Film Review: Juno

Sometimes a film comes along that is surprisingly good and makes you feel good for paying for it in the first place.

I have heard all the hype about the movie. Did JUNO live up to all of it? Yes it did.

From start to finish, Juno was entertaining, introspective, humorous, dramatic and ultimately triumphant.

Not the typical tale of teen angst with dick and fart jokes like American Pie, JUNO tackles the real issue of teenage pregnancy with a bite of irony and wit that is both charming and refreshing.

In the movie, sixteen year old Juno (played by Ellen Page) gets bored and has sex with her boyfriend for the first time. (Having sex with your boyfriend simply because you are bored is a new one for me. I seen alot of these movies. Usually the girl is pressured into it or wants to be cool--whatever the hell that means.)
The result is an unwanted change a pace that lasts nine months and in other such films usually ends in marriage, or heartbreak, or worse.

Juno, is unusually bright and mature for her age. She tells her best friend, calls a clinic, and then tells her boyfriend (Who is strangely supportive.) She decides against abortion after visiting the clinic, deciding that it was too much like the dentist office.

She finds a young affluent couple in the newspaper (played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) that want to adopt a child, and opts to give her baby to them. Then she tells her parents.

Isn't that something.

No where to run to and no where to hide, and she tells her parents anyway. Not your typical teen movie. Not your typical teen life. Juno is not your 'typical' teenager.

Juno deals with different things in this movie that life throws at her with humor. The one lesson a person could take from this film: life does go on while you are pregnant. Not only your life but the lives of the people around you will be changed. Juno is still young and naive. Her outlook and ego take a blow to the head when her boyfriend goes to prom with someone else and the couple she picked to adopt her child teeters off the brink toward divorce.

No major happy ending here, however. In real life, there are no real happy endings. But, life does go on and there is always a new beginning. That is the second lesson I took from this film.

I believe that Diablo Cody's screenplay and Jason Reitman's direction allow for one to take a myriad of lessons and learnings to heart when watching the film.

Juno is a character that one can believe in because one can look on that movie screen and see themselves.

Usually, I am writing the HORROR BLOG here, but this was a nice change of pace for me. I can't wait to see what the future may hold for Ellen Page and Diablo Cody.

This was the best film I have seen in a long time, and yes, you can believe the hype.