I think that everyone who loves Michael Cera's comedy – and that should be practically everyone – is a little worried about Michael Cera. Because even as Arrested Development becomes legend, Superbad wins over every twentysomething in sight, and Juno charms the pants off the entire nation, the hushed, often unspoken question is: how long can he milk this? Cera's shtick is killer, but it's also ultra-specific – he's the shy, unprepossessing, painfully awkward adolescent, a nice guy who's self-aware enough to get embarrassed but not confident enough to avoid it.

Cera is so good at playing this part in a way that's both touching and hysterical that it's propelled him to stardom. For me to say that I haven't enjoyed any of the incarnations of George Michael Bluth that he's given us over the past couple years would be a bald-faced lie. Indeed, I think the character he's crafted is one of the most impressive comic achievements of my adult lifetime. But even as I relish it, I start to fidget, because I can sense exasperation and annoyance threatening from just around the bend. Oh, maybe not mine – I could watch Cera do this forever, I tell myself – but certainly other people will soon lose patience and turn on the guy. One-trick pony, they'll yell. Do something else.

Among the perks of being a sought-after Oscar-winning screenwriter is, apparently, the ability to fourwall a movie theater for two weeks and play a bunch of your favorite films for an appreciative audience. That's exactly what Juno's Diablo Cody is doing at LA's New Beverly Cinema from today through July 24th, and it won't come as any surprise to Cody's admirers that the lady's got good taste. Her slate includes reliable classics (Stripes, Pretty in Pink), off the wall genre picks (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors), some culty fun (Wet Hot American Summer) and the expected shout-out to Juno director Jason Reitman.

Previous guest programmers at the New Beverly have included Edgar Wright, Eli Roth and Joe Dante. Cody will introduce some of the films herself, and the theater's MySpace page promises "many guest appearances."

Kudos to Movie City News for coming across this. Check out the entire schedule after the jump -- it's really an inspired slate of picks. She's got a nose for filmmaking that's smart and unabashedly mainstream, as both Juno and this film festival proves.

Well, this is a bit of a bummer. I've been waiting, it seems like forever, to see when Jack and Diane, Bradley Rust Gray's endlessly gestating "lesbian werewolf" movie that Ellen Page was supposed to star in, would finally go into production. As I wrote waaaaaaay back in September, the film is supposed to be about:

"Jack and Diane, two teenage lesbians, meet in New York City and spend the night kissing ferociously. Diane's charming innocence quickly begins to open Jack's tough skinned heart. But, when Jack discovers that Diane is leaving the country in a week she tries to push her away. Diane must struggle to keep their love alive while hiding the secret that her newly awakened sexual desire occasionally turns her into a werewolf."

Here's the set up: Folks have been a bit puzzled over the alarming rise in teen pregnancies at North Shore High School in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In the past year alone, 17 girls have tested positive for a little bun in the oven, and officials (as well as school administrators) were baffled as to why, all of a sudden, the girls in Gloucester were all sorts of knocked up. Crazy, right? And weird. I'll fully admit that to wind up with 17 girls pregnant in one high school at the same time seems a bit strange, especially when it's four times the level from the year before. Four times!

Completely baffled, officials turned to the only feasible explanation: Blame the movies. And when they looked around at popular movies within the past year -- whaddya know -- there was an Oscar winner with teen pregnancy scribbled all over it. Juno ... written by that teen pregnancy supporter Diablo Cody, and directed by a pregnant teen himself, Jason Reitman. Of course! The ridiculous rise in pregnancies had to do with Juno -- a film that made teen pregnancy look about as comfortable and enjoyable as stuffing yourself in a piece of old luggage and rolling down a mountain. There's the answer!

But should we talk to the girls? Maybe see if there's another explanation for all this? Nah. Leave it all on Juno ... after all, Fox Searchlight didn't hand out condoms outside movie theaters screening Juno (I sure as heck never got any condoms!), so, really, it's their fault for not paying closer attention. Right?

Ahem, and that's when the twist comes in ...

I had a friend once who claimed that there was no point in listening to a record or seeing a movie that was merely good, that to invest the money and time, it should be great. I later caught him listening to -- and enjoying almost to the point of tears -- a CD that would never be described by anyone as great. The point is that sometimes a good movie does wonders for the soul that a great movie could never hope to replicate. Take a look at Iron Man, still on nearly 4000 screens and still raking in the returns. It's well on its way to earning $300 million and shows no signs of stopping there. It's currently the #1 highest grossing film of the year, as well as one of the top rated films at Rotten Tomatoes, with a whopping 93%. I'm one of the movie's fans, but it seems to me that this response is based more on sheer gratitude than anything else. Everyone seems to be simultaneously chiming in: thanks for the good movie!

2008 has been a lousy year for great movies, but I have seen quite a few good ones. The documentary Young@Heart (212 screens), for example, has continued to live in my memory long after I saw it, and long after any of the award-winning Iraq documentaries I've had to sit through. I suspect that it's one of those rare, word-of-mouth docs like March of the Penguins or Grizzly Man that people actually tell their friends about. I don't want to give anything away, but before I saw the movie I didn't care much for the band Coldplay, and now I can't listen to "Fix You" without getting a lump in my throat. The key to this movie is that it looked terrible before I went in, and it turned out to be a huge and happy surprise.

