I need you frightened. I need you hopeless. (Jennifer in Jennifer's Body.)
Rating 5 of 7: Excellent
With Diablo Cody's pop, slang-twang dialog peppering the lines of Jennifer's Body, imparting a CW slickness to this story of girlfriends, boyfriends, and evil that is not just high school evil, looks can be deceiving. It is a blend of dark humor involving the gray relationship between the desirable Jennifer and her groupie-like friend since childhood, the desirous Needy Lesnicky, and witty, supernatural gore that revisits and updates 1980's teen horror movie angst with tongue in cheek playfulness and a knowing nod. Not that this movie is all pom-pom kicks and giggles: Cody's dialog goes down like spooned sugar with Castor oil, her adults are few and out of touch, and her characters are lost, nearly found, then lost again. The ugly demon inhabiting Jennifer's beautiful body is the only one not lost, or uncertain, or confused, or lusting after fame, fortune, love, or identity. Demons are always so damned self-assured.
Needy (Amanda Seyfried with her beauty toned down to bookworm dull) tells us how it started--from her room in the asylum--and how she finished it (make sure you stay to watch the ending credits). Like Faith the Slayer in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series, Needy is a confused, antagonistic survivor living by the fingernails she's dug deeply into the edge of the cliff she's dangling from. How she gets to that point is a story that starts with her and Jennifer (Megan Fox) as best buddies "since the sandbox," and now close friends in high school.
Director Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux) and Cody take us around the high school, Needy's thoughts and remembrances, and the blood-spouting boy munching with an aplomb that easily shifts between somewhat serious and acerbically light. I do not recall a recent horror movie where the hues from clothes, lighting, and surroundings are subtly blended in each scene to fortify the tone and the action as well as they do here. Die-hard horror fans will rebuff me, I am sure, for my saying this is a horror movie. But it is a horror movie; just one that tops off its deathly pallor with a light polish of black devilish fun.
Which begins when the rock band Low Shoulder comes to the town of Devil's Kettle (named after a weird waterfall-like sinkhole) to play at the local dive bar, Melody Lane. Jennifer is eager to meet the band, the band is strangely eager to meet her, and Needy asks why a band like theirs is playing a backwash, situated-in-nowhere town like the Devil's Kettle. She does not like the band's leader Nikolai Wolf (Adam Brody); he reminds her of the black twisted tree she was frightened by as a child. The band's purpose becomes clear after a fire decimates the bar and Jennifer irrationally insists on going with them in their van. They think she is a virgin because Needy told them so. Needy was mistaken. Only virgins fare well in horror films; at least better than non-virgins on average.
When Jennifer returns later that night, she is ravenous, listless, and vomits up black, oily puke all over Needy and her kitchen floor. Needy stays up cleaning the vile mess while a beauty sleep apparently does wonders for Jennifer. She is all pink and perky the next morning and oblivious to what happened. In a short amount of time, Low Shoulder becomes rich and famous, and Jennifer chases after the boys for a change instead of them chasing after her. Needy realizes her best friend is not herself and researches in the school's library how best to deal with her. In one of those how odd moments, Needy, the bookwormish geek, actually does research using real books instead of the Internet. I suppose book illustrations of demons are more artistically effective to dissolve through onscreen than flipping through them on a computer monitor. On average, how many times have you seen books used to research demons and such, instead of computers, in horror films?
Needy's "hard-ass, Ford-tough mama" is no help, and Chip (Johnny Simmons) thinks Needy is losing her grip on reality and him. The Spring Formal high school dance is coming up and Needy has to stop Jennifer from turning the boys into "Satan's chow." A brief glimpse of the loneliness you can find in one of those social dances gives way to a showdown between Needy, Jennifer, and Chip, who is close to becoming another helping of "lassagnia with teeth" for Jennifer's hunger. The fight takes place in an eerie abandoned pool house overgrown with huge vines.
There is so much style to savor in Jennifer's Body. I disagree with Roger Ebert who said there is no art here (although he did rate this movie 3 of 4). Jennifer's Body has artistic touches that come from how it uses dialog, its characters, and its story to create a familiar but stylish rhythm scored with traditional horror tropes. That it does so with a slight poke in the eye, which more serious-minded horror fans will possibly not like, should not be held against it.
Yes, I found the dialog perfect for the cheekiness of the movie. It may not be realistic, but it fits the characters and tone of the movie perfectly.
Posted by: Iloz Zoc | September 21, 2009 at 06:24 PM
I haven't seen this (and probably wont) because I can't stand Diablo Cody's supposed "clever" dialogue. In reality, it's forced and completely unrealistic. Sounds like you...kinda liked it?
Posted by: Matt | September 21, 2009 at 05:32 PM