Interesting, quirky film, but shouldn't have been an Oscar contender

Rating: 5/10 (20 January 2009)

I'll admit it. I typically don't like films like JUNO. Supposedly an independent flick (feels more like typical Hollywood fare to me), it tells the 9-month story of precocious, 'adult' teenager Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page in an impressive performance for a young actress), who on an urge to have sex, accidentally gets impregnated by too-young-to-know any-better Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera, who really annoyed me whenever he was on screen).
I've got to say, that while I enjoyed JUNO a tad more than I thought I would, I absolutely hated the seemingly surprise ending of Juno deciding she loves this loser! I was kind of OK with the flick until it took this U-turn. This is the main part I hate about the film: Juno loves THIS guy? He's an uber-teen who doesn't know a damn thing about anything! And the film actually has the nerve to portray the unexpected pregnancy as if it is all Juno's fault! Bleeker never tells his mother and gets away scot free! And he had the nerve to go off on her and make it seem like it was all her fault and never took ANY responsibility for his own actions. This ticked me off to no end!
Well, the film's plusses (which are few and far between) include some fine supporting work by Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons as Juno's stepmom and father, but I thought the best performances of the film really belonged to Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner (as prospective adoptive parents Mark and Vanessa Loring). Their storyline spoke to me much more than Juno's scattershot storyline, which I don't think was well done at all. All her folks and friend does are make snide comments and jokes about this pregnancy. This is not supposed to be a laugh-out-loud comedy, but the early finding-out-your-pregnant-having-to-tell-your-parents-dialogue is really played for pure laughs, which for the most part, are not that funny.
Diablo Cody was wrongly given the original screenplay Oscar for this rather juvenile script (no pun intended). It all felt like a gimmick to me when she won on Oscar night. I've always thought the Academy has given this award in particular to the more POPULAR than deserving choice, to kind of lighten up the evening (like when they gave it to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for GOOD WILL HUNTING) to see what kind of antics would ensue. Let's give the award to the scantily-clad, tattooed former stripper and see what happens! THIS is why the Oscars should not be taken seriously!