Juno

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with Juno (Ellen Page) staring at a recliner while drinking from a gallon container of Sunny-D bug juice, telling us, "It all began with a chair", after which we see a flashback of Juno and her best friend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), who's sitting naked in a recliner, waiting for Juno, who removes her underwear and sits down on him [the extent of the sex scene to keep it PG-13].Smart, fast-mouthed Juno then goes into a convenience store to take a pregnancy test. Judging by her conversation with Rollo the clerk (Rainn Wilson), this is her third test today (hence her drinking all the Sunny-D to produce urine). The third test shows the same result as the previous two: positive. Juno calls (on her hamburger phone) her best friend, Leah, who takes a few minutes to fully comprehend Juno's situation. We see a funny clip of Paulie getting ready to train with the track team, wearing his trademark head and wrist bands. As he exits the house, he sees Juno, who tells him the news.Paulie supports Juno's decision to abort the baby; Juno goes to a women's clinic for an abortion, where she bumps into classmate and lone anti-abortion protester Su-Chin, who robotically tries to dissuade Juno from having an abortion. Out of all the arguments, the one that Juno finds remotely interesting is that her baby might have fingernails by now. She encounters a snarky receptionist who tries to give her boysenberry-flavored condoms. Juno eventually decides against the abortion. She meets up with Leah and the two discuss adoption and how to break the news to Juno's dad and step-mom, Mac and Bren (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney).Juno breaks the news to her folks, who while disappointed are supportive. Juno tells them she wants to give the baby to a couple she and Leah found in Penny-Saver. She also lets them know who the father is (Mac: "Next time I see the Bleeker kid, I'm going to punch him in the wiener"). Mac goes with Juno to visit the prospective parents, Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman). Vanessa can't have children and is very excited by Juno's offer. The couple's lawyer seems prepared to negotiate an open adoption wherein Juno is updated on the child's development after birth. However, Juno has no interest and would rather have a closed adoption. The couple seems taken aback by how nonchalant Juno comes off, despite her less-than-polite attitude.While using their upstairs bathroom, Juno bumps into Mark, who is looking for something. Inspired by Mark's Les Paul guitar, the two discover compatible tastes in music and movies. Mark used to be in a rock band, though now he makes his living writing ad jingles. The two jam for a bit on the guitars, before Vanessa frustratingly interrupts so they can get back to business. The meeting concludes with Mark and Vanessa agreeing to pay for Juno's medical expenses.Juno visits Paulie, and Paulie says that the two should get their band back together after Juno delivers. He also tries to suggest that the two should get back together as a couple, which Juno tries to play off, to Paulie's disappointment. She suggests he try to get together with Katrina De Voort, but Paulie doesn't like the idea, claiming Katrina and her house always smell like soup. Throughout, Paulie supports Juno's decisions and quietly tries to help her any way he can, while Juno doesn't pay much attention to Paulie's support, relying more on her parents, as well as the Lorings.Juno goes with her mother and Leah for an ultrasound, at which the technician makes judgmental, condescending remarks about Juno's situation, whereupon Bren tells her where to put her comments, to Juno and Leah's amusement. Juno makes a few visits to the Lorings, mostly unexpected, where Mark is usually the only one home. The two begin hanging out, watching bad horror flicks and listening to music. We can see a chemistry forming between them. Eventually Vanessa comes home and Juno shows them pictures from the ultrasound. In a later scene, we see the Lorings in the baby's future room: While Vanessa tries to figure out what to put on the wall, we sense that Mark isn't enthusiastic about being a father, When Juno comes home, Bren warns her about going to see the Lorings so much, especially while Vanessa isn't there, since it isn't appropriate. Juno shrugs off the advice. Juno later spies Vanessa at the mall, where she sees how great she is with the children of friends. The two notice each other, and Juno lets Vanessa feel the fetus.At school, where she has to deal with being The Pregnant 16 YO, Juno is given nasty looks. She and Leah eat lunch by the school's trophy case, while Leah goes on about a few topics: One is her crush on a teacher, an older-guy thing she has; the other is Paulie asking Katrina to prom. While Juno denies she has any feelings for Paulie, later that day she confronts him and they quarrel. Paulie holds most of the moral high ground, claiming that Juno is acting immature, and how heartbroken he was when Juno claimed they were never a couple.Juno makes another visit to the Lorings, where she and Mark listen to All The Young Dudes, which Mark says he danced to at his prom. The two slow dance to it in the basement, where Mark tells Juno he's leaving Vanessa. Juno is shocked and tries to convince him not to. While Mark believed Juno would be happy about the news, he learns that above all, Juno wants the baby