{"id":276,"date":"2008-03-16T21:52:53","date_gmt":"2008-03-17T01:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/?p=276"},"modified":"2009-09-09T19:42:43","modified_gmt":"2009-09-09T23:42:43","slug":"juno-2007-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/?p=276","title":{"rendered":"Juno (2007) – Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n

\"Pregnant

Pregnant Pause: Ellen Page and Michael Cera moments before the delivery<\/p><\/div>\n

The Elephant in the Womb<\/span><\/em><\/h1>\n

[xrr rating=4\/5]<\/span><\/p>\n

Juno<\/em>. Starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, Olivia Thirlby, Eileen Pedde, Rainn Wilson, Daniel Clark, Darla Vandenbossche, Aman Johal, Valerie Tian, Emily Perkins, and Kaaren de Zilva. Music by Mateo Messina. Cinematography by Eric Steelberg.\u00a0 Production design by Steve Saklad. Costume design by Monique Prudhomme. Edited by Dana E. Glauberman. Screenplay by Diablo Cody. Directed by Jason Reitman. (Fox Searchlight Pictures\/Dancing Elk Productions, 2007, Color, 96 minutes. MPAA Rating: PG-13.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A flurry of movies released last year dealt with that stickiest of subjects, abortion. Three comedies (Juno<\/em>, Knocked Up<\/em>, and Waitress<\/em>) and one drama (Bella<\/em>) featured story lines that, to one degree or another, dealt with a woman\u2019s choice of whether to abort her unborn fetus or carry it to term and deliver her baby.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, in this PC age that has morphed the right<\/em> to an abortion into a woman\u2019s liberating act of empowerment<\/em>, <\/em>these four motion pictures have generated more widespread audience appeal than controversy. That they were made at all speaks volumes about society\u2019s evolving attitudes since the1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade<\/em> declared abortion to be constitutional. Among them, these flicks have won (so far) forty-six awards at film festivals and red-carpet galas. Juno<\/em> alone has garnered thirty-six wins and took the Oscar statuette for best original screenplay, and was nominated in three other categories for Academy Awards (best actress, director, and picture).<\/p>\n

Conservative pundits like Brent Bozell, David Frum, and Michael Medved have jumped on these movies\u2019 bandwagons, seeing them as vehicles for \u201cpro-life\u201d political messages. The ensuing war of words in the media over whether these films are pro-abortion or anti-abortion reminds me of when zealots from both sides of the abortion issue adopted the pregnant Laura Dern, in the 1997 farce Citizen Ruth<\/em>, as their respective movements\u2019 poster child.<\/p>\n

But these aren\u2019t political<\/em> movies. What has resonated with audiences is that these films all deal with the personal<\/em> decisions of individuals. Perhaps Dern\u2019s white-trash heroine Ruth Stoops was ahead of her time a decade ago when she fired back at her pro-choice handlers: \u201cYou want [to use me] to send a message? I ain\u2019t no fucking telegram, bitch!\u201d<\/p>\n

While Knocked Up <\/em>was a rather mindless, formulaic comedy aimed at younger audiences, and though I couldn\u2019t get far enough past the hackneyed stereotypes of dumb Southerners in Waitress<\/em> to empathize with its characters, Bella<\/em> was a sincere morality tale with a compassionate outlook and complex narrative structure that rose above its otherwise conventionally melodramatic, almost soap-opera, plot.<\/p>\n

But standing head-and-shoulders above the rest, Juno<\/em> is a brilliant little gem of a comedy. It\u2019s the brainchild of Hollywood newcomer and former stripper\u2014and now, Oscar winner\u2014Diablo Cody (her very name evokes imagery of hell on horseback) in her first screenwriting effort. It\u2019s also the second feature directed by Jason Reitman, who started out on top of his game with his 2005 satire Thank You for Smoking<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite their short resumes, Cody and Reitman\u2019s comparative inexperience works in their favor with this material. Juno<\/em> is as blunt, offbeat, and fresh as its title character, played by twenty-year-old Ellen Page, who I was rooting for to win this year\u2019s best actress Oscar. (The young Canadian actress lost out to French actress Marion Cottilard for La Vie en Rose<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Juno MacGuff is a sixteen-year-old tomboy and budding punk-rock guitarist growing up in a Minnesota suburb, which always seems to be covered with snow, even in spring. And which gives the precocious teen a lot of down time in her parents\u2019 den to be bored\u2014bored enough to have sex just for the hell of it with her best friend, Paulie (Michael Cera), who\u2019s as soft-spoken as Juno is brash.<\/p>\n

