Juno of a Better Way to Spend an Evening?

Last night I had the privilege of attending a free screening of the new Jason Reitman film, Juno, at the Angelika. The film will not arrive in our neighborhood until Dec. 21st so I definitely wanted to take advantage of this lovely event. The movie is about a precocious 16 year old named Juno McGuff who gets pregnant by her friend, George Michael, Pauly Bleeker, and all the sweet hilarity and touching drama that ensues as her pregnancy advances. Now I had really high expectations for the film since it was written by the extraordinary Diablo Cody and starred both Michael Cera and Jason Bateman. Fortunately this film WAY exceeded my expectations. More After the jump!




Without going into details about the film...and trust me, you don't want me to ruin anything...I will say that in a world where there have been hundreds of thousands of movies covering practically every topic and every quandry with all the facets of the human emotion, this film manages to provide a fresh, unique, and irresistible voice. Every word uttered by Juno is a true winner. So much so, that I wished more than anything that my theatre seat had a Tivo remote control to rewind and replay. Ellen Page, the actress who plays Juno owned the role, just as the role of Vivian was owned by Julia Roberts, and the role of Sid Vicious was owned by Gary Oldman. She was the perfect Juno. In fact, while I single Ellen out, I should give props to Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J.K Simmons, and of course my new boy crush, Michael Cera. All of them gave the sweetly sarcastic words of Diablo Cody warmth and a lot of heart.

I was afraid that the film would be more of a cautionary tale against teen pregnancy but I'll be darned if I didn't end up feeling that the pregnancy was just an excuse or a backdrop to allow Juno to talk about heartburn and fecal schedules all while discovering Sonic Youth's cover of the Carpenters. It was brilliant indeed. The film takes something as serious as unwanted pregnancy and gives it an "Oh well, what's for dinner?" approach. And that is why I fell in love with it.


So do I recommend the film? You bet your $10 dollar movie ticket on it. Check it out, Dec 5th for some, Dec. 21st for most.