striving to reach that indie climax

Rating: 7/10 (24 July 2008)

What is it with all these indie movies as of late? Hollywood finally considered the trilogy idea sucked big time, so now, as the 90s were the tear-jerker films years, they try to bring to us real "slices of life" through this emotional, plastic, incredibly witty story about pregnancy.
And that's what Juno is. An optimistic take at what seems to be quite a predicament, but hey, if you manage to squirm out that damn baby and kiss the father for having left you deal with it alone, you have achieved the quota of all indie films.
What bothers me here is that girls watching this movie might get the wrong idea, that pregnancy is perfectly fine and can be solved easily by just browsing for some control-freaks to purchase your unborn child and by letting out your jeans a bit so your huge belly would fit and you'd still look cute.
Juno had it so easy indeed! She felt no remorse, no shame, no anger, nothing. She only cried a bit in that saggy way when she realized her child wouldn't have a good home, after all. But frankly, who would give their kid to those people in the first place? And who could give their child so freely? Sure, if she had been some bimbo on the road that's fine. But she had friends and family, she seemed pretty smart.
Anyway, another disturbing thing is that she got back with that boyfriend of hers like nothing had ever happened. What is this? Safe sex for kids under 18? Sounds as if this movie was filmed some days before prom night and she had to lose the kid and look dashing until then.
Another thing was the soundtrack. OK, we get it, you're all rebellious artsy freaks with sarcastic gags that sound like Friends reruns. But why do you have to scream it in our face? Every little song in this movie begged for some attention and made the watch a bit tedious.
What I did like about this one was that they did away with annoying bratty high school stereotypes and I do not mean the real life stereotypes. I mean the Hollywood ones where the cheerleader is evil and sexy, the nerds all lust for naked chicks and the ONLY possible sport in the world is football.
Other than that, no matter how much I liked Juno's mum and dad, they seemed a tad unrealistic. I mean she told them she was pregnant two seconds ago and the mum is already giving her good nutrition tips.
All in all, it could have been better if it hadn't tried so hard to appear as something it was not.