“THE CHEESE TO [THIS YEARS OSCAR'S] MACARONI.”
GO SEE IT.
I guess I could probably elaborate on that a bit – even though you’re wasting your time with reading this instead of getting tickets and popcorn right now. Juno is an indie film that kind of snuck up on me. I hadn’t heard any news of this film until a good friend of mine said that she wanted to see it. Being a movie buff I tend to fell insecure when someone speaks of a movie that I haven’t even heard of. So, I immediately started researching it and found out that it was supposed to be a possible Oscar (among various other awards) contender. All I have to say is that they couldn’t have been more right.
I’m going to go ahead and present a quick synopsis of the film for those of you who haven’t heard of it yet while I think of ways to justly speak about it. Juno is about a sixteen year old girl named, well, Juno MacGruff. One night, out of boredom or curiosity, she decides to try having sex with her friend Paulie Bleeker (played by Superbad/Arrested Development’s Michael Cera). By dumb luck she finds herself pregnant and faced with the decision to have the baby or have an abortion. Juno, being the quirky kid she is, decides to do things her way and give the baby to adopting parents of her choice. She looks through a newspaper and finds the “perfect” parents to give her baby to, Mark and Vanessa (played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). Everything seems legit until emotions start to fly and people start figuring out each other and themselves.
Juno is played by the marvelous Ellen Page – you may have seen her in the movie Hard Candy or as Shadowcat in X-Men 3: The Last Stand. She plays a quirky, misunderstood, supremely sarcastic, intelligent teenager so well that I’m not entirely convinced she was acting at all. Her witty, one-liners come out faster than crap through a goose (which for those of you who haven’t been around geese, they poop frequently) which deserves mad props for her delivery and mad props to the writer, Diablo Cody, for being awesome. Here are a few examples of her dialog: “I’m just gonna go ahead and nip this thing in the butt. ‘Cause you know they say pregnancy often leads to, you know…infants”, “Yeah, if I could just have the thing and give it to you now, I totally would. But I’m guessing it probably looks like a sea monkey right now and we should let it get a little cuter” and “You should’ve gone to China, you know, ’cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.” It’s really great stuff and if you don’t think so I would argue that you are a statue (and not a cool one either).
Michael Cera once again plays the kid that is so incredibly awkward that it is hilarious. He is very good at this but I hope he doesn’t get pigeon holed into playing that part in every movie he is in. A good, serious, tear-jerking drama would be cool to see him in next. However, Cera’s character is golden and is the perfect “cheese” to Juno’s “macaroni.”
The other supporting actors do tremendous things for the film. J.K. Simmons (you may have seen him in The Ladykillers or Spider-Man 1,2 and 3) and Allison Janney (she was in American Beauty and 10 Things I Hate About You) play Juno’s father and step-mother that both have quite curious relationships with her and themselves. They really add to the depth of the story and even bring out the theme a little more. Their acting is excellent and does absolute wonders for the all around viewing enjoyment.
The writing for this movie was absolutely top notch, as I mentioned above. Another thing that makes it awesome is that the writers name is Diablo Cody. How cool is that? She obviously put a lot of thought and a lot of heart into her script and without her talent this movie wouldn’t have flown. It will be hard to find a movie this season that has more intelligent, humorous wit than Juno does. The script is absolutely wonderful in every way and I would argue that it is one of the best in recent history. Not bad for a stripper from Minnesota, eh?
I only have a couple of complaints about this movie and they really aren’t even that big of deal. One thing I thought was that the direction of the film wasn’t anything special. It was all pretty standard stuff. But there were few really cool wide-long shots here and there and the very last shot was particularly brilliant. It’s an awesome sequence. Another thing was that I wanted more Paulie Bleeker. He’s in it a fair amount, but Michael Cera is hilarious and he could have added even more comic relief, more character development and maybe even some more drama. My last grievance with Juno is that I just simply wanted more. The movie clocked in at about 90 minutes. It could have easily been two full hours. I’m not entirely sure that it would have been necessary, the movie and story was complete and amazing the way it was, but I’m selfish and didn’t want the movie to end – yeah, I liked it that much.
Juno is offbeat, intelligent, hilarious, moving, lighthearted and simply amazing. It is without a doubt one of the best films of 2007 and I will be pulling for it come Oscar time – provided that they actually have the ceremony. It is most definitely a character study film, mostly on Juno herself, but also on everyone around her as well. Don’t let that turn you off though, this film has more laughs and heart than Barq’s has bite! Juno gets five out of five giant, blue slushies from me. Fo shiz.
Until next time – Stay young, you’ll live longer.
NEXT REVIEW: Mr. Brooks
