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Juno
Diablo Cody and Ellen Page, screenwriter and star of the delightfully wacky and poignant film about teenage pregnancy, are probably two names most people aren’t familiar with. Diablo was, you see, a stripper and blogger until Hollywood found her, not all that long ago, while she was blogging about stripping. Page made an impression on me in the 2005 film Hard Candy opposite Patrick Wilson, a film that not many people saw. A 2006 film that more people saw was X-Men: The Last Stand (she played Kitty Pryde), but truth be told I don’t remember her in that at all. In Juno she makes the kind of impression that will make it hard to ever forget or not notice her again. She is spectacularly good. She is Juno. It’s only mid-December, and she’s been awarded Breakthrough Performance from both the NBR and the Gotham Awards and she’s been nominated for a handful of other awards. It’s also great to report that screenwriter Cody tied for NBR’s Original Screenplay Award with Lars and the Real Girl scripter Nancy Oliver. Cody's Juno screenplay is the year’s funniest and guaranteed to delight audiences both young and old.
Juno MacGuff is a confident, smart, quick-witted, and frank teenage girl who gets pregnant by her unassuming boyfriend Bleeker (Michael Cera). Faced with this unplanned pregnancy, she and best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) hatch a plan to find Juno’s unborn baby the perfect set of parents courtesy of the local Penny Saver. They set their sights on Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner, both perfectly cast), an affluent suburban couple who are longing to adopt their first child. Luckily, Juno has the support of her dad and stepmother (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney; he has never been better and she finds the exactly the right tone as a more than supportive stepmom, who loves dogs but can’t have them because Juno is allergic). Without revealing much more, Juno’s journey is far from formulaic. With a fearless intellect far removed from the usual teenager, Juno conquers her problems head-on, displaying a youthful exuberance both smart and unexpected.
Director Jason Reitman, whose feature film debut was the successful Thank You for Smoking, follows up that film with a terrific sophomore effort. Son of director Ivan (Ghostbusters, Stripes) Reitman, Jason is on track (with only two feature outings) to continue in his father’s footsteps as a successful director of films. Jason was smart enough to take on Juno when he read it and was offered it, although he was in the midst of writing a screenplay of his own. NBR has named Juno one of the top 10 films of 2007, and just last year Thank You for Smoking was named one of NBR’s top ten independent films. It appears that Reitman’s on the right track.
In conclusion, this is a very special film that also gives us a lot to look forward to: the next films from actress Page, screenwriter Cody, and director Reitman, the younger.
Jim Baldassare
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