It doesn't get much better than this

Rating: 10/10 (5 January 2008)

Rarely has a movie so perfectly bridged the gap between teen comedy and adult drama and done so in such a fully-realized, mature manner as Juno, the story of a 16 year old girl from Minnesota who finds herself pregnant after her first night of sex with her soul mate.
Nova Scotia actress Ellen Page, who landed on my "star of the future" radar with her impressive performance in 2005's Hard Candy, continues to blaze her way to the pinnacle of Hollywood success with her turn as Juno MacGuff, a wisecracking teen who opts to carry her child to term and then hand it over for adoption to a well-to-do yuppie couple played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner.
Working from a terrific, clever as can be script by former stripper-turned-journalist Diablo Cody, Juno manages to tackle a sensitive subject, and the difficult choices that go with it, in a wonderfully mature and non-preachy fashion. Accolades are also due for the way it presents Juno's parents as decent, even-keel folks, and teens as intelligent individuals with greater depth and breadth than simple party animal morons.
Directed by Canadian Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters Director Ivan Reitman, and smartly casting fellow Canuck Michael Cera (Superbad) in the role of newfound father and the cheese to her macaroni, as Juno describes him, this movie will not only make you laugh, but touch you with its compassion and tenderness without ever stooping to maudlin lows or resorting to clichés or stereotypes to tell its story.
This is quite possibly the very best film of 2007, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if, come Academy Awards time, Juno walks off with a platter of Oscars. If so, they will be well deserved indeed.