Image removed at the request of the studio

Ahem. Where were we? Oh yes -- a few nude, er, new photos from the set of Jennifer's Body have arrived online, and it seems the lovely Megan Fox (pictured above) has finally transformed into a girl that doesn't wear any clothes. About damn time! (Last week she transformed into a motorcycle and we were all, like, what the F!) These new images come to us via The Bad and Ugly, who have a few more of Fox in and out of the lake, and let's just say they're a tad more revealing. For those who don't remember, Fox was recently named the sexiest woman in the world by FHM magazine -- and these new photos definitely help the girl live up to that title.

Written by Diablo Cody (Juno), Jennifer's Body stars Megan Fox as a newly-possessed cheerleader who begins killing her male classmates; specifically, those trying to woo her. Amanda Seyfried stars as Jennifer's best friend and the film's hero, while guys like Adam Brody show up as the lead singer of a band (see images of Brody's Nikolai character over at Just Jared).

Man, looking at that image above reminds me of those days when I was applying to be "guy who holds blanket over naked actress on set." Never got the job, of course, because I didn't have 3-5 years experience, but it was still fun to try. Jennifer's Body arrives in theaters next year ... as well as on the desktops of every horny male teenager in the world right ... about ... now.

Hmmm ... well, file this one under "this could be an interesting casting decision." Variety reported yesterday that Ellen Page, who's been one of my favorite young actresses since I saw her in Hard Candy, has signed on to play one of classic literature's greatest (and most adapted) heroines, Jane Eyre, in an adaptation for BBC.

On the one hand, I can see Page physically in the role -- she looks very like the waif-like Jane in the ancient hardcover edition of the book I inherited from my great-grandmother, all narrow-faced and doe-eyed. And she's certainly proven that she has the acting chops to take on a serious role (see her performances in both Hard Candy and An American Crime).

Of late, though, she's become so identified with the snarky, wise-cracking teenagers she played in Juno and Smart People, that it may be a bit hard now to wash the modern, smart-mouthed teen out of our collective viewing palettes. I say this as a fan of both Page and Juno -- and Lord knows, I've taken enough crap here and elsewhere for loving Juno over the last year -- but I'm trying to wrap my mind around Page as one of the most depressing heroines in literature (all right, Wuthering Heights' Cathy is perhaps more depressing, but until the very end of the book, Jane Eyre isn't what I'd call cheery and uplifting).

Juno
She came onto the scene with a bang, charming audiences and quickly becoming a sensation. Of course, after the press she got, and buzz that followed, many have grown sick of the snarky teen and her Diablo Cody dialog that often crosses over the line from quirky to tired, but one thing always remains -- the phenomenon that followed the film centers on the fact that it's a wildly enjoyable comedy.

Ellen Page stars as Juno, a young woman who has discovered that she's gotten pregnant from an interlude with Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). After mulling over her options, she decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption -- to the awkwardly yuppie couple Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman). The story is simple, and it's the delivery that gives Juno charm. Within the over-the-top dialog exists real, flawed characters and a lot of heart. This is the sort of film that exists on many levels. For some, it will be utterly perfect as they delight in undone doodles, a melange of cultural references, and a moment in time that wonderfully encapsulates today and yesterday. For most of the rest, it will still be a great and enjoyable comedy because there are so many pieces to the Juno puzzle -- one might not capture you, but another piece is sure to.

There are three DVDs to choose from, and each one ups the ante on the other -- refreshingly, no matter which you pick, you're sure to get a large selection of goodies to watch. On the single disc version, there's a bunch of deleted scenes, a gag reel, gag take, cast & crew jam, and even screen tests. When you add another disc to the mix, there's a digital copy and four featurettes -- about the kids, Diablo Cody, Jason Reitman, and creating the film. Finally, with the Blu-Ray option, you get all of the above features plus two extras from Fox Movie Channel Presents.

Check out Scott's Review, and Kim's | Buy the One-Disc, Two-Disc, Blu-Ray

After seeing Juno, the first thing my friend and I did was speedwalk back to my neighborhood so that I could scour my local open-late music store for the soundtrack. (Even after Diablo made me feel really frakking old by referring to "Superstar" as dated.) It was the first time in eons that I really wanted a soundtrack (I used to be addicted to them), and annoyingly, it wasn't out yet. After a bit, the disc was finally released, and now, quickly on the heels of soundtrack #1, Ace Showbiz reports that we're about get more great Juno tunes in Juno: B-Sides Almost Adopted.

Sure, there might not be a technical B-side, but it still works. In the liner notes, Reitman wrote: "None of these songs made the movie, but they are all essential members of the Junoverse." There's more Kimya Dawson, some Yo La Tengo and Buddy Holly, and even a new Diablo Cody-penned tune. The song is called "Zub Zub," and was performed by Page in a cut scene, one that I imagine will pop up in the DVD. Just as a teaser, it contains the lyrics: "He filled me with baby batter/then we ate some orange tic tacs after." Oh, how I love catchy tunes with strange lyrics.

The collection will be available on iTunes next week, April 8, but so far, there are no plans for a disc.

"Man, I am totally Wes Craven right now."

It was only a matter of time before someone threw together a spoof of the Juno trailer, and I have to say this one is pretty damn well done. Not only did they re-create the Juno trailer -- using all Jewish stereotypes -- but they even re-created the two songs as well. There's all sorts of fun Jewish stuff in here; like instead of a hamburger phone, Jewno talks on a bagel with lox and cream cheese phone. This isn't just some random spoof though; apparently it was created by Rob Kutner (writer for The Daily Show), with help from Simpsons writers and Dennis Miller Live. Not only that, but they also got someone very familiar to play Jewno's dad. Check it out up top, then let us know what you think they're missing -- I, personally, thought the mother could've been a bit funnier in certain ways.

[via JoBlo]