Moving Pictures

I want to write a review of "Juno", partly because it's been so long since I actually saw a film in a theater that didn't involve wizards or CGI characters. But since it's been so long, I find myself completely out of practise with the whole "reviewing" thing so I honestly don't know where this is going to go.

Directed by Jason ("Thank You for Smoking") Reitman, "Juno" is obstensibly about an "offbeat teen" who gets pregnant. First of all, I don't think "offbeat" is at all a fair characterization (that was IMDb, not me). Juno MacGuff is a smart kid and a smart ass. She is into punk music and chews on a pipe (in which there is nothing). Her best girlfriend is a cheerleader, she talks on a hamburger phone, she dresses kinda grunge and plays in a band. There is a jock who teases her, but she claims that's out of desire and longing (which is totally true, btw). She isn't offbeat. She strikes me as Everyteen. Which is probably too much to put on her, given the point of the movie. Juno is a totally likable if sometimes disconcerting character. Anyscrew, one day, pretty much out of boredom, she has sex with a friend and gets pregnant and therein lies our story.

What writer Diablo Cody has done is create a morality tale that isn't about (cue the big, giant air quotes) "morality". "Juno" never once seems heavy handed or preachy and generally succeeds in avoiding every pitfall, stereotype or sermon that would be slapping you in the face in lesser hands.

Juno isn't thrilled about being pregnant, of course. She is convincingly nervous when sharing the news with her parents Mac, played by JK Simmons (you know him as the editor in "Spiderman") and Bren, played by Allison Janney (who you remember as the greatest press secretary in our nation's history). Actually, Bren is Juno's step-mom but she's been in the family for 10 years and is more a mother to her than her actual mom, who abandoned her young and sends her a cactus every year "and not even on my birthday".

The relationship between Juno and her folks isn't a typical adversarial one. She gets along fine with her folks. Sometimes she and Bren mix it up but not in any hysterical way. And when she tells them the news they are shocked and surprised and then rally. Red told me that this was a criticism of the film...that the parents didn't freak out and chastise her mightily and then disown her. I think it is one of the beauties of the film...a child in trouble going to her parents, the parents being supportive? Hey, there's a concept for you. Of course they are unhappy about the "diddle that can't be undid", but what the hell else are they supposed to do?

Of course, by the time she has told her parents she has also ruled out Option A and that too was handled soooo well. Juno is matter-of-fact about getting an abortion. She's unperturbed when confronted by a picketer at the clinic, who happens to be a classmate. She's more freaked out by the punk receptionist sitting inside behind bullet-proof class. When she decides not to go through with the procedure it's not so much that she's making a grand moral decision about abortion in general. She just can't do it herself. Very truthful bit of writing there.

So there she is, 16 and pregnant. The father is a friend, who obviously loves her, but she is oblivious on that point and treats him and the situation with what I can only describe as detachment. She'll have this baby, give it up and get on with her life.

She finds adoptive parents, played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman...perfect, beautiful people who live a perfect, elegant life in a cookie-cutter community of perfect houses. You're set up right away to see Garner's character as a little too perfect and uptight, but as the story unfolds you are reminded that things are not always what they seem. Garner is terrific, doing more with her face and gestures to reveal the depths of her character than many actresses can convey with pages of dialogue. And Bateman is good, too, as the prospective dad who has his own stuff going on.

Michael Cera plays Paulie Bleeker, Juno's friend and the father of the baby. If you loved him as George Michael Bluth in "Arrested Development", you'll love him in "Juno". He plays a very similar character - good hearted, confused and always saying less than you know he thinks or feels.

But the star of the show is Ellen Page as Juno and there's a reason she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. The kid has chops. She plays Juno as real and funny and entirely too self-assured. (She also has one of the coolest looking mouths in show business). As the story unfolds Juno comes to understand her own limitations and fragility and Page plays this with an authenticity that is mesmerizing. I loved her.

The movie is funny and honest. It tackles a big subject without overwhelming you. The language in the film is frank, especially if you are sitting next to your 14 year old daughter, but given that teenagers probably really talk like that, you cope. It's not super foul or anything, don't get me wrong. But let's just say that when the conversation turns to sex and genitalia the language isn't coming out of a sex-ed handbook.

The film is not without emotion. I was wiping away tears more than once but it was honest emotion, not manipulative. You care about Juno and you worry about her choices and you sit there for 96 minutes hoping fervently that it really is all going to work out the way you want it to work out.

And that's all I can say about it without spoilers. Which I hate. Go see it. It's a little film. It's not like you have to see it on a big screen. But it's totally worth it.

The Film Czarina gives "Juno" 4 out of 5 Koiheads

The soundtrack for "Juno" is killer. Lots of interesting post-punk-goes-folk stuff by bands I'd never heard of. One of the things that Bateman's character shares with Juno is a love of music and it's amusing as they try to "educate" each other about musical styles. Music is a big part of this film, which is why I have selected one of the songs from the soundtrack for today's Friday Jukebox. (See how I did that? Clever, huh?) And no. If you've seen the film I'm not about to play the song you think I'm going to play, although "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches is used to excellent effect and I liked it very much. But there are classics and then there are classics.

Mott the Hoople "All the Young Dudes"