Thursday, January 17, 2008

Juno? Like the city in Alaska? No.


"It all started with a chair."
Simple. Simple. Simple. That's three simples people. That's how I can and can't describe one of the best written films I've seen in a long time. The way Diablo Cody so simply, yet beautifully penned this screenplay gave me hope that there are still stories out there waiting to be told.
Now, is having a child at 16 or 17 easy and/or simple? Well, fuck no! But is the execution of this story simple and/or right to the picture perfect point? Well, fuck yes!
Juno tells the story of, well, Juno (Ellen Page) a VERY sixteen year old young woman (the 21st century sixteen year old vernacular is spot on). Juno, who leads a pretty normal suburban life in central Minnesota decides one night to have sex (for the first time) with her friend and band mate, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). Well, low and behold she gets preggers (apparently when a man sticks his hoo hoo in a woman's, what's that now?! there is the possibility of creating life... who knew?). The story then follows young Juno through the ever changing seasons, oh, and nine months of pregnancy. Whilst being pregnant, Juno decides that she is going to give the baby up for adoption and finds a lovely couple in an ad in the Penny Saver. The couple is played by Jennifer Garner, who gives a wonderful performance has a wanna be upper class mommy. And, Jason Bateman, in yet another hilarious turn as the once idealistic musician turned jingle writer for cheesy commercials. Juno becomes quite attached to the soon to be family of three as she tries to as she puts it, "deal with things way beyond my maturity level." Well, the nine months pass, Juno's tummy, which once looked like someone forced her to eat a basketball is now back to normal, the once happy Penny Saver couple ends up getting a divorce, and Juno finally finds out that what she was looking for all along was sitting in that chair the night she decided to experiment with a friend.
Jason Reitman's Juno might be the best movie of the year... I've seen some good ones, but with an oscar-worthy performance by Ellen Page and the oscar-worthy screenplay by Diablo Cody, this may take the cake. What starts out as a somewhat typical comedy involving experimental teenagers ends up being a wonderful character study into the lives of people, that at the end, you just want to hug.

Swanny out.