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Jennifer's Body

This movie is not nearly as bad as the critics would have you believe. It’s just not as good as it could be. Maybe the bar was set too high given Diablo Cody’s involvement. What’s the deal with Ms. Cody anyway? Did she lose a boyfriend to an Asian American girl at some point in her life? She seems to be dead set on casting Asian American actresses in the most vapid roles. First it was the Christianity loving, pro-life chanting fanatic in Juno; now it’s the Soft Shoulder fan who believes their lies despite obvious credibility issues. There’s a Tarantino-esque strain of subdued prejudice in Cody’s movies so far that’s a little annoying.

Anyway, Megan Fox looks great in this movie and Adrian Brody is projecting “I’m ready for the A-list”. The movie is not scary in the slightest. Well, except for one shot at the very end, as the credits are rolling. I won’t reveal any spoilers, but it involves Amanda Seyfried in badass mode.

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Cool Article on Zooey Deschanel

Actually, it's more about 500 Days of Summer. There's a really interesting quote in Filmstar’s story about that movie. As good as it was, there was an element of preciousness about 500 Days. It's almost too stylish and cool for its own good. It undermines the gritty realism of the "love hurts" story they're trying to tell. But after reading this article I found out that, at least with respect to Zooey's character, that slickness was somewhat intentional.

Summer is also figurative of a certain type of indie movie character. As Webb explains, "There's this term - Manic Pixie Dream Girl - which is this idealised super-attractive quirky girl. Typically this character is sort of consumed by the male, changes his life and it's happily ever after. But we wanted to use that idea and extract some sort of consequence from it - she doesn't solve your problems, she doesn't make you happy. One of the underlying themes of the movie is that happiness lies within, not in the big blue eyes of the girl in the cubicle down the hall. That was a little bit tricky, but Zooey...she has great sense of style, she has this credibility, which is really fantastic, and it's hard not to like her, to be attracted to her. She lives in that idealised box that we have - but there's a consequence to that, there's a consequence to these people not being real, and that's what the end of the movie is trying to embrace."

I got a sense from the article that there was bit of a struggle between Zooey’s interpretation of the story and Summer’s character and the one the screenwriter had. She says “I just tried to play the scenes as truthfully as possible and keep her grounded in my reality of her, which was different from the reality of the film. My job was to protect her integrity, as a character. I’m like the lawyer for Summer.”

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