[DVD] Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Written by Diablo Cody
Directed by Karyn Kusama
Starring Amanda Seyfried, Megan Fox
DVD Release Tuesday December 29th

For a moment, folks, can we forget that Juno scribe Diablo Cody or perceived celebrity tramp Megan Fox has anything at all to do withJennifer’s Body? For whatever reasons those two come with so much preconceived baggage that it seems to me that a lot of folks can’t get around that and watch the movie with an unbiased eye. I had never seen Megan Fox in a movie before Jennifer’s Body (Yah, I’m a geek but not a masochist. I dislike Michael Bay’s style – nothing personal [I have seen 1/2 of Transformers 1&2 since this was originally written] ) and I caught Juno during its early run, so that was before whatever caused the Diablo Cody backlash; and I liked Jennifer’s Body. I read on a blog not long ago something that I think is profound with regard to today’s fandom. I wish I could attribute it to the right source, but alas I can’t remember from whence it came. I think it was a sports blog and it went something like this: “Today’s fan is much more concerned with what to hate then what they love.” I think that fits with Fox and Cody pretty well

For a guy, Jennifer’s Body is a slightly difficult movie to pick-up on. I think a problems with the movie’s lack of momentum at the box office other than extreme hate towards the writer and one of the stars, it that it was marketed terribly. This is not an adult horror movie, but is rather a teenage relationship and high school movie — mostly for girls — that happens to feature a succubus as the antagonist. It is also not Megan Fox’s movie, but rather Amanda Seyfried’s (Needy) as Jennifer’s “BFF” and Johnny Simmons (Cliff) as Needy’s boyfriend. Jennifer’s Body is not that different from Mean Girls or Thirteen or in some ways Clueless. Also I believe the R rating was a mistake. This is definitely a soft R rating and could have used a promotion that steered it more towards the PG-13 camp and to have been targeted more towards girls than boys.

Needy (Seyfried) is a cute, funny, and basically well adjusted high school teen with a nice average boyfriend called Chip (Simmons). Needy is best friends with the school’s top of the food chain knockout, Jennifer. Needy and Jennifer’s relationship seems like a strange match, but Needy explains at one point to Chip that “sandbox love never dies.” Needy and Jennifer have know each other since early childhood where they grew up as leader and sidekick; Jennifer always took the best toys, played the most beautiful, and was always the princess. Needy is ok with their relationship, even going so far as to adjust her style of dress to something Jennifer would not consider competitive in sexiness.

Jennifer is exactly like every gorgeous and ostensibly self confident girl that one has ever known in life or seen in the movies. She is like The Plastics in “Mean Girls” and like the crew in “Clueless.” She is self obsessed, daring, vugar, and always in control. Early in the movie she convinces Needy to go with her to a local bar where a semi popular City Band was playing. Jennifer has intentions on the lead singer of the band to whom she is attracted.

Events at the bar do no go well. Needy gets a bad vibe form the band that Jennifer is being obvious and bold with, and just when the band starts to sing the bar catches on fire. Almost all inside perish except for Needy and Jennifer as well as the visiting band. A shocked Jennifer retreats from the fire with the band while Needy’s protests fall on deaf ears. The next time we see Jennifer, she is not quite the same person.

The humor surrounding Jennifer’s Body is dark and somewhat stilted against the culture of populist America. From the time Jennifer is transformed to the end of the movie, the viewer is treated with both literal and symbolic rants against popularity, fame, friendship, and beauty worship.The movie also has much more depth than one might initially see. Not only does the movie step onto the well tread road of the normal girls’ relationship with the sexy diva – which is played satirically in the relationship with Needy once Jennifer is transformed – but the movie also is requesting the viewer to maybe, just perhaps – eventually – feel sorry for the diva. Being objectified as a sex symbol must not be an easy road to travel. I know very little about being known as beautiful myself, but I imagine the need that Jennifer has to kill after the transformation is analogous to the need for attention and acceptance that all teens – even the divas – need from their peers.

Jennifer’s relationship with Needy and sympathy for the popular girl come into play more and more as the movie progresses. When juxtaposed against the relationship between the demon Jennifer and the suddenly rebelling Needy, some things about ‘need’ start to become clear. In fact, I would say the name ‘Needy’ is an attempt at a Dickensesque cue from Cody and the key to much of the movie. It is supposed to be obvious that Needy needs Jennifer and goes out of her way to maintain the friendship; but it becomes just as obvious that Jennifer needs Needy as a person that, while in many ways supplicant, also associates with Jennifer outside the realm of objectification

The movie also deals with fame, its dubious honor, and the lengths that many in the entertainment industry will go to to get it. This theme is personified by the band (Adam Brody plays the lead singer). The band is able to manipulate certain event and parlay that to immediate fame. The fame arc is similar to many modern bands, including alternative music washout cum propagandist mouthpiece 3 Doors Down (fittingly with the ubiquitous presence of the hackneyed “Citizen Soldier” in most American theaters).

The cinematography and direction in Jennifer’s Body has a few worthwhile flourishes. Some of the scenes lend a creepy atmosphere. On a more subtle note, the contrast of colors both muted and saturated are fun to look out for. Like in the scene with Jennifer walking down the hall of a mourning school as pictured above left. The contrast as a vibrant and colorful Jennifer walks through the dull grayness of the woefully grieving school is a fun contrast. There is no mastery behind the lens, but there is a sense of fun and style which fits this Cody penned script well.

The one clunky part of the movie is the forced and trite dialog. Pretentious popular vernacular and snappy pop-dense rants were fun in “Clueless,” charming in “Juno,” the point in Wodehouse, but amazingly contrived and ultimately annoying in Jennifer’s Body . I don’t know if that is how teens today – either rural, suburban, or both – talk, but if it is to some degree I can’t imagine that it is with such gleeful gluttony. The zippy conversations sound like something Kevin Williamson would write if he was an android pretending to be a teenage girl a thousand years in the future using today’s urban dictionary as a reference. Nothing about it sounds realistic, but I guess neither does a teenage succubus.

Jennifer’s Body should be given a chance. Give it a chance as a dark teenage comedy with elements of horror. It’s not that bad and at times is actually quite good.

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