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turrell 
"Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh "
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 Posted - 12/15/2007 : 23:19:29
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If Little Miss Sunshine was too sweet for you (it wasn't for me but I know for some), then Juno may be the film for you. This is an incredibly well written film that follows a smart-tongued teenager who becomes pregnant and works out how to deal with her predicament. Ellen Page, the title character creates a character that we don't have to sympathize with because she won't allow it. Usually when teenagers spout off dialogue that that is too smart to be believed it doesn't match their character and comes across overwritten (think Dawson's Creek). Page is smart enough that we believe her character would say these things.
Jennifer Garner is sympathetic as the woman who has everything, except the ability to procreate. Allison Janney plays the stepmother who helps guide Juno through he pregnancy letting her make mistakes to learn from and stepping in to protect her when Juno cannot protect herself. Jason Bateman plays Garners husband who wants to hold on to 1993 and is markedly lukewarm on the adoption. Michael Cera (Bateman's TV son on Arrested Development) plays the unwitting father of the gestating child.
If all of this sounds a little too predicatble, then you are in for a refreshing treat. Characters talk cynically but really try to do the right thing. The choices are not what you might expect and the characters play against stereotype. Juno views approaches her pregnancy with curiosity and brings us along for the ride. The teenagers look on the surface like the typical movie youngsters but they are actual humans.
This movie was sweet (not too sweet), funny, and smart. I highly recommend this if you are in the mood for aa thoughtful comedy. Anyone else see it? |
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GHcool
"Forever a curious character."
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Posted - 12/17/2007 : 07:07:23
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I just got back from it.
Have any of you ever seen a movie where the whole time you have a smile on your face, a tear in your eye, and you can't stop thinking to yourself that the filmmakers must have made this film with you in mind and you alone? I've never gotten a girl pregnant before (at least not to my knowledge), but this film spoke deeply to me in the way few other films have. |
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RockGolf
"1500+ reviews. 1 joke."
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Posted - 12/17/2007 : 14:58:45
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| I plugged this movie months ago based on the outstanding response from the Toronto International Film Festival and added it to the FWFR database. The reviews for the film are so positive they're more like love letters. Once it moves out to the suburbs, I will see it. |
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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 12/17/2007 : 15:46:31
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quote:
Originally posted by R o � k G 0 1 f
I plugged this movie months ago based on the outstanding response from the Toronto International Film Festival and added it to the FWFR database. The reviews for the film are so positive they're more like love letters. Once it moves out to the suburbs, I will see it.
Fingers crossed I think they're sending me a viewing copy ... can't wait!
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 12/17/2007 : 18:57:51
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
Fingers crossed I think they're sending me a viewing copy ...
How Juno?
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 12/17/2007 : 19:31:13
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quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
Fingers crossed I think they're sending me a viewing copy ...
How Juno?
She went of her own accord.
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silly 
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
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Posted - 12/18/2007 : 03:20:56
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Okay, I'm adding it to my list (I trust y'all). Is it going to only see a limited release?
(we only have one movie theater, if it isn't Potter or Pixar level of release, we usually don't get it)
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turrell
"Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh "
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Posted - 12/18/2007 : 05:51:37
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Think Little Miss Sunshine (did that ever get released near you?) - its likely you may get it after it receives more big award noms or if it happens to win something (screenplay or possibly best comedy in the Globes) - so it might be awhile - its definitely not I am Legend or Harry Potteresque.
Little Rock has several theaters but it hasn't come out here yet - I watched it on a screener DVD. |
Edited by - turrell on 12/18/2007 05:52:39 |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 12/18/2007 : 19:59:44
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Turrell's absolutely right! In a film that skips along with true talent, there are two outstanding features of this delightful coming of age journey.
One is the sharp script by first-timer Diablo Cody who combines an uncanny understanding of the extraordinariness of ordinary people with a maddeningly mature command of dialogue that covers the sassy to the sweet, with not a whiff of saccharine.
And, as spoken by the screen phenomenon that is Ellen Page, we have the 2nd reason to be cheerful. Convincingly playing a couple of years younger is not an unusual feat for good actors, but to play a highly intelligent mid-teen without once reminding us she's a few years older takes what I'm assuming is inate skill. True, she started acting age ten, but even so she's just a natural, and blessed with a solid sense of comic timing. Not conventionally beautiful, if she doesn't go off the rails, Page has a long acting shelf-life ahead. And we'll be all the luckier for it.
Since many of the cast have already worked together elsewhere no wonder there's such an easy atmosphere throughout the story. The characters, however tangential to the main story, are given dimension by performances that convey whole lives in tiny moments. Though Cody's certainly of his time, he recognises both the genetic and the cultural strands that bond people, and that drive them apart.
Plotwise we've got Juno - her first name - and Bleek [short for Bleeker] - his last name - a couple of teeners, definitely not the most popular kids on the block, played by Page and Michael Cera [Evan, the most likeable one in Superbad]. These are not dangerous kids, not magazine-cover kids, just very bright, witty kids who are trying to figure out which doors to push as they get closer and closer to their Big Choices.
