FilmCreature Reviews 'Juno'

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2007)

Juno MacGuff is a sarcastic, cynical, tomboyish teen played by Ellen Page in a fantastic, perfectly tuned performance. After sort-of-spontaneous (but not really) sex with her best friend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera of 'Superbad'), Juno receives an unwanted package--a pregnancy. Woops.
Juno decides to give her baby to an affluent couple, Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). All seems well at first, but it will be a bumpy road until birth.
I can spend hours gushing about how terrific a movie 'Juno' is, but I'm not really the greatest writer on the planet, so I'll just express the fact that 'Juno' has a strange effect on you. After seeing it, I almost felt as if I would walk out of the theater and see Juno MacGuff just standing there, as if she were a regular living, breathing teenager. That's how good Page is. In fact, every single performance in the film is absolutely tremendous. I liked how Allison Janney's stepmom character isn't turned into a whiny she-demon like most formula stepmoms, instead, she's far more friendlier (if a little unsure of Juno's odd ways) than we would ever expect. And J.K. Simmons finally gets a role where he isn't a total jerk; instead, he's a sensitive father who truly cares for his wacky daughter.
The soundtrack is awesome, I'll be buying it as soon as possible. The wait for the DVD will be truly agonizing, but worth it in the end. We can see the chain reactions here when a group of truly ambitious individuals (such as Jason Reitman, Diablo Cody, and Ellen Page) get together and make a movie such as this. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.
I give 'Juno' my highest recommendation possible.
Sweeeeet, man. 4/4