1.04.2008

JUNO.

What can I say about Juno that hasn’t already been said? It just came to my town, so I’m a bit late on seeing it… so let’s just start at the beginning. Juno is basically like if Knocked Up and Napoleon Dynamite had a love child (no pun intended)—there was even a dude in this one scene that looked and acted like Napoleon Dynamite. So the movie… A quirky girl (Ellen Page) gets pregnant after having boredom sex with her good friend Paulie (Michael Cera). She ends up deciding to go through with the pregnancy, but is going to give it up for adoption instead of keeping it. In making this decision, she and her father (JK Simmons) go and meet the adopting parents (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), whom Juno really likes. Life ensues.

First I have to say that Juno was a really funny movie. It had me laughing quite a bit, and I wasn’t exactly expecting that. After the first 15 or 20 minutes, the quirky wordage dies down a bit, making the dialogue a bit easier to follow, but it’s still there (and you get used to it pretty quickly). So yeah, funniness… even the dramatic scenes were funny (most of them, anyway).

The acting was top notch. Ellen Page and Michael Cera were fun to watch on screen, especially Michael Cera. JK Simmons—I love the man in Spider-Man, and I love the man in this. He plays the dad role nicely. Jason Bateman gave me the creeps, but it turns out he was supposed to, so yay for that! The real props have to be given to Jennifer Garner, though. She had a very tender role and acted it beautifully.

I have to say, though, the music felt like a character of the movie, too. I loved the music in this movie, and it drew me in every time a song was played. It just fit so well with the overall quirky (I’m overusing this word) feel of the movie.

And don’t let my overuse of the Q-word affect you. Like Knocked Up, this movie had some pretty dramatic scenes in it, as well. Most of them are toward the end of the movie, though. Anyway, I really didn’t feel anything wrong with the movie. It was fun and endearing.

Juno gets a Royale with Cheese… much like her telephone.

(P.S. The next movie I plan on seeing and discussing is Hard Candy, also starring Ellen Page. It sounds wicked).

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