to be raised in a loving family. Juno is about to leave when Vanessa comes home, sees that Juno is crying, and stops her, wanting to know what is going on. Mark admits that he isn't ready to be a father. Vanessa tells him that he needs to grow up and accept that he isn't going to be a rock star. The two quarrel as Juno sees herself out. She goes home and talks to her father about her need to know that people can be happy with each other. Mac tells her that she'll know she's in love when she finds the person that loves her for her, no matter what situation she's in; she arrives at the realization that that person is Paulie.As the Lorings discuss their pending divorce, Juno rings their doorbell and leaves them a note: "If you're still in, I'm still in". She then buys a ton of orange tic-tacs (Paulie's vice) with Leah, and leaves them in Paulie's mailbox, to his amusement. After school, Juno goes to Paulie's track practice and tells him she's in love with him. (He's the one that accepts her for her, always looking at her face -- not her belly -- when they talk). Juno calls him the coolest person she knows, and says that he doesn't even have to try (Paulie: "I try really hard, actually"). They kiss while Leah teases from afar that it might induce labor.At home, Juno's water breaks, and the family rushes to the hospital. Juno desperately wants a shot for the pain, referring to it as a Spinal Tap, after which she gives birth to a healthy baby. While she didn't want to disturb Paulie at his track meet, after winning his event and realizing Juno wasn't there, Paulie figures it out and rushes to the hospital, where they decide not to see the child after the birth. Paulie lies next to Juno and holds her while Vanessa goes to the nursery to hold her new baby. Vanessa asks Bren how she looks, and Bren sweetly replies, "Like a new mom: scared shitless."Afterwards, we see Juno's wrapup, in which she reiterates that it all began with a chair, and ended with a chair (Vanessa's rocking chair). We see the baby's room, where Vanessa has put Juno's note on the wall. Bren finally adopts a puppy, having refrained up to now because while she loves dogs, Juno is allergic. Juno rides her bike over to Paulie's, where she talks about falling in love, then having babies, and how it didn't end up in that order for her. The two play Anyone Else But You on the guitar, after which they kiss.

Tags: comedy, cult, flashback, feel-good, psychedelic, humor, entertaining

Review:
I like when Juno tells the baby's quirky father, Bleeker (played by Michael Cera) that he is the coolest person she knows, without even trying.
Confident in the strength and appeal of his material, he lets the gentle human comedy speak for itself.In a star-making turn, young Ellen Page takes a daring approach to her character, often bringing Juno right to the brink of un-likability, then pulling back at just the crucial moment, making us see how utterly likable she truly is.
Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner also make their mark as the couple who post their picture in the "baby wanted" section of the local throwaway."Juno" faces the downside of any independent film that unexpectedly finds itself ripped from the confines of the art houses and suddenly duking it out at the multiplexes with all those high-budget, high-octane, testosterone-laden blockbusters - namely the risk of over-inflated expectations.
The intent of Juno is to tell the story of a sixteen-year-old girl who deals with a responsibility "way beyond her maturity level" and the people around her who care.
And the wait definitely made it worthwhile.Juno chronicles the story of the titular sixteen-year-old girl (played by Ellen Page), and the fallout of her accidental pregnancy.
After deciding to not have an abortion, Juno decides that she will give the baby up for adoption to would-be parents Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) after finding an ad in the local classified section of the newspaper.It may not sound like a deep film, but right from moment one, the film draws you into Juno's bizarre world of teenage angst and wonderment.
J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney round out the cast, lending the film some of its deeply funny and dramatic moments as Juno's parents, and relative newcomer Olivia Thirlby does very well as Juno's best friend.But for how great the cast was, what I was really anticipating was the screenplay, by current sensation Diablo Cody.
The two work off of each other well, yes (although not nearly as well as Page and Cera, or even Bateman and Garner), but the dialogue and scenes between them just sound like an afterthought, and do not seem in sync with the rest of the film.
Maybe a little less focus on these scenes, and more with the likes of Cera (who is not underused, but probably could have been used a bit more) or Simmons or Thrilby (who are not used nearly enough) could have helped make the movie even better than it already is.Juno is not perfect, but it is heartwarming and bittersweet all the same.
The actors did a tremendous job - J.K. Simmons (no longer will he just be remembered for Spiderman), Ellen Page was incredible (finally a movie to like her in - Hard Candy was just too creepy, sorry), and Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner are paired up once again (also paired in The Kingdom) and play the embattled parents to be of this new child while facing their own demons in their struggling marriage.
