“Jennifer’s Body” is a cynical, heavy handed and occasionally scary follow-up to “Juno” from screenwriter Diablo Cody. In interviews, Cody said she wanted flip the horror standard and have a girl be the villain and the guys the victims; to say that’s groundbreaking is to ignore the whole history of horror films (one thing that makes this one different is that ALL the victims are dudes, but certainly there have been many female villains and female heroes through the years).
However, I’ll give “Jennifer’s Body” this: the flesh-eating title villain is quite creepy looking when she’s working those fangs and chowing down on intestines. This movie isn’t for the squeamish — there’s one scene where Jennifer cups her hands and laps up blood from a corpse like it’s water from a brook.
“Jennifer’s Body” will hold your attention, but you’ll forget it quickly. Sure, it has nice bits of dialogue that reflect how young people talk. For example, Jennifer tells her best friend, who suspects she is evil, to “Move on dot org already.” Cody’s dialogue is fun, and the film has a dark sense of humor overall — Seth Cohen from “The O.C.” heads up an indie band of cute guys who resort to demon worship in lieu of a Letterman gig.
The demon-worshipping band has a great song, “Through the Trees” — really, it’s a catchy tune that made me want to seek out the soundtrack — but the movie turns it into a joke by having the whole town rally around it.
I know the cynicism is purposeful, but I guess I expected more of a silver lining from the woman behind “Juno.” This film takes a relentlessly dark view of human behavior.
Before this review is over, I should probably mention that a certain It Girl stars in “Jennifer’s Body.” And she’s almost worth the price of admission, but I don’t like how they dressed her down with the nerd glasses. I remember her as being so much hotter as Veronica Mars’ flashback-starring best friend. We are talking about Amanda Seyfried, right?
Oh, you wanted to know if Megan Fox is worth seeing. Sure, if you’re on that bandwagon. She plays the evil, flesh-eating girl. Yeah, she’s attractive … yawn … in a predictable sort of way. That’s what they were going for in this role, though.
Also, if you are hoping to see vampires in “Jennifer’s Body,” you’re out of luck, although you wouldn’t know that from the marketing campaign.
Exhibit A: A poster from “Jennifer’s Body.”
Exhibit B: The Season 1 DVD cover art for “True Blood,” which came out several months ago.
Maybe by having the tongue licking the other side of the mouth, they avoided a lawsuit.
Speaking of eerie similarities, could Johnny Simmons, the actor who plays Chip in “Jennifer’s Body,” look any more like Patrick Fugit, who played the kid in “Almost Famous?”
Now that’s scary.
Comments
I went to this last weekend. Wasn’t as terrible as I thought it was going to be. My wife wanted to see it. Normally cant stand Seth Cohen but he kind of
played the singer from the Killers well. Still havent been able to figure out who the actual band is playing that music. What I really dont get is I assumed
the title came from the Hole song and then they played a Hole song at the end of the movie but it was Violet not Jennifers Body. Whats up with that?# Posted By matt | 9/24/09 6:35 PM
I didn’t realize Adam Brody was specifically parodying Brandon Flowers. Yes, he did do a good job. I thought maybe “Through the Trees” was by Maroon 5 because they referenced the band in the dialogue and I think the Maroon 5 guy was credited as the songwriter in the end credits. I didn’t know there was a Hole song called “Jennifer’s Body.” Maybe they thought “Violet” fit the mood of the movie better, and they wanted to have Hole represented somehow since they were borrowing the title.# Posted By John Hansen | 9/24/09 7:00 PM
I dont know if it was suppose to be Flowers but it
seemed eerily close. And I dont know if the movie
was named after the Hole song but when I heard the
title months ago it just stuck in my head and then
Violet played at the end and it was odd. Both songs
are on the same disc “Live Through This.” Still one
of the 90’s discs that I think has held up well. It came
out like a week after Cobain died so lyrically it seems
much deeper. I think Courtney is a underrated artist.
She’s a total mess but thats really her charm# Posted By matt | 9/25/09 11:10 PM