Karyn Kusama's new film, Jennifer's Body, is a riot. It's a horror comedy that's actually very funny, a rarity these days. With a screenplay by Oscar winner, Diablo Cody (who's 2007 film, Juno, I couldn't stand), the film is light on its feet, satiric, and witty.
Yes, there are a plethora of pop culture references on display here (a Cody staple now), and while they certainly sound as random and odd as they did in Juno, here the characters aren't meant to be taken seriously. They're all bizarre in their own little ways, and the movie they're in is gleefully absurd. There is no "praise abstinence" or "God is good" message here; it's a feature length sketch, but a smart one.
Have you ever before seen a film where an indie rock group sacrifices a virgin to the Devil for their one chance at fame? If you have, please tell me, so I can add it to my Netflix queue. It's an undiscovered genre.
What the band didn't realize, however, was that their sacrifice, Jennifer (Megan Fox), was not a virgin (not even a backdoor virgin, she so eloquently explains), and thus, all hell breaks loose. That goes double for Ahmed, the quiet Indian foreign exchange student. What a rough day he has.
Jennifer goes on to kill boys hoping to bed her (at least praying mantis have the decency to murder their lovers during sex and not before), and once in a while she has an audience for her murders that is eerily similar to the cast of Bambi.
J.K. Simmons shows up with a claw for a hand and a funny haircut. He is greatly respected in Devil's Kettle, but his haircut is not.
You wouldn't know this by the television spots and poster for the movie, but the main character in Jennifer's Body isn't Jennifer, but Needy (Amanda Seyfried). What a name. Wait till you see her mother. She has dreams of her daughter getting nailed to wooden boards like Jesus Christ. Talk about a lot for a kid to live up to.
The score is indie pop heavy, but it works for the film. At times it reminded me of that 1996 movie, The Craft, but this is much more funny and playful. So playful that it includes multiple Evil Dead references, a film which resembles this one in its presentation of wacky possessed females. Sorry, but it's true.
The visual setups are impressive. There is a shot near the beginning of the film at the local bar where Needy plays an arcade game. She hears the band talk about deflowering a "virgin" like Jennifer. Kusama then divides the frame between Needy's frightened face (in closeup), and the band (in the background), and the shot is Scorsese like (even if Scorsese may have stolen it from old man Hitchcock).
There's also a nice shot of a jock named Jonas, alone on the football field, thinking about his recently deceased friend. The camera flies at his face, and the rock music blasts, and it's a complex camera movement, even if it's only, you know, one camera movement.
And you must like a film where a guy asks a girl out to go see a midnite showing of Rocky Horror, and she responds (I'm paraphrasing), "Sorry. I don't really like boxing movies." That made me smile.
Final Score: 7/10 |
SPOTLIGHTS
