It Started With a Chair, a Bored Teen, and Some Free Time.

Rating: 8/10 (20 April 2010)

Juno Directed by Jason Reitman
I was never a fan of Jason Reitman. Thank You For Smoking didn't catch my attention and Up in the Air seemed overrated. I decided to shop for DVD's one day and I saw another one of his movies, Juno. It had Michael Cera and since I love Superbad, I had to see another one of Cera's movies. Ellen Page is also here and she was in the worst X-Men movie ever (X-Men 3) but she did a pretty decent job there. Right now, after watching this movie, I want to see Thank You For Smoking and since Up in the Air was nominated for some Oscars, it looks like a must-see. I won't go as far as to call this film a masterpiece but it exceeded my expectations which were pretty low. Anyway, on to the main review. ---------------------------------------------------------SPOILER LINE---------------------------------------------------- Our main character is Juno MacGuff. She is a 16-year old girl. The catch is, she's pregnant. This film is about teen pregnancy so I can't really relate to this. I don't know any teens that are pregnant but Juno does talk a bit too mature for her age. I didn't talk to a lot of 16-year-olds but it's pretty obvious that they wouldn't talk like this. But all movies require a sense of disbelief and hey, she's pregnant, I don't know how anyone will act in that situation outside the context of this movie. But Juno proves to be a good character because she is likable. You care for her character. There is no villain in this film since it is more of an internal conflict than external so let's move on. The supporting cast consists of Paulie Bleeker played by Michael Cera. Another thing I didn't like about this film was the lack of Michael Cera. He was awesome in Superbad but he was lacking here. I could totally relate with his orange Tic-Tac problem but he's not relatable in any other way for me. Paulie is likable enough though so no harm done. J.K. SImmons plays Juno's father and doesn't stand out very well. Vanessa Loring is pretty likable and Mark Loring is very likable until the near end of the movie. The supporting cast is mostly meh. Only Mark and Paulie stood out. The story of the movie is really good actually. Jason Reitman usually uses some sensitive material as the subject matter for his movies. Thank You For Smoking is obviously about the danger of cigarettes and Up In The Air is about economic downturn. He can really write a good story out of these topics and Juno is no exception. The acting in this film is great. Putting aside everything else, Page, Cera, Bateman, Simmons, and Garner do terrific jobs. The direction is just amazing. I love those types of movies with subtle gimmicks. I hate gimmicks usually but if you're going to put rules to surviving a zombie apocalypse on screen or split the screen into two showing expectations vs. reality, then the movie will tend to be memorable. Juno is very memorable because Reitman does this. His opening sequence is genius and his choice of music is wonderful. The Visuals in this film are great. They really depict what it's supposed to depict accurately. The opening title sequence is also pleasant to watch. Now for the genre, this movie is a Comedy / Drama. The comedy in this film is very subtle and not laugh out loud like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Jason Reitman IS after all the son of Ghostbusters Director Ivan Reitman and Ghostbusters didn't make me laugh out loud either. They made me chuckle, smile, and laugh softly but they focus on the other genres. Ghostbusters focused on the ghosts and Bill Murray's awesomeness, Juno focused on the Drama, Characters, and the Atmosphere. Now this is one of my mini reviews that I don't really take seriously because there's not much I can say about Juno aside from what I have already said. Overall, I give Juno, a 79% awesome.