Indie films

So I liked Juno. Yeah, it is a high school film, and it has some clichés, but have to admit, it is indie... but what does indie mean?

American independent films have a very specific task to perform, they are in charge of bringing to the international forum America’s deepest failures, or social problems but always in a form you do not expect. Europe sees the most dramatic (or dramatized) aspects of its youth: sex, love, death (these three usually related), school incompetence, premature adulthood... Meanwhile some American indies, such as this Juno, make of situations which are not new, or exclusive of this generation, something we can learn from and most importantly something enjoyable to watch.

the soundtrack, such as this
drawing, sounds handmade

A teenage student named after a roman Goddess reacts to her pregnancy in a very unrealistic manner... let's have the baby and give it away, why not?

Ellen Page's cold temper, already seen in her first, Hard Candy (and contemplated later on, in most of her films) turns mellow during her gestation. Without spoiling anything else about the story (admit it, you have seen this one already), I wanted to remark some 'indie' elements that caught my attention:

1. Bren, the stepmother interpreted by mostly brilliant Allison Janney and her solondzian obsession with dogs.

2. I have the feeling that all posh working women in America have fertility problems.

3. The way adolescents speak, almost as if reciting poetry. Does it have to show that most indie writers are literature majors in their thirties?

Indie or independent films have something else in common; they affirm the american way of living otherwise as epos or patriotic films from Glory to World war Z do. These films may excel in admitting American failures but also underline that, nevertheless, the US is a nice country to live in; big cars teenagers can drive into houses with multiple garage doors included. They have to admit to be lucky, even so if they often ironise about it. One of my favorite sequences of the film, where you can precisely feel the irony about this american way of life is a short but tremendously symbolic transition towards the beginning of the film introducing the first encounter of Juno with Vanessa and Mark: Driving into “Glacial Valley Estates”, the neighborhood where the adopting candidates live.

In the end, 'indie' can be seen as a label to market a film... if meticulously analyzed (something most American films do not deserve) we can find that the message is almost always the same, being the gift-wrap-paper that differs; and that a big studio might actually be behind the production –in this case, along with John Malkovich's little studio Mr. Mudd, also a branch of the German Senator Films co-produced; coincidentally, the latter swallowed that same year by Lionsgate, a much bigger Studio. Ah! and by the way, distributed by a not-so-much little cat, Fox.

* Note from author: This text was rescued from my notebook, so do not complain if the film is not fresh news.