Junk smells like pie
URGA MOTW (kinda)
Juno
Got to see a free preview of "Juno" last night - the synopsis didn't make it sound like our normal sort of movie, but it was free, so what the hey?
Juno (Ellen Page[1]) is a 16 year old girl who falls pregnant and has to work out what she wants to do with the baby. Certainly sounds like a fairly dramatic sort of movie, full of tearjerker moments. It's not.
Directory Jason Reitman (Ivan's son) has made this a very clever and hilarious movie. It's not as lighthearted or silly as other pregnancy comedies (Nine Months, Knocked Up) but the humour comes mostly from the dialogue and mannerisms of the quirky characters. Possibly a good comparison would be Napoleon Dynamite, except that the characters in Juno are far less weird than in ND - you can believe they are normal people, but with their own little quirks. Page talks a mile a minute, and seems to take her situation mostly in her stride - but when it does become emotional, she can turn on the waterworks just as well. The other stars hold their own well - Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the baby's adoptive parents-to-be show a realistic highly strung couple, but both are nice folks, so it's hard to take sides when their marriage shows strain - Michael Cera plays a rather nervous, quiet "boyfriend" to Juno, and the highlight of the supporting roles has to go to JK Simmons as Juno's father. But it's Page herself who always steals the show, never missing a beat with the character.
Juno is definitely on par with last year's "Waitress" - another pregnancy movie, but one with a little more drama and romance. If you're happy to see a somewhat sad tale about teenage pregnancy, then definitely catch Juno. You'll laugh until your sides split - but it's witty character humour, not stupid slapstick or jokes about vaginas. (Well not much).
9/10
EDIT: Forgot to mention the absolutely wonderful soundtrack. Music features a lot in this film (mostly Kimya Dawson of "I Like Giants" fame) and it's all really good :)
[1] I knew I knew her from somewhere, but couldn't work it out. IMDB tells me she was Kitty Pryde in X3, but probably more memorably, she was Lilith Sandstrom in ReGenesis!
Juno
Got to see a free preview of "Juno" last night - the synopsis didn't make it sound like our normal sort of movie, but it was free, so what the hey?
Juno (Ellen Page[1]) is a 16 year old girl who falls pregnant and has to work out what she wants to do with the baby. Certainly sounds like a fairly dramatic sort of movie, full of tearjerker moments. It's not.
Directory Jason Reitman (Ivan's son) has made this a very clever and hilarious movie. It's not as lighthearted or silly as other pregnancy comedies (Nine Months, Knocked Up) but the humour comes mostly from the dialogue and mannerisms of the quirky characters. Possibly a good comparison would be Napoleon Dynamite, except that the characters in Juno are far less weird than in ND - you can believe they are normal people, but with their own little quirks. Page talks a mile a minute, and seems to take her situation mostly in her stride - but when it does become emotional, she can turn on the waterworks just as well. The other stars hold their own well - Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the baby's adoptive parents-to-be show a realistic highly strung couple, but both are nice folks, so it's hard to take sides when their marriage shows strain - Michael Cera plays a rather nervous, quiet "boyfriend" to Juno, and the highlight of the supporting roles has to go to JK Simmons as Juno's father. But it's Page herself who always steals the show, never missing a beat with the character.
Juno is definitely on par with last year's "Waitress" - another pregnancy movie, but one with a little more drama and romance. If you're happy to see a somewhat sad tale about teenage pregnancy, then definitely catch Juno. You'll laugh until your sides split - but it's witty character humour, not stupid slapstick or jokes about vaginas. (Well not much).
9/10
EDIT: Forgot to mention the absolutely wonderful soundtrack. Music features a lot in this film (mostly Kimya Dawson of "I Like Giants" fame) and it's all really good :)
[1] I knew I knew her from somewhere, but couldn't work it out. IMDB tells me she was Kitty Pryde in X3, but probably more memorably, she was Lilith Sandstrom in ReGenesis!