by JP
Earlier this year, Judd Apatow & Co. brought us Knocked Up, an irreverently touching comedy about witty young people coming to terms with an unplanned pregnancy. Now, director Jason Reitman and first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody bring us Juno, an irreverently touching comedy about witty young people coming to terms with an unplanned pregnancy.
Hollywood being the creature of habit that it is, it's not surprising to have two films dealing with similar subject matter come out right on the heels of each other. Unfortunately, this can lead to an unfortunate question in the mind of the moviegoer (let's call it the Capote-Prefontaine Dilemma): "I just saw a movie about _______. Do I really need to pay money to see another one?"
DO NOT let this rationale prevent you from taking in Juno (currently in limited release). Despite sharing a similar premise (as well as characters with endless reserves of cultural references and snarky retorts) with Mr. Apatow's baby, Juno has enough unique charms and genuine heart to warrant shelling out the dough.
Ellen Page (Hard Candy) stars as the titular character, a smart-mouthed teen in a smart-mouthed Midwestern town who discovers she's with child following a boredom-induced act of intercourse with her best guy friend, Bleeker (Superbad's Michael Cera). After finding herself unable to go through with her Plan A at the local women's clinic, she decides to ride out the pregnancy and give the child to a needy couple. She also takes the much more difficult step of informing her dad and stepmother (a flawless J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney). Enter Mark and Vanessa Loring, an affluent couple (played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) looking to adopt a child from an expectant mother. Juno immediately strikes a deal, deeming the couple stable yet potentially edgy enough to care for her baby. As Juno's pregnancy progresses, she unintentionally tests the boundaries of her relationship with the Lorings and finds herself confronting the messy realities of adulthood in a way she had hoped to avoid (or at least postpone).
Page is phenomenal as Juno MacGuff, a sardonic working-class teen brimming with the abstract moral absolutism that is the province of 16-year-olds. Her transformation from wiseacre to quasi-adult is carried out so deftly and unaffectedly that you forgive and all but forget the first five minutes of the film, which contain an almost unbearable amount of slang and sass. Jason Bateman is spot-on as the suburban husband waging his own protracted battle against adulthood, while Jennifer Garner gives life and humanity to a character who could easily have come off as a one-dimensional mommyphile. However, the unexpected heart and soul of the movie is embodied by Michael Cera as Paulie Bleeker, an awkward kid whose lack of overt virility leads even him to question his part in Juno's pregnancy.
Also deserving heavy praise is Juno's soundtrack, which comes close to equalling Rushmore in its use of found music to convey the inner thoughts of its characters. "Anti-folk" musician Kimya Dawson of The Moldy Peaches fame features prominently throughout the soundtrack, underlining the scrappy hipster charm of the central characters. Contemporary indie artists like Belle & Sebastian and Cat Power are featured alongside The Kinks, Mott the Hoople, The Velvet Underground, and Sonic Youth. The hidden jewel, though, is a haunting acoustic demo recorded by Buddy Holly shortly before his death, and which in its spare beauty predicts the decades of music to come.
Earlier this year, Judd Apatow & Co. brought us Knocked Up, an irreverently touching comedy about witty young people coming to terms with an unplanned pregnancy. Now, director Jason Reitman and first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody bring us Juno, an irreverently touching comedy about witty young people coming to terms with an unplanned pregnancy.Hollywood being the creature of habit that it is, it's not surprising to have two films dealing with similar subject matter come out right on the heels of each other. Unfortunately, this can lead to an unfortunate question in the mind of the moviegoer (let's call it the Capote-Prefontaine Dilemma): "I just saw a movie about _______. Do I really need to pay money to see another one?"
DO NOT let this rationale prevent you from taking in Juno (currently in limited release). Despite sharing a similar premise (as well as characters with endless reserves of cultural references and snarky retorts) with Mr. Apatow's baby, Juno has enough unique charms and genuine heart to warrant shelling out the dough.
Ellen Page (Hard Candy) stars as the titular character, a smart-mouthed teen in a smart-mouthed Midwestern town who discovers she's with child following a boredom-induced act of intercourse with her best guy friend, Bleeker (Superbad's Michael Cera). After finding herself unable to go through with her Plan A at the local women's clinic, she decides to ride out the pregnancy and give the child to a needy couple. She also takes the much more difficult step of informing her dad and stepmother (a flawless J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney). Enter Mark and Vanessa Loring, an affluent couple (played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) looking to adopt a child from an expectant mother. Juno immediately strikes a deal, deeming the couple stable yet potentially edgy enough to care for her baby. As Juno's pregnancy progresses, she unintentionally tests the boundaries of her relationship with the Lorings and finds herself confronting the messy realities of adulthood in a way she had hoped to avoid (or at least postpone).
Page is phenomenal as Juno MacGuff, a sardonic working-class teen brimming with the abstract moral absolutism that is the province of 16-year-olds. Her transformation from wiseacre to quasi-adult is carried out so deftly and unaffectedly that you forgive and all but forget the first five minutes of the film, which contain an almost unbearable amount of slang and sass. Jason Bateman is spot-on as the suburban husband waging his own protracted battle against adulthood, while Jennifer Garner gives life and humanity to a character who could easily have come off as a one-dimensional mommyphile. However, the unexpected heart and soul of the movie is embodied by Michael Cera as Paulie Bleeker, an awkward kid whose lack of overt virility leads even him to question his part in Juno's pregnancy.
Also deserving heavy praise is Juno's soundtrack, which comes close to equalling Rushmore in its use of found music to convey the inner thoughts of its characters. "Anti-folk" musician Kimya Dawson of The Moldy Peaches fame features prominently throughout the soundtrack, underlining the scrappy hipster charm of the central characters. Contemporary indie artists like Belle & Sebastian and Cat Power are featured alongside The Kinks, Mott the Hoople, The Velvet Underground, and Sonic Youth. The hidden jewel, though, is a haunting acoustic demo recorded by Buddy Holly shortly before his death, and which in its spare beauty predicts the decades of music to come.
