There have been quite a few films released these past couple months dealing with unplanned pregnancies.
Waitress took a somewhat quirky, small town Southern look at the topic, but came out on top due to the intelligence of the screenplay.
Knocked Up unsuccessfuly tried to combine formulaic romantic comedy plotting with stoner pop culture humor.
Bella was dry, dull, and hardly worth remembering. Now we have
Juno, which takes a somewhat sarcastic and bittersweet look at the issue of teen pregnancy. While it's true the topic has been covered many times before in films, there is a certain honesty here that makes this one of the better examples. The film is filled with talent, both new and old, and everything comes together to create one of the better comedies of the year.
16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is faced with a difficult situation when she discovers she's pregnant after a passionate night in a chair with local high school track runner, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera from
Superbad). She knows she's not ready for a child, and her first thought is to get an abortion without letting her parents know. However, the words of a fellow student protesting outside the abortion center stick with Juno, and she can't go through with it. That's when her best friend clues her in to a special page in the want ads where couples who can't have children seek out those who do not want their soon-to-be-born children, hoping they can work out an adoption plan. Juno is forced to come clean and tell her loving father Mac (J.K. Simmons) and stepmother Bren (Allison Janney) about her plans for her unborn child. The couple she chooses are a well-off young married couple named Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark Loring (Jason Bateman). Vanessa is eager to have a child of her own, and a deal is set that they will adopt Juno's child after it is born. However, the more time Juno spends with husband Mark, the more she wonders if he shares Vanessa's enthusiasm for what is to come.
The real success story behind
Juno is first-time screenwriter, Diablo Cody, whose background story on the IMDB probably would make a good movie in itself. Originally working as a stripper and eventually a phone sex operator, Cody worked her way up to better things. Her screenplay for
Juno became a hot item in Hollywood, and rightfully so. There is an intelligence in the writing that so many recent films lack. While the plotting and the situations may be nothing innovative, the humor and the dialogue are so quick and smart, it's almost surprising that it is the work of a first-time writer. There are many in Hollywood with a long list of credits who don't match up to this. The screenplay knows how people talk. None of the dialogue sounds forced and artificial. The way it handles its situations also have a ring of truth to it. When Juno is forced to tell her parents that she is pregnant, a lesser movie would have had the parents screaming, breaking down, and going into melodramatic hysterics. Here, Mac and Bren are naturally shocked and surprised, but they are also obviously trying to be as calm and collected as they can. They don't really know what to say, so they make nervous attempts at humor, and they do their best to understand and support their daughter. It's a great and honest scene in a film filled with many.
Last year, director Jason Reitman (son of famous comedy filmmaker Ivan Reitman, of
Ghostbusters and
Twins fame) rose to acclaim with
Thank You For Smoking, an intelligent and witty satire that looked at both sides of the tobacco war. He continues that tradition here, as Juno shares his first film's smart observations and knowing sense of humor. The jokes are entirely dialogue-driven, and never contrived. They also seem appropriate and never out of place. Even the pop culture references in the dialogue, with nods to Diana Ross, Soupy Sales, and underground B-rated gore movies, are smart and earn their laughs. Reitman doesn't really do anything fancy with his directing style in telling this simple story, but it is never dull or boring to watch. When the film dips into some slightly more dramatic topics during the later half of the film, he wisely keeps the same somewhat laid-back tone as the rest of the film, instead of going for sappy or manipulative melodrama. He's able to bring out the right emotions in a subtle way without forcing them out of his audience. Like the film's writer, Reitman has shown true talent in his field in a very short amount of time, and I truly hope he continues to go on to great success.
The one thing that is sure to strike anyone who watches
Juno, however, is the wonderful cast that has been assembled. In the title role, young actress Ellen Page once again proves that she is someone to watch for. She first captured my attention last year in the psychological thriller,
Hard Candy, where she played a seemingly-innocent teenage girl who turned the tables on an Internet sexual predator. Here, she proves that she has a keen comedic sense. She is able to give Juno a smart mouth and a sarcastic edge, without making her come across as bratty or unlikeable. She is a young girl who thought she knew it all, finds herself in a situation she has no control over, and mainly uses her sarcastic sense of humor as a weapon to battle the complex feelings she's feeling. It's one of the finer young performances this year, and is easily worthy of awards. Michael Cera, as her somewhat dweeby love interest, doesn't get as much screen time, but he still captures that vulnerability and sweetness that made him stand out in
Superbad. The adult cast is also a stand out, with particular praise going out to J.K. Simmons as Juno's understanding father, and Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the young couple who will adopt Juno's child. Bateman, in particular, has been having quite a year, appearing in no less than 6 movies in 2007 alone. This is easily the best performance he's given out of all of them, and this is also the best film he's done this year.
