It seems my blog is turning into nothing but movie reviews. Oh well, it could be worse right?
Up today is Juno, which I saw almost a week ago so my memory is going to be a bit fuzzier than it normally is when I write these reviews.
I want to start with a caveat about the rating. This movie is rated PG-13, but I’m not quite sure how. If I were a parent, watching this with my teenager might qualify for the most awkward experience ever.
That being said, I’ll move onto the review of this quirky movie about a 16 year old girl who accidentally gets pregnant after a single affair with her best friend.
Unless you’ve been living in a hole, you’ve probably heard of Juno and know that the critics want to have its babies (pun intended).
For the most part, I’m going to agree with the critics. There are two types of movies: Entertainment and Art. Juno is definitely the latter.
The performances delivered by the supporting cast are simply amazingingly well done. J.K. Simmons, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Allison Janney make the movie. They can’t all get Oscar nominations, but I hope some of them do.
A lot of people hail the coming of Michael Cera as the best new actor ever, but I’m not that impressed. While he does give an adequate performance, it’s nothing to write home about.
And then we come to Ellen Page.
To me, she’ll always be Shadowcat, but in this movie she’s just a sarcastic teen with a baby problem. There is no doubt that Page delivers a wonderful character here, rich with heart and intelligence.
That being said, I’m going to diverge from popular critical opinion here and say that I wasn’t overly impressed with her performance. She did well, but with her supporting cast being so remarkable, she almost paled in comparison at times.
Aside from acting, the script is extremely witty. At first, you can’t help but laugh at everything Juno does because she’s just so quirky.
As the movie wears on, though, the laughs stop — not because Juno isn’t the same — but because you realize that her sarcastic quips are really just her, and not necessarily meant for laughs.
This movie is good at being real. It doesn’t feel like a high-school docudrama about the dangers of premarital sex and teen pregnancy. Instead, it feels like how a real person deals with a real problem in the real world.
No one wants this to happen to them, and everyone prays their kid won’t do something this stupid, but sometimes it happens. And when it does, it has to be dealt with.
Personally, I could have done without the romance of the film. Cera and Page have good chemistry together, but I feel that it detracts from the larger point and greater subject matter of the pregnancy and how it could change a life to get pregnant at such an age.
Overall, though, this movie is worthy of the praise it has received. If you don’t mind the subject matter, you’re in for a real treat of a movie.
Verdict: A-