A couple months later, she takes an instant pregnancy test in a convenience store restroom after getting inconclusive results the first go-around. \u201cI think the last one was defective,\u201d she complains to the store clerk. \u201cThe plus sign looked more like a division symbol.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when the test shows positive, Juno realizes she\u2019s got a little more than she bargained for. \u201cThat ain\u2019t no Etch-A-Sketch,\u201d the clerk enlightens her. \u201cThis is one doodle that can\u2019t be undid.\u201d She goes to a local abortion clinic called \u201cWomen Now.\u201d A schoolmate (Valerie Tian) stands outside the clinic, protesting. \u201cAll babies want to get borned,\u201d she tells Juno.<\/p>\n

Inside, Juno is shocked at the vacuity of the airhead (Emily Perkins) at the clinic\u2019s front desk (\u201cWould you like a free condom? They\u2019re boysenberry.\u201d), and we see her silently questioning the wisdom of having the procedure performed in such a facility. So, she changes her mind and decides to go through with the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Juno enlists the aid of her friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) for moral support when it comes time to break the news to her family. \u201cI can give this baby to somebody who needs it,\u201d Juno rationalizes. \u201cLike a woman with a bum ovary. Or a couple nice Lesbos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juno\u2019s folks take the bad news surprisingly well. Her working-class dad, played by always-gruff J.K. Simmons, questions who the father of the child is. When told, his response is simultaneously unpredictable yet, coming from Simmons, somehow totally expected: \u201cPaulie Bleeker? I didn\u2019t think he had it in him!\u201d Her nail-technician stepmom (Allison Janney) goes into full crisis mode as she takes charge of helping Juno through her pregnancy.<\/p>\n

I liked this bit. Although her parents are both supportive and a little disappointed in her for being so careless, when she leaves the room their reaction is typical Boomer misplacement of priorities: They would have preferred Juno to have been into hard drugs or even arrested for a DUI\u2014a reflection of why so many offspring of that generation are screwed up. Boomers or not, and despite their bass-ackwards logic, Juno\u2019s lucky to receive tough love from her hard-headed stepmom and level-headed father.<\/p>\n

Soldiering on, she searches for a suitable couple to adopt the baby by reading the classifieds in the local PennySaver<\/em>. She finds a couple in an upscale suburb a few towns away, whom she and her dad visit in their well-worn minivan. They have an awkward but fruitful meeting with thirtysomething Vanessa (Jennifer Garner, a way-better actress than she gets credit for), who desperately wants to become a mother but is biologically unable to. Vanessa and Juno don\u2019t hit it off at all. The flannel-shirt-wearing, slacker girl finds ironic humor in the family portraits that line the staircase, of Vanessa and her husband, dressed all in white.<\/p>\n

However, Juno comes to identify with husband Mark (Jason Bateman), whose Yuppie persona masks a kindred free spirit who\u2019s also into punk and slasher movies. Yet as she gets closer to Mark, she also becomes disillusioned with his doubts about adoption. Pushing forty yet still fearing responsibility, Mark refuses to put away his childish things and become a man.<\/p>\n

Over time, Juno\u2019s realizes that she has a lot more in common with Vanessa. She realizes that their shared values<\/em>\u2014sticking by their commitments to see the birth and adoption through\u2014run far deeper than the superficial interests she shares with Mark. As Juno is forced to grow up through her ordeal, she gains the maturity to make the most important decision of her young life.<\/p>\n

