Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I found Diablo Cody's script for JENNIFER'S BODY to be... interesting. It was definitely fun, but reading it I could tell the execution of the material would mean the difference between a really good movie or a bad movie. I guess that's true of any material, but there are some cases where the execution is especially crucial. My gut told me this was one of those cases and it seems that Mr. Dinosaur below agrees. Our spy caught a test screening of the flick and seems to think it needs some work. Thankfully, that's the point of these screenings and hopefully the filmmakers will take the criticism to heart and try to get the film into the best shape possible before it hits for the rest of us. We're guaranteed great eye candy at the very least. Meagan Fox is nothing if not super sexy and I find Amanda Seyfried absolutely adorable... I think it's the big eyes and striking similarity to my first girlfriend. Anyway, here's Mr. Dinosaur with the rundown... what worked and what didn't in this very early screening. Enjoy!
Hey Harry, I just got back from an advance screening of JENNIFER'S BODY and I thought I'd send in a little review. To start off, I'll vouch that Diablo Cody is NOT a one hit wonder nor a talentless hack who happened to luck out with the whole JUNO dealy. Her work here is fantastic. That being said, the film itself is a series of disappointment after disappointment. I've heard the phrase 'Garbage in, garbage out.' In this case, it seems as though it was gold going in, then trashed and smashed into not quite garbage, but bronze or maybe some kind of tempered metal at best going out. Director Karyn Kusama seems to have completely misinterpreted the script and turned what seems to have been a great, quirky horror comedy and turned it into a studio-style slasher flick. While the marketing definitely favours the titular Megan Fox character, the film is told from the perspective of her best friend, Needy, played effectively by Amanda Seyfriend. Needy and Jennifer, high school students, have been friends from their playground days, and are basically inseparable. They live in a middle of nowhere type town named Devil's Kettle, where everyone knows everyone else and there's only one bar-that kind of place. After a mysterious fire at that bar during an indie band concert, Jennifer turns into a demon-possessed, boy killing succubus who seduces her high school mates and eats their insides. Meanwhile, she grows farther and farther apart from Needy, who slowly figures out what's going on with her best friend. It's a great concept that had the potential to become a quiet horror classic. The screenplay is endlessly clever, not so much in its structure, but in its execution, with witty dialogue and a very matter of fact way of handling the gruesome violence. For folks who didn't enjoy JUNO's style of dialogue, they'll be glad to know that it's tempered a bit here, although still very much her style. It's a very funny script that produced many, many laughs. Kusama, however, completely ignores the style in the screenplay and shoots it like a bad Friday the 13th sequel. Cheesy scary music (although it was a temp track), cheap jump scares, and ominous lighting and camera moves undermine the humour and deadpan that Cody seems to be trying so hard to bring out in the horror sequences. It's frustrating because the writing is far more intelligent than the direction, which seems content in having characters walk into dark hallways and pumping up the spooky sounds. The cinematography is also laughably bad. There's a night scene where Jennifer turns off a lamp in her room, and as soon as the lamp turns off, the moon seems to turn on, and the room gets BRIGHTER. There's a general sloppiness to all the lighting work in the film, especially in the night scenes, save for a few gorgeous shots that I suspect were second unit or B-cam photography. Beyond anything, though, is the lack of an emotional core. Jennifer, the character we're supposed to be following (through the eyes of Needy), has absolutely no character arc and is unlikeable from beginning to end. Seyfried's character has a bit of an arc, but it's so obvious that you end up wondering how Needy didn't come to the conclusion years before the film even takes place. The actors seem to wander from scene to scene without any sense of objective or motive; a lack of subtext pervades the whole movie. Additionally, there's a curious subplot about Needy and Jennifer being potentially lesbian, but it's only ever mentioned twice, once briefly, and once very explicitly. It comes out awkward and silly, however, because it's never shown in the subtext elsewhere in the film, which is dumb because one of the problems with the film is that it's hard to understand why Needy and Jennifer are friends-Jennifer bosses Needy around and in general is an all around bitch-and having a sexual undertone to their relationship would explain a lot. This is the overall problem with the movie: Lots of potential for a very unique film, but completely nixed by incompetent direction. But it's not a complete waste. We get good, albeit shallow performances, with some solid casting. Megan Fox is very attractive and relishes her role-she shows some chops here. Also, the print I saw was unfinished with some work in progress effects and sound. So maybe it'll be recut and adjusted and half my complaints are unwarranted. But as of now, it's a big missed potential. If you use this, call me Mr. Dinosaur.
