excruciatingly arch

[tomis3]

Just found this forum and this is my first post.

Could someone please tell what the phrase excruciatingly arch means in the following context: Even the most convinced Juno lovers tend to agree that the movie's first quarter is excruciatingly arch. This is from slate.com.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bibliolept]

Welcome. What does your dictionary list as the definitions of excruciatingly (adv.) and arch (adj)?

 

[Matching Mole]

I agree that this might be teased out from a dictionary, but then again, "Arch" is a little bit difficult to define; the OED says "self-consciously playful or teasing" and M-W gives us "marked by a deliberate and often forced playfulness, irony, or impudence". See what I mean? It might also be described as a rather cruel, arrogant and condescending form of, usually ironic, humour or wit.

Excruciating simply means extremely painful or uncomfortable: in the sense of embarrassed mental anguish, here I think. Sometimes referred to as "toe-curling".