Queer Beacon

Juno (2007) - LightShed 6

Juno is excellent. In the movie, Ellen Page (remember her from Hard Candy?) is 16 and she is carrying Michael Cera's baby.  Too young to deal with it all and unwilling to do an abortion, Page decides to give her baby away to Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, who play one of those perfect suburban couples.

The movie is a joyride despite the seriousness of the subject (teenage pregnancy). The soundtrack is full of first-rate alternative rock songs and the acting is really solid. Page certainly deserves the attention she is getting for her performance in Juno, but she is not alone. Olivia Thirlby, who plays Page's best friend (an unlikely friendship between a cheerleader and Juno, the screw-up goof-ball);  Allison Janney, who plays Juno's step-mom; J.K. Simmons, who plays the father, and Cera and Garner are all excellent.

We also have gay content, not all good though. In our first gay tidbit, Juno says that, ideally, she would give her baby away to be adopted by a nice lesbian couple. That is super nice. But then, later in the movie, when Garner is wondering about baby names, she suggests a name that Juno thinks is gay (I think the name was Marianne or sth like that).  Juno  said "gay" as though it was not necessarily a bad thing, there's no hate in her voice, but still we'd be better off if people didn't use " gay" to mean sth uncool (remember this post about whether it's okay to say "gay"?). Then, finally, Juno is just walking around in this mall with her best friend Thirlby when they bump into Garner, who was also shopping in the mall with her " girlfriends."  When Thirlby hears that, she asks whether Garner is gay. Of course, Thirlby just got it wrong, as Garner was referring to girls who are her friends, not actual girlfriends. That was pretty neutral.

You should definitely see this one on the big screen.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) - No Gay Content

What a perfect, somber, vehicle for Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.  They both rock in Sweeney Todd.

In the movie, Johnny is unjustly imprisoned by this nasty judge -- when he's out of the joint all he wants is revenge.  Helena helps him out. 

Again, the acting is superb, but I didn't really like the songs.  The movie is good but could have been much better.  I think the plot should have us see more of Johnny's perfect little life before his imprisonment so that we could better taste his revenge.  As it is, the movie feels almost gratuitously gory -- revenge for revenge sake.  Just my two cents...you should still see the movie.