Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

Directed By: Jason Reitman
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera

Juno MacGuf (Page), a 16 year old, high school junior finds herself pregnant after a one-time sexual encounter with her best friend. After deciding against an abortion Juno sets out on the bumpy path of finding and arranging a family who will adopt her baby while dealing with her relationship with the father, Paulie (Cera).

After hearing the hype surrounding this movie I had a bit of a mixed reaction. I was intrigued as to what would make an indie teen comedy so favoured by critics but then, cynical Dan chimed in and I thought that maybe it was just going to be 90 minutes at the pretentious festival. Or maybe it would be like Napoleon Dynamite where I liked it but felt awkward and didn’t know weather to laugh or not. As it turns out, Juno does draw a lot of similarities to Napoleon Dynamite but I’ll talk about that later.

I’ll come straight out and say it, I really enjoyed Juno but I don’t think I could recommend it for everyone. Although it is classed as a comedy and has a 12A rating, it would probably be a bad idea for anyone under 15 to see it. This is because of two things; firstly it’s not wet-your-pants, cough-up-a-lung kind of funny, this is more intelligent. It’ll make you laugh in parts but comedy is a bi-product. Secondly it’s kind of abstract and you need an attention span that is not best measured in nanoseconds. That said I found Juno to be totally charming and thoroughly enjoyable. The excellent acting and refreshingly un-glossy production is complimented by one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a movie for years and the refreshingly honest dialogue kept me interested throughout.

The characters all worked very well and were all individual. Ellen Page was excellent as Juno and although very sarcastic, her character was never annoying. She is intelligent and let’s that fact be known, again, this isn’t annoying however, at times, it made the dialogue seem less spontaneous and more scripted. The same could be said about Juno’s quick wit at certain points in the film. Juno’s parents, father, Mac (JK Simmons) and step mother, Bren (Allison Janney) were very likable while still being quirky in keeping with the tone of the movie. The step mother in particular is an excellent character because, despite her neurosis she is a loving and responsible mother to Juno. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman play Vanessa and Mark Loring, the couple wanting to adopt Juno’s baby. They both give very heart-felt performances, Garner particularly so.

I mentioned that Juno has some similarities to Napoleon Dynamite but that has more to do with how the film was shot than the characters or the story. Extended shots of people standing at doors and walking on sidewalks is something the two movies have in common. I also found Juno reminiscent of Pecker in which a young photographer played by Edward Furlong finds beauty in the day to day life of his small town. Despite it’s similarities to these two movies, however, Juno isn’t as silly as either of them which is really good as you get more of a sense of reality. Still, if you enjoyed either of those two films, you should enjoy Juno.

Modern teen comedy could learn a lot from Juno’s anti-slapstick stance and realise that making a successful teen movie is easy… but not as easy as just throwing together some boobs and a couple of dick and fart jokes.

Verdict: