Jennifer's Body
Release Date:
September 18, 2009
On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 69/169 |
Max Braden |
The first 15 minutes is trashy good, and Adam Brody makes a good baddie, but the rest of the film doesn't meet hopes. Seyfried in glasses is an interesting bridge between Fanning and Pfeiffer. |
Say you’re an infamous, tattooed, former stripper and screenwriter who won an Oscar for your hyperliterate but heartfelt story about a sassy pregnant teen. What would you do for an encore? Obviously, you’d go for the story about the possessed hottie who goes around killing boys.
That’s the basic plot line for Diablo Cody’s cinematic followup screenplay to Juno, Jennifer’s Body, in which she hooks up Megan Fox (not literally, though I wouldn’t bet against it) for a horror-comedy that’s probably halfway between Drag Me To Hell and Idle Hands. Fox plays a cheerleader possessed by a demon after a rock concert (see, Jerry Fallwell was right) who must be stopped by her best friend, played by Amanda Seyfried (whom you know from Mamma Mia!, or Veronica Mars if you’re cool).
In a lot of ways it’s a natural pairing of writer and actress, who both have the attention seeking, smoky, alterna-chick thing going on, and both are mildly loathsome in their public personas. Fox (the studio) is definitely doubling down on the personalities here. There is one still rather large looming question though – will audiences care about a movie Fox is in that doesn’t have robots beating the crap out of each other?
The film will undoubtedly be sold mostly on Fox and her numerous skimpy outfits. Early promo pics focused on Fox getting out of the water basically naked, so they know what they’re doing, or at least what they have to work with. Is that enough to get people to accept Fox in a role where she actually has to, you know, do stuff other than look hot? Only time will tell.
Directing the film is Karyn Kusama, who has a pretty female-centric resume, as the director of Girlfight, Aeon Flux and an episode of The L Word are on it. Also showing up in supporting roles are The O.C.’s Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons, and Amy Sedaris. (Reagen Sulewski/BOP)
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