You'll Laugh, You'll Cry...

Juno – This is the second film from Jason Reitman who did Thank You for Smoking a couple of years ago. I was lukewarm on that film. The topic and the humor felt dated to be honest. A comedy about the tobacco industry would have been better suited to the mid-to-late nineties than 2005. Even Aaron Eckhart who I usually love left me a bit cold. But I had heard a lot of good things about Juno and decided to check it out. I’ll try anything twice. The set-up is a 16-year old girl, Juno, gets knocked up by her quasi-boyfriend Beeker, played by Michael Cera. After briefly contemplating aborting the pregnancy, Juno decides to have the kid and turn the child over to a married couple (played by Jennifer Gardner and Jason Bateman). From there, the movie follows the same structure as Knocked Up as we watch Juno’s relationships with the people around her evolve as her pregnancy comes to term.

Ellen Page plays the lead character Juno and she’s got great comedic timing. The supporting cast is funny—especially Allison Janney who plays her stepmother—but Page does a great job centering the film. She reminds me of Thora Birch in Ghost World although she doesn’t play such an extreme outsider (Slight digression—how the hell did Scarlett Johansson end up with a better career than Birch? What happened to that girl?) Michael Cera in essence reprises his role from Superbad, but this isn’t a bad thing. He’s so sincere and affable; you never feel like he’s really acting. The way he delivers his lines is so perfect. I think he got the biggest laugh in the whole film just in the way he delivered one innocuous line in an exchange with Page towards the end.

Much like Superbad, the humor doesn’t come from outrageous situations or ridiculously improbable coincidences. It just arises naturally from the situations the characters find themselves in and their attempts to make sense out of their lives. At heart, it’s just a simple coming-of-age story involving really smart characters.

I won’t say Juno is as funny as Superbad or Knocked Up, but as a film it’s just as good. I can see more repeat-viewings than those other two in the future. As far as quirky teenage comedies go, it’s up there. And I don’t think it will succumb to the criticism that almost every comedy with an oddball lead character gets these days which is that it’s ripping-off Napoleon Dynamite (which I never liked). It’s a unique little film that I’ll definitely be urging people to check out.

Jihad for Love – A young gay man accompanies his friend to a boat party. Before they can board the boat, the police apprehend them and those on the boat in a raid. The young man is tried and sentenced to a year in prison. After serving this year (during which he was subsequently raped) he is tried yet again and sentenced to three additional years. Luckily he is able to flee to Europe before he can be remanded back to jail. Four Iranian men are forced to seek political asylum from the U.N. to escape being imprisoned or perhaps sentenced to death in their homeland for the crime of engaging in homosexual acts. Jihad for Love is a documentary about the persecution of gays in Muslim societies in the Eastern hemisphere.

In the most heartbreaking segment, we meet a young devout Muslim girl living in Paris named Maryam and her girlfriend Maha who still lives in Egypt. They see each other whenever they can; fortunately the penalties for lesbianism are far less severe than male homosexuality. At one point, Maha who seems much more comfortable with her sexuality, flips through an Islamic reference book that instructs Muslims what is and isn’t permissible and the punishments for breaking these laws. She tells Maryam that although it is explicitly forbidden under Sharia law, there is no real punishment for being a lesbian. This distresses Maryam. She states that she feels so guilty about her behavior and feelings that she wishes there was some punishment such as lashing or stoning—anything that might alleviate the anguish she feels.

The documentary follows the struggles of Muslim homosexuals who have decided to try and reconcile their faith with their sexuality. There are conversations about what the story of Lot really means about homosexuality and many visits to the local Imams whom these young adults turn to for guidance. The advice usually given (unsurprisingly) is for them to pray and get married. In another segment we meet an openly gay Imam in South Africa. Initially after coming out, he is subjected to death threats and basically ex-communicated from the community. Later he talks about how the community invited him back when they realized they had a huge problem in that they did not know how to deal with the emerging gay Muslim youths.

Perhaps more so than any other major religion, Islam has an issue with homosexuality. Christianity is far from perfect, but at least there are sects that not only tolerate but accept homosexuality. (Although I have to say the idea of “hate the sin, not the sinner” is utter bull$#!t—it still doesn’t alleviate the negative impact this can have on a person’s psyche when you say that what comes natural to you is evil.) Islam is younger than Christianity and has not undergone the multiple reformations that have allowed Christianity to better fit in with modernity. It is the conservative nature of Islam that has created this problem. It was good to hear during a community meeting in a South African Muslim community, a group of older women and men discussing the issue and deciding that they would not just blindly defer to the views of hardline leadership. After all, it is the families that make up the communities this most heavily affects. I would hazard to guess that the suicide rate among young gay Muslims is higher than Christian or just gay teens in general, at least in that part of the world.

I don’t think individual prejudices matter so much. I’ve never had the smallest dislike or issue with gay people. If they want to marry, let them. Adopt? Go for it. How does it affect me in the slightest? If you’re a person who thinks homosexuality is morally wrong, then bully for you. I hope you never have children. The problem stems from the institutionalization of that kind of bigotry. It’s like, hey, hate black people all you want, just don’t make laws enforcing it. Yet, that’s what we’ve done to the homosexual community in many parts of the world (including the U.S.). And if you can watch these people suffer underneath such oppressive circumstances, then what does that really say about your religion whether it be Islam or Christianity?

It bothers me that all these children are indoctrinated into a belief system that creates such destructive ambivalence, one that might never allow them to live a fulfilling life. Despite the qualms I have with these systems, I really applaud the efforts of those who are trying to change such systems from within.

At one point, Maryam and her girlfriend, Maha, discuss their regret in not being able to undertake the hajj to Mecca as a female needs her father, brother or husband to take her. Maha talks about how important such a trip is for all Muslims and how great it would be if one day they both could go. Maryam agrees, but goes on to say how good the trip would be, because it might give her the spiritual strength to eradicate the “unnatural” feelings she has.

As the director, Parvez Sharma, said, ‘jihad’ does not mean holy war; it means struggle. And indeed it will be. I hope this movie gets to the audience that needs to see it.