No punches are pulled with language or sexual experimentation, yet nothing sinister is ever near. These are, after all, smart and talented young people, decent and kind and raqing with hormones.
It's those pesky hormones that kick in to impregnate Juno, at which point her Big Choices fall on her head Ka-Pow! Page excels at letting you see through the layers from surface cynic to scared little kid with everything in between. And it's in the scene where she, supported by her best friend, finally tells her parents that lets you know this isn't a formula film.
It's funny, it's poignant, and it's real. The very wonderful JK Simmons and Alison Janney bring such unsentimental compassion to this family glitch, it's a joy to watch.
So, there's a bun in the teeny-bop oven. Enter Mr and Mrs Rich-but-Infertile-People, desperate for a baby, willing to pay whatever. And as Juno learns about their relationship, she's able to make the choices that feel right for her.
Simple as that.
It's not a big enough film to assign it epithets of grandeur, but it is a little gem. Not perfect, mind you. It's a bit of cop out to exclude Bleek for so long, but still, there's so much good stuff you forgive its weaknesses.
And remember the name Ellen Page. Actually, given that talent, you probably don't have a hope of forgetting it any time soon.
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 12/18/2007 20:04:30 |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 12/18/2007 : 23:30:23
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| I wasn't a fan of Little Miss Sunshine. I was expecting something funnier; there weren't many laughs in it. Hopefully Juno is better. |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 12/19/2007 : 07:04:25
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quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
I wasn't a fan of Little Miss Sunshine. I was expecting something funnier; there weren't many laughs in it. Hopefully Juno is better.
I think - rather than laughs - you're more likely to experience very loud smiles and that "good" feeling as you leave the cinema.
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turrell
"Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh "
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Posted - 12/19/2007 : 07:57:21
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| I laughed at a lot of the dialogue which I thought was very sharp. |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 12/27/2007 : 19:10:23
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| Cody, Page, Cera, Reitman -- a beautiful job by all. |
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MisterBadIdea 
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 12/29/2007 : 06:18:33
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I wanted to love this movie and I wanted to hate it. I can't do either. Just like with the also uneven indie hit "Little Miss Sunshine," I'm surprised people aren't more split on this movie, because there are serious and massive problems here, starting right with its horrible dialogue.
Seriously, how can you stand that shit? It's outright painful at times, especially in that horrible opening scene. Thankfully, it kind of mellowed out by the end. It's a credit to the actors -- every single one of the main cast, bless them all -- that they were able to shine some sincerity through the overwritten screenplay.
Like... I'm not sure what the point of this movie was. Juno doesn't really grow personally or change because of the pregnancy. She seems to have it pretty well together, not completely but certainly more than a teenager can be suspected to have. She doesn't seem to share the anxieties, confusion or half-formed-ness of adolescents. "Ghost World" is about teenagers; "Juno" is about what adults wish they were like as teenagers. The movie pulls a lot of punches, too -- being pregnant doesn't seem to be any more of a problem for Juno than a really large and long-lasting zit.
Like the similarly frustrating "Knocked Up," it ends with the reunion of a broken couple, but "Knocked Up" is at least all about the relationship. The relationship in "Juno" is a minor side plot which is suddenly sent towards main plot. And like "Knocked Up," I would have preferred to spend more time with the side couple than the main couple.
At least it's far better than the unwatchable "Waitress," the year's other unwanted-pregnancy indie hit. |
Edited by - MisterBadIdea on 12/29/2007 07:37:24 |
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MguyXXV 
"X marks the spot"
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Posted - 12/29/2007 : 08:18:28
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I haven't seen it, but I do enjoy MBI's fresh criticism.  |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 01/06/2008 : 20:10:02
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| I just saw Juno, and I'm afraid I have to side with the dissenters here. At first, the movie began to grate on my nerves with its smug, self-satisfied tone and its far-too-cute dialogue, characterizations, music (blecch!), and overall production design. Eventually, I got past those elements and wound up sort of enjoying the story... or enjoying it just enough to keep from walking out of the theater before another one of those damned songs started on the soundtrack. (To give you an idea of my reaction to the songs, imagine being bludgeoned to death with a cute widdle fuzzy wuzzy teddy bear!) But on the drive home from the theater, I began to think about the plot and the characters and how certain themes were handled, and I realized just how false, manipulative, and downright hypocritical the story is. In this respect, it joins American Beauty and Paul Haggis' Crash in my mind: films that are entertaining enough to distract you through one viewing but upon closer scrutiny reveal themselves to be pure hogwash. Had I been involved with the making of this movie, I would have advised everyone involved (especially screenwriter Diablo Cody) to scrape away a few layers of cleverness and contrivance and, in so doing, get that much closer to the reality of a 16-year-old girl who finds herself pregnant. Juno could have been a startling and honest film. Instead, it is crowd-pleasing hokum hiding behind a thin veneer of hipsterism. |
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Juno
