even the average movie seems to clock in at about two hours and twenty minutes. That would be fine if every moment of the movie felt important or at least interesting, but for the most part the extra time just feels like filler. Wedding Crashers for example, was a very funny movie, but no comedy should last two hours. Wedding Crashers could have been edited down to an hour and a half without batting an eye.

That is why I was so happy to see Diablo Cody win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Her movie Juno was pretty close to the perfect modern comedy. The dialog was crisp and funny. The lead character, Juno, had real flaws that were balanced out by genuinely admirable and lovable qualities. Juno was surrounded by people who cared for her, but who had realistic (and funny) views about her. The stakes felt real, but never dire, and the ending didn’t require some major, forced moment of realization. The victories were small but they had consequence.

I think it was a great screenplay. That said, I also give credit to the directing and the acting as well. I’m sure that every moment in the script didn’t make it to the screen. Juno could have been a two hour movie, instead of a brisk 98 minutes. Luckily, the people involved were wise enough to know what to cut and what to keep.

Related links

• Fifteen Writing Exercises (0.500)
• How to Create Fictional Characters Using Adversity (0.500)
• 12 Exercises for Improving Dialog (0.500)
• How to Create Fictional Characters (0.500)
• Writing Productivity -- Using an Idea Log (0.500)

Contact John Hewitt

Writing Content and Web Consulting

Email: hewitt@poewar.com
Phone: (520) 261-6104
LinkedIn: poewar
Twitter: @poewar
Facebook: pwar2