More than the fact that it frequently makes us laugh out loud,
Juno knows how to make us relate to its characters and situations. It never forces us to feel for them, it comes naturally out of the smart dialogue and the performances that ring true. It is quiet and subtle in its execution, but powerful in its impact, simply because it knows just how to reach its audience. This is a movie that's sure to leave a lasting impression on just about anyone who watches it, and everyone is sure to take away something from it. Moving by at a very quick and breezy 90 minutes or so,
Juno doesn't stick around for long, but it's sure to stay in your mind long after it's over.
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There have been quite a few films released these past couple months dealing with unplanned pregnancies. Waitress took a somewhat quirky, small town Southern look at the topic, but came out on top due to the intelligence of the screenplay. Knocked Up unsuccessfuly tried to combine formulaic romantic comedy plotting with stoner pop culture humor. Bella was dry, dull, and hardly worth remembering. Now we have Juno, which takes a somewhat sarcastic and bittersweet look at the issue of teen pregnancy. While it's true the topic has been covered many times before in films, there is a certain honesty here that makes this one of the better examples. The film is filled with talent, both new and old, and everything comes together to create one of the better comedies of the year.
16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is faced with a difficult situation when she discovers she's pregnant after a passionate night in a chair with local high school track runner, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera from Superbad). She knows she's not ready for a child, and her first thought is to get an abortion without letting her parents know. However, the words of a fellow student protesting outside the abortion center stick with Juno, and she can't go through with it. That's when her best friend clues her in to a special page in the want ads where couples who can't have children seek out those who do not want their soon-to-be-born children, hoping they can work out an adoption plan. Juno is forced to come clean and tell her loving father Mac (J.K. Simmons) and stepmother Bren (Allison Janney) about her plans for her unborn child. The couple she chooses are a well-off young married couple named Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark Loring (Jason Bateman). Vanessa is eager to have a child of her own, and a deal is set that they will adopt Juno's child after it is born. However, the more time Juno spends with husband Mark, the more she wonders if he shares Vanessa's enthusiasm for what is to come.
The real success story behind Juno is first-time screenwriter, Diablo Cody, whose background story on the IMDB probably would make a good movie in itself. Originally working as a stripper and eventually a phone sex operator, Cody worked her way up to better things. Her screenplay for Juno became a hot item in Hollywood, and rightfully so. There is an intelligence in the writing that so many recent films lack. While the plotting and the situations may be nothing innovative, the humor and the dialogue are so quick and smart, it's almost surprising that it is the work of a first-time writer. There are many in Hollywood with a long list of credits who don't match up to this. The screenplay knows how people talk. None of the dialogue sounds forced and artificial. The way it handles its situations also have a ring of truth to it. When Juno is forced to tell her parents that she is pregnant, a lesser movie would have had the parents screaming, breaking down, and going into melodramatic hysterics. Here, Mac and Bren are naturally shocked and surprised, but they are also obviously trying to be as calm and collected as they can. They don't really know what to say, so they make nervous attempts at humor, and they do their best to understand and support their daughter. It's a great and honest scene in a film filled with many.
Last year, director Jason Reitman (son of famous comedy filmmaker Ivan Reitman, of Ghostbusters and Twins fame) rose to acclaim with Thank You For Smoking, an intelligent and witty satire that looked at both sides of the tobacco war. He continues that tradition here, as Juno shares his first film's smart observations and knowing sense of humor. The jokes are entirely dialogue-driven, and never contrived. They also seem appropriate and never out of place. Even the pop culture references in the dialogue, with nods to Diana Ross, Soupy Sales, and underground B-rated gore movies, are smart and earn their laughs. Reitman doesn't really do anything fancy with his directing style in telling this simple story, but it is never dull or boring to watch. When the film dips into some slightly more dramatic topics during the later half of the film, he wisely keeps the same somewhat laid-back tone as the rest of the film, instead of going for sappy or manipulative melodrama. He's able to bring out the right emotions in a subtle way without forcing them out of his audience. Like the film's writer, Reitman has shown true talent in his field in a very short amount of time, and I truly hope he continues to go on to great success.
The one thing that is sure to strike anyone who watches Juno, however, is the wonderful cast that has been assembled. In the title role, young actress Ellen Page once again proves that she is someone to watch for. She first captured my attention last year in the psychological thriller, Hard Candy, where she played a seemingly-innocent teenage girl who turned the tables on an Internet sexual predator. Here, she proves that she has a keen comedic sense. She is able to give Juno a smart mouth and a sarcastic edge, without making her come across as bratty or unlikeable. She is a young girl who thought she knew it all, finds herself in a situation she has no control over, and mainly uses her sarcastic sense of humor as a weapon to battle the complex feelings she's feeling. It's one of the finer young performances this year, and is easily worthy of awards. Michael Cera, as her somewhat dweeby love interest, doesn't get as much screen time, but he still captures that vulnerability and sweetness that made him stand out in Superbad. The adult cast is also a stand out, with particular praise going out to J.K. Simmons as Juno's understanding father, and Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the young couple who will adopt Juno's child. Bateman, in particular, has been having quite a year, appearing in no less than 6 movies in 2007 alone. This is easily the best performance he's given out of all of them, and this is also the best film he's done this year.
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