Kurt Loder Liked It Too

I saw Juno this weekend at a screening which was pretty sweet, since I had assumed I would have to wait until it came out to see it. I stumbled across this review by Kurt Loder this morning, which I read mostly because I was curious to read something/anything by Kurt "Droppin' Lodes" Loder, whom I remember from all those years ago, back when I still wanted my MTV. He liked it.

And, I'm here to tell you that I agree with him, so you should go see it. Kurt's review is pretty much right on point with how I felt about the movie, particularly in terms of pointing out the flick's weaknesses. There aren't many. And we both agree that the final scene is impossibly cute. Mind you, this is coming from someone whose typical response to anything "cute" involves lye and a machete, so kudos to Diablo Cody for writing something adorable that didn't result in me getting another restraining order. Plus, DC used to be a stripper, so she's got some serious street cred points, not to mention a gutter mouth rivaling my own. Pretty cockfucking impressive.

Moving on. I will confess that I'm a film school graduate, so I do have a higher tolerance than many for "independent" films (which, admittedly, is becoming an increasingly dubious term). But, I also feel that there's a certain sameness to every indie trailer that comes out, rendering them all identical, in a strange and obnoxious way. Luckily, Juno as a film breaks out of those confines and turns out to be a genuinely funny, slightly raunchy, well written, directed and acted movie. As The Lode points out, some of the dialog is just too crisp and self-awarely clever to be believable, and I found it detracted from some moments being laugh aloud funny. But, not every comedy is meant to be a knee-slapper, and this one succeeds without pandering for guffaws. Plus, it has George-Michael. So, check it out. It opens in NY and L.A. today.

And here's Diablo Cody's, a fellow Blogger Blogspot blogger's, blog. What I've read on it is not all that interesting, but it sure beats LTNA, as all other things in this world do. Also, she has a few promotional videos up for Juno with her and Ellen Page, who I'd never seen before in anything, but like a whole lot now. Almost as much as I like pork swords.

God. Fucking. Damnit.

As a native New Yorker, I can barely express my intense chagrin over discovering what I missed this Saturday, when I was busy having another bullshit night in suck city, here in L.A. Long-time fan of Saturday Night Live that I am, I have lusted over actually attending a taping for years, and curse their cruel "lottery" ticket-giving system for never affording me the opportunity. But, this weekend's even liver than usual performance of SNL would have been the coup of coups!

The SNL cast (sans Maya Rudolph), plus some veterans like Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch put together a "too hot for TV" live show at UCB, where tickets originally went for just $20. But naturally, Criag's List scalpers entrepreneurs were selling tickets for as much as 3 hundo in the end. The proceeds went to benefit the crew who had been laid off due to the current writers' strike, which just makes Amy Poehler and the gang seem extra awesome for doing this.

The final "fuck you" on this vile cake of shit-LTNA-missed-out-on is that the host of Saturday Night Live-- No, Seriously, LIVE! was the adorable Michael Cera, whose enviable deadpan delivery has been enormously entertaining since his earlier days as George-Michael Bluth. The standing-room-only crowd was a motley crew including Lorne Michaels (who was not involved with the event), some of the aforementioned laid off staff members and, apparently, Jim from The Office.

So, yeah. As if seven years of living here still had me on the fence, L.A. is, indeed, a vapid wasteland for which I have bottomless contempt, and all the truly cool shit happens in New York. Confirmed.