The Help* (2011)

This sassy, and at times catty, tale of black maids anonymously dishing the dirt on their wannabe Southern belle employers succeeds on a number of levels. It’s is simultaneously entertaining and thought-provoking. It also boasts snappy writing and terrific performances from the entire cast. The film may be a little heavy on the warm fuzzies but The Help is the kind of emotionally satisfying film you stop to watch when you come across it.

When Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone) returns home to Jackson, Mississippi from college with a degree but no husband, her local women’s circle try to take under their wing and find her a man. This is 1963 after all. Skeeter would rather focus on a career in writing, however, and lands a job for the local paper as a homemaking columnist. Not skilled in the subject herself, Skeeter seeks advice from Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), the black maid working for a member of the local women’s circle. This leads the young and idealistic Skeeter to compile a collection of stories from the perspective of Aibileen and her fellow maids. Published anonymously, the book creates a firestorm of controversy and intrigue but the project’s anonymity only lasts so long.

The characters and performances in this film are wonderful. Many characters could have been very cookie-cutter in nature but they aren’t. All of the black maids have personality. They are not all bitter towards their white employers, nor are they pushovers either. Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer give exhausting performances that showcase the emotional duality of working a job where you are treated as if you don’t exist half the time and less than a person the other half.

Bryce Dallas Howard is equally excellent as the scheming racist ringleader of the town’s young women. She could have been your stereotypical Southern belle who doesn’t understand the depths of her racism but she is so much more. Here is a power hungry woman bent on wielding whatever influence she has to keep those she finds inferior on a lower rung of the food chain. In today’s era, she would be a nightmarish politician.

Emma Stone’s character, though the facilitator of the whole thing, is actually the weakest in the entire story. She is very much your stereotypical young adult Baby Boomer full of idealism about social change and challenging the norm. Without the stellar mix of characters driving the story around her, The Help would descend into cliché. Had the story focused too much on Skeeter and put her up on a pedestal for her boldness in writing the book, audiences would have gagged. White liberals have trumpeted their work for minorities for decades so another dose of ‘see, we care!’ would have left everyone wanting more.

The Help does leave you wanting more though. It leaves you wanting more movies with acting as fabulous as you find here. This film shows that women in Hollywood do not have to settle for being a second-tier attraction. With the right story and the right talent, women can carry a film that matters and moves you. The Help does both. It may give in to a few too many heartwarming moments for its own good but we’ve almost come to expect that from movies about Baby Boomers and social justice. If you like great acting and uplifting stories, this one’s got them both in spades.

RATING: 3.75 out of 5

Juno* (2007)

WARNING: Mild spoilers ahead

The indie darling of 2007, Juno captures the horrifying awkwardness that comes with a teenage pregnancy. Critics all over the map gushed with praise for this film and it is understandable why many enjoyed it. There is a lot of good stuff to be found here. Balancing the drama of teen pregnancy with honest humor, Juno is a one-of-a-kind film.

Juno is a sixteen-year-old high school student in Minnesota who discovers that she’s pregnant after having sex with her best friend, Paulie Bleeker. They didn’t do it out of passion or love for each other though. A combination of boredom and curiosity led them to creating a child that is the center of this story. Juno first considers having an abortion but gets cold feet at the last second. Settling on giving up the baby for adoption, Juno and her friend Leah discover a potential couple in the Pennysaver ads.

Now, I don’t know much about adoption procedures but I have a hard to believing that finding adoptive parents through classified ads is a common, or even advisable, practice. But this is just one of the many quirky attributes and goings-on within Juno. The couple she finds seems nice enough and they’re even around an awful lot to chat with the mother of their soon-to-be child. Mark and Vanessa look like a really well put together couple on the surface but, as Juno grows to know the couple more over the course of her pregnancy, issues rise to the surface.

Juno’s family is another story. Her father and step-mother are just as quirky as she is but they react to her pregnancy in an almost too-good-to-be-true manner. They’re there to support her, which is good but the fact that they weren’t overly fazed by Juno’s announcement struck me as odd. But oddness abounds in this film. Some will find it endearing while others may think it unrealistic and not know what to make of it all. Paulie is the kind of socially awkward but well-meaning nerdy guy that would most likely have a hard time getting a date. Thankfully, he’s got a cute, indie rock-listening friend who was equally bored and curious one night.

While the writing may get a little overly clever and borderline Gilmore Girls-ish at times, Juno never completely overdoes it. The script manages to retain just the right amount of awkwardness to keep all the wit and snark in check. Relationships are always in flux, sometimes tested and other times just strained as Juno’s delivery date draws closer. It almost seems as if Juno develops a crush on her baby’s adoptive father, a part of the film that is extremely awkward to watch, but nothing inappropriate happens, which comes as a major relief.

In the end, Juno has a lot of heart. This is, along with its witty script, is what made this independent film such a success with critics and audiences. While Juno’s experience certainly is not the norm for teenage pregnancies, it presents the issue with an honesty and maturity that makes it more accessible to a wider audience. It’s not just a teen-pregnancy film or a coming-of-age film. Juno is a unique hybrid of comedy, family drama and several other genres that help to make a memorable picture.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5