Our Los Angeles correspondent Paul Fischer and stunning guest co-writer Melissa Algaze made the trek to Canada this week for the Toronto International Film Festival and the reviews are coming in. Here's the second of their reviews from the first day of action - the much anticipated horror/comedy "Jennifer's Body" from "Juno" writer Diablo Cody and "Girlfight" helmer Karyn Kusama.
Jennifer's Body - A Review by 'Paul Fischer'
The Midnight Madness section at Toronto generally contains some of the Festival’s most interesting selections, but rarely does a Hollywood studio film appear in this section with as much optimism as "Jennifer’s Body", which was previewed at this year’s Comic Con. The first film directed by Karyn Kusama since 2005’s "Aeon Flux", which suffered from some extraordinary studio interference and savage reviews, the director of "Girlfight" has bounced back with a film that takes the horror genre to a whole new wonderful level.
In a performance that can only be described as spectacular, Megan Fox proves how much more of an actress she is, starring as popular cheerleader Jennifer Check, a high school senior with an insatiable desire for manipulation, flirtation and being the bad girl who loves to cause trouble and teased her male counterparts. Her best friend is bespectacled Needy Lesnicky [a marvellous turn by Mama Mia’s Amanda Seyfried], who is easily drawn to the wilful ways of Jennifer. When Jennifer runs off with a visiting band, she re-emerges somewhat possessed, and this possession turns her from regular, sex-obsessed cheerleader to a killer who specializes in offing her male classmates.
"Jennifer’s Body" could easily have turned into a film that borders on adolescent stupidity, but with a script by Diablo Cody that bristles with wit and sharp characters, and director Kusama at the helm, the result is a fresh, wonderfully audacious, incredibly sexy and quite brilliantly funny film that succeeds on more levels than meets the eye. Cody completely subverts a common genre and gives it a distinctly female perspective that drives the narrative throughout while Kusama gives the film her own original point of view, resulting in a work that is both visually imaginative as well as smart and funny.
One could never associate the genre with strong acting, and you’ll hear no shrieks of histrionic screaming in this movie. Both women are extraordinary in this film, and Seyfried is an actress whose talent leaps off the screen in one of the most exquisite performances by a young actress seen this year. Without giving anything away, she undergoes quite the metamorphism and pulls it off with a genuine and sincere credibility. She has one emotional moment in the film that is simply stunning.
Megan Fox is no slouch either, clearly having fun devouring this role with all the sublime relish at her disposal. But the combination of a gifted writer and a director absent too long, make Jennifer’s Body sublime, fun, exhilarating entertainment that will make distributor Fox a fortune at the box office, which this terrific film so richly deserves.
