Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[flippyshark]

As usual, I'm way behind the curve in catching up with acclaimed movies. Anyhow, last night I watched JUNO, and I was pretty charmed. Emily Watson's performance is practically the whole movie, though the supporting cast is well chosen. It's pretty slight, fluffy stuff but I enjoyed it.

However, I have a question for those of you who have seen this - What's the deal with the twee, folksy songs on the soundtrack!?! Is this an actual genre? What is it called? Why does it exist?! The movie was punctuated by a number of quirky tunes, accompanied by guitar, and though the songs themselves were sort of funny and cute, the style of singing has me completely baffled. I can only describe it as a kind of indifferent, sluggish and off-key chanting. The credits indicate that a number of artists contributed, which is why I wonder if this is a category unto itself - whispy little tunes performed by non-singers who sound like they are waking up from a long nap. The effect is precious to the point of being agonizing. It fit the mood of the film okay, but the main character, Juno, kept talking about how much she loved punk bands of the late seventies. Why didn't we get to hear them instead?