Cynical Cinema

I have known many girls, in high school and beyond, who were almost exactly like Ellen Page in Juno.  And I have been head-over-heels for them all.  Diablo Cody is the screenwriter, and this is her first screenplay, and it is incredibly bang-on.  At one point Juno acknowledges and actually calls attention to the fact that the jocks want to sleep with her and girls like her.  Girls who are attractive but seemingly put no effort into being so, who are blessed with incredibly dry sardonic wit, and who use their above-average intelligence to do what they feel like doing rather than striving for high marks.  This character is not new in movies, and it is not new in life.  This type of movie is in no way groundbreaking.  But it is classic.  Classics are created when a movie becomes something you’ve never seen before, or like this one, becomes the absolute best example of a particular genre.  Casablanca was not terrifically ground-breaking, remember.  It was just the absolute best, head and shoulders above the other movies like it.

 And so too is Juno, a cut far above many other similar movies - Thumbsucker, Me and You And Everyone We Know, Eagle vs. Shark, Our Very Own, Ghost World.  (The last time I was into a character this much was Scarlett Johanssen in Ghost World.)  The best thing about Juno is that it is hilarious.  There are genuine belly laughs to be found in the script and the actors are perfectly cast.  Ellen Page is bang-on perfect as a young high schooler who does her own thing, lives her own life by her own rules, and has an incredibly hilarious dry wit.  But her obvious intelligence can’t answer everything for her when she unexpectedly gets pregnant.  Michael Cera (Superbad) is hilariously nervous and shy as Bleeker, the father of Juno’s baby.  He is incredibly nervous around her, which makes sense.  She is so dry, and so (apparently) apathetic, that he lives in fear of revealing anything close to his true feelings to her, for fear of being mocked, or worse, ignored.  Also terrific are Alison Janney and J.K. Simmons as Juno’s father and step-mother, Olivia Thirlby as her best friend, and especially Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as a young couple looking to adopt Juno’s unborn child.

This movie has a tremendous heart, every single minute of screen time rings absolutely true, and it is hilarious.  Consistently, beginning-to-end, belly-laugh hilarious.  I think the last time I laughed this hard this often in a movie was at Superbad, and although that one was certainly great, it had nowhere near the heart and the pacing and the performances that are on display in Juno.  This is an absolutely magnificent film, and it was deservedly the breakout for Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman.  This is one of the best movies on DVD shelves right now.