Though ranting about this in this forum is totally preaching to the choir, this is the only blog I have, so I'll have to settle for venting instead of changing perspectives.
The massive amount of hipster backlash over the success of Juno really irks me. While I certainly don't think it was Best Picture worthy, I did think it was really charming, really funny, and for the most part well-executed. I saw Juno when it was playing in 3 theaters in America (a serious perk of living in NYC). Around this time, literally everyone I knew that had seen it loved it. People couldn't say enough good things about it. It was like a more realistic Knocked Up, with a smaller production budget. It was also an underdog. Then it snowballed. No sooner than it became 2007's Little Miss Sunshine, it somehow became Hollywood's most popular target. And that is what I take issue with.
2007 saw the release of at least two far more socially repellant films: Eddie Murphy's Norbit (which grossed marginally less money than Juno, but believe it or not still picked up an Oscar nomination), and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (which, thus far, has grossed more money worldwide than Juno). Norbit is yet another in a long line of blatantly offensive fat humor films (see: Shallow Hal, Big Momma's House, The Nutty Professor, etc.). Chuck and Larry is a newer breed of film: The post-Brokeback Mountain gay panic comedy. Both were hugely successful, both were patently offensive, and both were spared the criticism being leveled at Juno. Why? My guess is the ever-shrinking hipster culture bubble is too small to acknowledge Eddie Murphy or Adam Sandler as threats to their small world, when in fact films like Norbit and Chuck and Larry are reversing social progress in the mainstream much more than a film like Juno. People that claim to be socially conscious but pay no mind to films like this are doing more harm than good. If you're going to ignore the kinds of messages that these films send to a mainstream audience, then you must also ignore any faults you have with films like Juno.
I'm fine with this new "indie-yuppy" demographic that has been spawned by Pitchfork, Garden State, The Shins and Starbucks. They have helped a lot of independent entities enjoy unthinkable success (such as the beautiful film, Once). But the new strains of misguided cynicism and thoughtless critical lashings really bums me out. You can forgive teenagers for thinking this way, you just assume (or hope) that they grow out of it as their tastes change and develop. But these upper-middle class late-twenty/thirtysomethings who have developed a taste for the "indie" are far more potentially damaging in the big picture, as their opinions are generally taken more seriously than those of a teenager.
Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. Maybe I'm totally off-base and wrong in my assertions. Maybe my opinion is no more valid than anyone else's, and I should just shut my mouth and chill out. But I can't help feeling like there are some serious societal problems brewing here, some of which are starting to bubble to the surface. You know how some people say that racism is worse now because it's harder to know who in the room is racist? That's how I feel about the co-op of independent culture. Rich white people with the same dumbed-down views, hiding behind smart products with a message that is too often lost in translation.
The massive amount of hipster backlash over the success of Juno really irks me. While I certainly don't think it was Best Picture worthy, I did think it was really charming, really funny, and for the most part well-executed. I saw Juno when it was playing in 3 theaters in America (a serious perk of living in NYC). Around this time, literally everyone I knew that had seen it loved it. People couldn't say enough good things about it. It was like a more realistic Knocked Up, with a smaller production budget. It was also an underdog. Then it snowballed. No sooner than it became 2007's Little Miss Sunshine, it somehow became Hollywood's most popular target. And that is what I take issue with.
2007 saw the release of at least two far more socially repellant films: Eddie Murphy's Norbit (which grossed marginally less money than Juno, but believe it or not still picked up an Oscar nomination), and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (which, thus far, has grossed more money worldwide than Juno). Norbit is yet another in a long line of blatantly offensive fat humor films (see: Shallow Hal, Big Momma's House, The Nutty Professor, etc.). Chuck and Larry is a newer breed of film: The post-Brokeback Mountain gay panic comedy. Both were hugely successful, both were patently offensive, and both were spared the criticism being leveled at Juno. Why? My guess is the ever-shrinking hipster culture bubble is too small to acknowledge Eddie Murphy or Adam Sandler as threats to their small world, when in fact films like Norbit and Chuck and Larry are reversing social progress in the mainstream much more than a film like Juno. People that claim to be socially conscious but pay no mind to films like this are doing more harm than good. If you're going to ignore the kinds of messages that these films send to a mainstream audience, then you must also ignore any faults you have with films like Juno.
I'm fine with this new "indie-yuppy" demographic that has been spawned by Pitchfork, Garden State, The Shins and Starbucks. They have helped a lot of independent entities enjoy unthinkable success (such as the beautiful film, Once). But the new strains of misguided cynicism and thoughtless critical lashings really bums me out. You can forgive teenagers for thinking this way, you just assume (or hope) that they grow out of it as their tastes change and develop. But these upper-middle class late-twenty/thirtysomethings who have developed a taste for the "indie" are far more potentially damaging in the big picture, as their opinions are generally taken more seriously than those of a teenager.
Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. Maybe I'm totally off-base and wrong in my assertions. Maybe my opinion is no more valid than anyone else's, and I should just shut my mouth and chill out. But I can't help feeling like there are some serious societal problems brewing here, some of which are starting to bubble to the surface. You know how some people say that racism is worse now because it's harder to know who in the room is racist? That's how I feel about the co-op of independent culture. Rich white people with the same dumbed-down views, hiding behind smart products with a message that is too often lost in translation.
