for Comedic Teenage Pregnancy, Cool Parents and Silly Songs.
Juno is about a sixteen year old girl who gets pregnant and what she does after that, and I wrote out this very long and in depth review for Juno, and then my Internet connection went down while I was trying to submit it, and for the first time in forever I didn’t select and copy my text before submitting. Well, you’ll get a truncated version after the break. The super short version is that you should go see this movie. Its fun and funny.
So, with the long and in depth review gone, here’s the quick one. The girl, named Juno (not after the city in Alaska), gets pregnant after having sex with her best friend once. She decides to give the kid up for adoption and finds a couple that wants the kid. Her parents are surprisingly supportive and cool, and in fact are some of the best moments of the film.
Juno’s struggle in the film is not with whether she wants to keep the kid or not, because she is clear in that she knows she isn’t ready. Her struggle is instead about whether or not she is in love with Paulie, the father of the kid. The adopting couple have their own issues, Vanessa really wants a kid and is ready for it, but Mark gave up his life as a rock guitarist to be married and settle down and he might not be ready for this next step into family life.
Jason Reitman directed an extremely funny and tight film, and after his last film, Thank You For Smoking, this makes two in a row, which means I’ll go see his next movie no matter the subject because he’s earned the good will.
The cast for the film was stellar, especially Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons as Juno’s parents. Riotous stuff.
The movie’s comedy is punctuated by some silly acoustic songs which you can check out for yourself on the official website.
Overall, this movie is great. I gave it a 12 out of 13 only because I want to reserve a score of 13 for stuff that is truly remarkable. Go see this film. In fact, check here and see if you can go see if for free, then encourage all your friends to go see it when it opens.