There Will be Hipster

The smarmy Juno suffocates itself with hipster-speak, but a good story still finds room to breathe

Hipsters are an interesting breed of human. Commonly found roving in packs, they exhibit characteristics including a predilection for indie music, art-films, irony-drenched witticisms, thrift-store fashion, an air of pomposity, and a need to constantly cultivate their image, all while exhibiting derision towards those whose interests don’t jive with theirs. Hipsters share an overarching ambition to be so clever, witty, hip and unaffected, they effectively build a wall between themselves and the outside world, convinced that the things one likes is more an indication of their value than one’s feelings or actions.

In film hipsters can be extremely funny, such as John Cusack and Jack Black in High Fidelity. Their pretentious hijinks can be quite the source of entertainment as audiences laugh at their overt and biting snobbery–“‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’? Has your daughter been in a coma?” However, there are times when a hipster is so full of sass and sharp-tongued wit that it’s hard to see the real human below; all you encounter is a façade which feels contrived and unlikeable. Unfortunately, the titular character in the film Juno falls into the latter category and the movie suffers for it.