This insidious marketing ploy is an evolution of commercial advertising which is beginning to penetrate all forms of art and media and as long as people keep spending money and falling for this drivel they will continue to churn out plastic pictures under the illusion of art.This film wanted so badly to be something special yet the over written dialog and quirks stamped on the characters ruined what could have been a good story.
Everyone tried too hard on this picture from the writer, director, to Fox Searchlight who has already stamped "One doodle that can't be undid" on t-shirts in an obvious and obnoxious attempt at creating dialog that will be echoed and reverberating in the high school halls of America like the latest Justin Timberlake album, who knows, maybe it will work, however I doubt something as saccharine as this will gain a cult audience but I was wrong with "Garden State" "Napolean Dynamite" "Little Miss Sunshine" to name a few, never underestimate the stupidity of the American public..
The script is razor-sharp and riddled with witty one-liners but it's a little hard to justify a feature-length film on dialogue that may have been better suited to a comic strip.Add to this some very misguided messages about sex, love and marriage, and a jumble of 1-dimensional characters (Michael Cera: the sweet dork you do so well is getting old) and you have a movie that is vaguely entertaining but ultimately unsatisfying..
For most of the movie (and it got better in this respect toward the end) Juno's character was devoted to witty commentary, replete with randomly inserted Spanish words ("silencio, old man!") and hipster slang ("rad","boss"), rather than showing any kind of emotional insight.
I kept thinking: "Someone needs to tell this girl that she is not Janeane Garofalo." Michael Cera was good as always, but he could have been used a lot more before the latter parts of the movie, particularly in some way that would indicate he was fazed in the slightest by fathering a child.
And does our heroine learn to use contraceptives afterwards - no - condoms are grotty purple things for people with funny piercings not named Iggy Pop. She's so cool that she'll just abstain until she's ready.Ugh. I prefer, honest manipulative films like "Reefer Madness" to subversive manipulative crap like "Requiem for a Dream" or "Juno".
If there is a "tension" in the performances of Ellen Page and the supporting characters, it is created not intentionally by the writing or direction, but unintentionally, by their natural inclination as actors and people to infuse these cold prose with some kind of life.Rhythmic prosaic dialog should never be used again unless at a musical concert, free-form poetry convention or on a Broadway stage.Because everyone speaks in the same "smart" way, its clear that all the characters are written by exactly the same person.
Well, movies aren't supposed to be "real life", but what's worse is when they pass this off as though it were, as though we're getting a special glimpse of it because we watched this MooVee.This is a growing trend of "indie" features sold *before their release* as a "cult classics", a new stroke of Hollywood cynicism.Give me no country with some old men..
I hate the fact that I think X-Men 3 is her best movie so far, despite the two others she's had that garnered some critical acclaim (Hard Candy and the film presently being discussed).
First question i asked myself was "Were there no other good movies in 2007?" Thinking about it I realize, every movie i've seen this year is way way better than Juno: The Moguls is a good example, Eagle vs Shark (not American luckily) that was so great and fun to watch, weirdsville, Death at a funeral (not American), A Dogs Breakfast even License To Wed, Brothers Solomon & Waitress which at list had some glorious pies:) A few days ago I was dragged to see Rambo and boy if it was nominated for the Oscars I wouldn't get so mad about it and i would understand it better.
And when it comes to this movie the joke is really on us.P.S. If you don't believe me, or want to see for yourself, just do this one thing, enter the comments history page of people who love this film and see what other superficial, tacky, typical American movies they like..
My 4 cents:**There's nothing worse than a movie that's supposed to be a comedy but not funny at all.**Cool, Ellen Page plays the same character she played in Hard Candy, even had the red hoody.
I say that the groundswell audience for this movie is high school/college age student actresses/actors who like Ellen Page and Michael Cera (as have I) and regardless of what drivel comes out on the screen they will preen and heap accolades their way.
Cody the Stripper thinks that creative writing is non stop teen sarcasm that most of the time isn't funny or biting like sarcasm should be but just....(I screamed did you hear it?) That is what this movie is, white noise with no heart and no soul.Juno is a teenage bitch.
This has got to be the single most over-hyped, overrated movie of 2007.Juno delivers a train-wreck of awkward moments one after another, which ends up making the film both uncomfortable and ultimately unenjoyable.The way this film was written and directed is nothing short of annoying.
The way the characters speak, the ridiculous lingo they use, the sequence of events, the plot as a whole, the stupid feminist undertones, the failed attempts at witty comedy, everything about it is irritating.I've enjoyed Ellen Page in other movies, most notably, Hard Candy, but her performance here comes off as not only pretentious and arrogant, but absurd, unrealistic and just plain stupid.
