DVD: Junebug


A film the exemplifies the good and bad of the indie-fication of American film

Junebug is a pretty typical indie film. And it seems to me that there are now only about three different kinds of mainstream films that come out: ridiculously overblown action/horror/thriller films, or fairly inane and preferably gross comedies, or big studio films that try to embrace the indie spirit. I rarely have interest in the first option. Sure, I likes me some fantasy-flavored action, a la LOTR, but I'm just not getting in line for the next Will Smith escapade, nor even the latest Harrison Ford thriller. I also rarely have interested in the second option, although The 40-Year-Old Virgin was a tremendously pleasant surprise.

That being the case I'm beginning to get deja vu every time I watch a movie. Deja vu because they all seem desperate to eschew such "Hollywood" conventions as heroes and villains, as build-up, climax and satisfying denouement, stuff like that. Thing is: those conventions go way back to Ancient Greece and Aristotle, not Louis B. Mayer.

Movies these days want to deprive movie-goers of the very catharsis that used to be considered requisite for good drama.

How do they accomplish this?

By working way too hard to make every character way too flawed.
By making sure a truly happy ending is not delivered.
By demanding that its audiences spend two hours caring about the exploits of characters who are more unpleasant than not.

Sure, you'll say, that's life, baby. They're showing life. First of all, I'd say: are they? Because in life if everyone wore their flaws on their sleeves 24/7 as they do in movies, we would all become hermits. No, the drive to form societies and keep societies together requires us to get along, and on a day-to-day basis most of the people I'm around show more of their pleasant side, even if quirky, than their unpleasant side. That's why I'm around them. Second of all I'd say: you didn't used to go to the theatre live or on screen to see a picture of real life...you went to be elevated somehow...to find higher meaning in what were ostensibly everyday lives. Holding a mirror to life.

So what I've found lately, and this applies often to novels as well as movies, is that they are filled with quirky and interesting characters...and certainly three-dimensional portrayals, but that what the novelist or filmmaker finds most interesting about the characters are the qualities and behaviors that make them hard to root for and hard to have sustained interest in. I don't want to observe characters like a scientist with a microscope, I'd rather be drawn in and invested in their journeys.

These films are gravy for actors. I'm sure I would love to play some of these roles a lot more than I enjoy watching them. But I find that often when I'm discussing movies with friends or family the same phrase comes us: "I didn't like any of the characters." My sister made special note of the fact that one of the reasons she liked Brokeback Mountain was that she actually cared about those characters.

What does this all have to do specifically with Junebug? I mean, it's a harmless film, really. Nice little culture-clash between big-city Madelaine and her Down South in-laws. But everyone in the film either:

a) is already or turns into a dick. (The brother Johnny, the mother-in-law, the artist who turns out to be an anti-Semite.)
b) seems to be just over the edge into seriously mentally off. (The nearly-mute father-in-law and the completely whacked sister-in-law.)
c) Is a complete cipher. (The husband.)

OK, give me a character or two like the above, but every single damn character? in a drama? (All quirky all the time really belongs in an out and out comedy.)

There is, of course, the breakout performance by Amy Adams as Ashley the completely wacky and very pregnant sister-in-law. She reminds me of Julie Hagerty...who you may know form Airplane!, but who also played her flavor of ditsy in several Broadway shows. She does pull this off. And believe me, she has to pull it off because when things get tragic, as they always must in the modern movie, you need to not only believe but care about that moment. It's a really balls-out performance...committing to the kind of scary-annoying character tics, depicting a nine-month pregnant woman masturbating, finding laughter and tears in the most horrible moment of the character's life. I admire it. But again, a little bit like a scientist observing a specimen of Good Acting.

Ah well, I really think it's the movies I've seen lately, combined with the books I've been reading for my book club, that has been the catalyst for this general moaning about the state of modern drama. We often tease my step-dad because he prefers movies with a happy ending. I'm starting to get that way myself.

Take Shawshank Redemption: Clear villains, clear heroes to root for, flawed though they may occasionally be, and one of the most satisfying endings ever. This movie achieves greatness, relying on those old principles. Is that so wrong?

Buy Junebug at Amazon.com

Posted: Tue - February 28, 2006 at 08:56 AM       EmailFeedback

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