Aside from Juno\u2019s dad, most of the males in this movie fare poorly. Mark wants to remain an adolescent indefinitely. Paulie, who got her pregnant in the first place, spends most of the film evading his culpability for Juno\u2019s plight. I didn\u2019t take away an anti-male bias from this movie\u2019s portrayal of men\u2014sadly, because delaying manhood has simply become the norm in our cushy society. Don\u2019t blame the messenger just because the message is a bitter pill to swallow.<\/p>\n

If there is<\/em> a message to take away from this little charmer, it\u2019s to take personal responsibility for one\u2019s actions. The ugly truth is that far fewer women would opt for abortions if males would take responsibility for their actions and act like men for a change. Many from the \u201cMe\u201d generation deride the acceptance of parental responsibilities as \u201cliving a lie,\u201d when the parents aren\u2019t in love. But being there for your kids, giving them your love and devotion, and raising them to become good persons and responsible adults, can never be \u201cliving a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the matter of Juno <\/em>being a \u201cpro-life\u201d political<\/em> statement, Cody remarked in a recent interview,\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jason and I wanted to make the movie as personal as we could rather than political. Juno never moralizes about the choice she makes. We never get a speech like, \u201cI can\u2019t kill my baby.\u201d I\u2019m pro-choice, so for me it was very important that the movie not seem to have any kind of anti-choice agenda.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cody\u2019s script takes people as they are, but grants them redemption through the wisdom that comes from facing life unflinchingly. Although Juno finds herself in a mess, she never regards herself as a victim, but rather finds the strength within herself to tough it out.<\/p>\n

The movie is \u201cpro-life\u201d in the best sense of the term, in that it radiates a joyous, benevolent sense of life. \u201cPeople say, \u2018This is a candy-coated vision of reality,\u2019\u201d Cody commented. \u201cI had a friend who had a baby when she was a teenager, and everything turned out all right. It happens. And it\u2019s not always a tragedy. And I think women are being punished all the time for making so-called mistakes. I\u2019m not going to punish my character.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the real reason the public warmed to this independent sleeper. Contrary to the leftist dogma of the 1960s, the personal isn\u2019t always the political. Most people don\u2019t go to movies to have their political beliefs validated. They go because they want to be entertained, and\u2014God forbid\u2014see a happy ending, so that they can leave the theater feeling a little better than when they came in.<\/p>\n

Juno<\/em> is a superbly written, acted, and directed comedy. I laughed until I cried\u2014literally. Most critics have called its dialogue and situations \u201crealistic\u201d; a few have derided the movie as forced and stilted. To me, it\u2019s neither: Through Reitman\u2019s capable direction, the film seems awkward at times only because it doesn\u2019t conform to any preconceived plot formulas.<\/p>\n

Although Burnaby, B.C. locations stood in for its Gopher State locale, Juno <\/em>exudes the genuine Midwestern ethos and pathos of its native Minnesotan author. Remember, this is the state that produced Sinclair Lewis, our nation\u2019s first Nobel Prize\u2013 winning novelist, and Jesse Ventura, our first professional-wrestler governor. Juno<\/em> is a fun-but-thoughtful comedy that, in its own quirky way, should appeal to the fans of both these Minnesota legends.<\/p>\n

Robert L. Jones is a photojournalist living and working in Minnesota. His work has appeared in\u00a0<\/span>Black & White Magazine<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Entrepreneur<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Hoy! New York<\/span><\/span>, the New York\u00a0<\/span>Post<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>RCA Victor\u00a0<\/span>(Japan)<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Scene in San Antonio<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Spirit Magazine<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(Canada),\u00a0<\/span>Top Producer<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0 and the Trenton\u00a0<\/span>Times<\/span><\/span>. Mr. Jones is a past entertainment editor of\u00a0<\/span>The New Individualist<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Elephant in the Womb [xrr rating=4\/5] Juno. Starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, Olivia Thirlby, Eileen Pedde, Rainn Wilson, Daniel Clark, Darla Vandenbossche, Aman Johal, Valerie Tian, Emily Perkins, and Kaaren de Zilva. Music by Mateo Messina. Cinematography by Eric Steelberg.\u00a0 Production design by Steve Saklad. Costume […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,37,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedies","category-independent-films","category-mreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}