Not the Easiest Movie to Like

Rating: 6/10 (2 November 2008)

Let's face it: Juno was a piece of indie-pop that was manipulative, forced, and different to the point of being completely in-genuine. Still, while this movie was far from the best movie of the year, I can't say that I wasn't entertained.
If you asked me about a year ago what I thought of this movie, I would have told you it was great and I would rank it up there with last year's 'There Will Be Blood' and 'No Country for Old Men.' There was a problem with that assessment, and it is the fact that both Anderson and The Coen Brothers were creating something that embarked on something much deeper and moving than the typical teenage reality show. In all honesty, 'Juno' could have been the answer to MTV's 'The Hills.' However, the operative phrase here is 'could have.' Meaning that it might have been had it been directed and acted in different hands.
In a nutshell, this is a film about a 16 year old girl named Juno McGuff (*facepalm) who is unexpectedly impregnated by her best friend Paulie Bleeker. (By the way, writer Diablo Cody clearly has a knack for plucking names out of the strangest corners of her mind. Could she have deliberately been writing this FOR an Oscar?) Juno must then face unspeakable hardships as she decides to bring the baby to full term, and put the baby up for adoption to Vanessa and Mark Loring, a couple of upstate yuppies who suppress a secret that is so obvious you want to shout Vanessa in case she may actually hear you.
There are two reasons why I enjoyed this film as much as I did before it started wearing off after subsequent viewings: they are Jason Reitman and Ellen Page. Reitman, for starters, has proved himself to be quite a director and satirist, and while Juno is FAR from any kind of dark humor or satire, 'Thank You for Smoking' was just that. Still, Reitman was able to bring a style to this film that took the 'cool' down a couple notches and turned up the 'normal,' almost as if he's saying to Diablo, 'I'm sorry, but these brats are just too annoying and self- centered.'
Cody's screenplay offered little empathy for Juno because she is such a smart-ass, a manipulator, and one of the most self-assured teens I have ever seen on a movie screen. This is where Ellen Page steps in and creates a dimension that I personally don't think Cody saw. Page was able to create a sub-conscious fact of Juno not being nearly as smart as she thinks she is, making Juno more grounded in reality than stuck in Cody's fantasy. Still, Cody got the Oscar, so what does that say?
Is the story touching? Hardly, and that is because of the fact that the story in it's entirety is bogged down by this new (and dreadful) hipster-speak. Hipster-speak, for the record, is not cool. It never was cool. It's fool-hearty, annoying, and it makes you want to smack the protagonist for being so damn ignorant and disrespectful. What also doesn't work is the fact that Juno's parents are hardly realistic. Other than the initial confrontation (Dude, just tell them) the parents had almost zero concern. They were loving and supporting, and that is a virtue in a family that is very, very real, but they were lacking in concern and control, which is very strange considering their child was impregnated. This is especially emphasized in the conversation after the initial confrontation.
Dad McGuff: Next time I see him, I'm gonna punch that Bleeker kid in the wiener.
Step-Mom McGuff: Mac, you know it wasn't his idea.
There is something to be said here about the amount of distrust and inaction this family has over their daughter. Sure, it could be real in a family, just like the name Liberty Bell McGuff could be real in suburban Minnesota, but it is hard to look at them and think 'what a wonderful, wholesome, and supportive family.'
The biggest downfall of this movie was how it condescends and manipulates the audience. Another movie that did this was 'One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest,' and it clearly took a side in whatever culture war was going on at the time. The difference here is in 1978, the war was between tradition, and kinking the system for a new state of mind. Here the 'war' is Hipster and everyone else who isn't hipster. There is legitimacy when there is viable context, but Juno really doesn't display any of that.
In short, 'Juno' was a movie that Diablo Cody written for her own self-gratification. It was her saying, 'look at how cool I am. I know all of these cool things and you can be cool too if you liked them also.' Sorry Diablo, but were not interested in being new age hipster clones. I think I'll stick with Jack Nicholson and watch 'Cookoo's Nest' one more time. Besides, I love the Chief more than I love Olivia.
Though I did like Jason Bateman.