Exploits Teenage Girls -- For a Quick Buck

Rating: 1/10 (9 January 2008)

Why have reviewers heaped so much praise on "Juno"? It's a phony, airbrushed, TV movie quality film, with trite dialogue, unbelievable characters, and a cheap treatment of a serious problem. Statistics don't lie: teen pregnancy combined with single motherhood are correlated with lifetime poverty, social problems and welfare dependence. None of the options: raising the baby yourself, giving it up for adoption, or abortion, is easy, either on the mother or the baby. In "Juno," though, teen pregnancy is a surefire route to Luv, Fun, Respect, and Wholesome Hugs. The teen mom is just like Johnny Carson on Dexedrine: she makes with nonstop wisecracks and educates her elders.
"Juno"'s script was written by Diablo Cody (real name: Brook Busey), a stripper, phone sex worker, and ad agency cubicle dweller. "I am here to make money," Cody told the New York Times. "Everything is prostitution," Cody told David Letterman.
Many sex workers have contempt for men. In the NYT, Cody refers to "porcine"  piglike  Hollywood executives she manipulates by "showing a little leg." Contempt for males comes through in "Juno." The father of the baby is Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) a geeky nerd who is lovable because he is a geeky nerd. Jason Bateman plays an adult male who acts like a child.
The soundtrack consists of an endless series of college-town café style, acoustic guitar, singer-songwriter songs with obtrusive lyrics, played by bands with cutesy names like "Moldy Peaches" and "Antsy Pants." If you don't get it that teen pregnancy is really kewl, the soundtrack hammers that point home relentlessly.