Jason Bateman does alright as the unsure father to be, but Jennifer Garner's baby obsession comes off as incredibly forced and almost as jarring and annoying as the main character.The soundtrack to this film sounds like it was recorded in someone's basement, and only further helps to annihilate what little emotion and drama existed.The plot is uninteresting, the characters are dull and boring, and the movie itself is a perfect waste of 95 minutes.Don't see it.
This movie Juno is NOT funny, if you laugh at it, you are just laughing a some 16 year old girl actor reading from a scrip; which is not even believable for any age group.
By trying to appeal to the teenage population she instead alienated many by portraying our age group as snarky and witty and using "hip" language ("Home-skillet") that just made me and my friends (ranging in age from 16-18) groan out loud.The movie also contains many obscure, unneeded references that seem to be added in just so Cody can showcase how cultured she is.Although the film does have some priceless lines that kept me laughing throughout ("I'm already pregnant, what other shenanigans can I get into") every few minutes Cody throws in another forced line that takes me out of the film.
One minute I'd be immersed in the story of Juno McGuff and all of a sudden she'd transform into Ellen Page struggling to get through a particularly cheesy line (It's Morgan Freeman).I don't blame the actors for this, they are doing their best to get through the lines they are forced to spew and they do well with it.The movie would have received a much higher score had Cody just left her holier-then-thou attitude at home and written something with substance instead of parading her ideals, butchering the way teenagers talk and promoting her favourite movies and songs every few minutes..
I'm sorry.But the real problem is the fact that this movie seems to try to be intellectual and deep with its story about teenage pregnancy and the emotional issues surrounding it, but the whole thing is encased in the sort of disgusting "ironic" humor that seems to pass as thought provoking and soulful these days - Juno trivializes these issues and makes them seem small and insignificant (Juno referring to her situation as "being in a pickle," for instance...), and that shoots this right down the crapper.
Juno is definitely the worst Oscar nomination in years.I consider myself a movie freak, watch every year about 100 flicks, lots of crap(like "Juno"), some good, some average.
But "Juno"..."Juno" is crap!If you want to watch a story about getting pregnant, watch "Knocked up", its at least funnier.The only reason you could possibly have, to go and see Juno, is if you are desperately in love with Jennifer Garner(good acting, beautiful as always).Otherwise don't waste your money on this.Here is a list of 10 movies(have seen them all) from 2007 that are much better than Juno and could have been nominated instead.If you wanna watch real cinema, watch these: 1.American gangster 2.In the valley of Elah 3.The assassination of J.
Sometimes a well-done performance, such as those done by Ellen Page and Jennifer Garner, are not nearly enough to save a movie that attempts to appeal to Napoleon Dynamite/Hot Topic type audiences and furthermore delivers a quality-lacking script that falls far short of creating the intended quick and witty hipster wannabe dialogue that only exposes the writer as a pretentious amateur who should stick to robbing lonely, inebriated men with lap dances in the VIP room than innocent movie goers who were fooled by a large PR budget and a potentially charming story-line, which might I add, went terribly awry for scattered periods of time during this film.
Juno tells the story of a sixteen year old girl named Juno MacGuff, played by the breathtakingly beautiful and rather talented Ellen Page, who finds herself pregnant after enjoying spontaneous sex with her best friend.
Though Juno disagrees with him, it seems reasonable to conclude that the writer of this movie thinks the rock scene of 1993 is pretty good, but just not the best.
There was also Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner who came off as the only realistic characters in the film as a married couple about to adopt Juno's soon to be born baby.
"Raw Power" is the album people often associate with Iggy and the Stooges because it had the most success out of their three albums (I'm not counting "The Weirdness") and is often considered the best, so it's the obvious empty choice someone who is unfamiliar with their actual work would choose to define them; but a *real* self-respecting Stooges fan would know better, and they wouldn't refer to that band as Iggy Pop. And don't get me started on the Patti Smith reference.Or the Sonic Youth stuff."Juno" plays like a film made by people who are jumping on a trend and attempting to popularize it.
this movie wasn't good at all horrible script and its not original that a teenage girl gets a baby,that Happens every half an hour worldwide its nothing new its the same crap all over again.also acting is normal nothing special at all!Ellen Page doesn't deserve an Oscar nomination out of all the performance in this year!
A lot of Actors Did a much much better job i don't see why a great actor like Christain bale which did Wonderful in 2007 isn't nominated and this KID gets nominated COME ON!1/10 Seriously Think About it....Bad SCRIPT not Funny Superbad was the funniest movie this year NOT JUNO Juno is not Sad and Is not Funny.Knocked up was also funny this is just plane Crap!.
Instead the Juno character comes off as though she may need serious psychiatric help, but don't worry because she's so cute and funny we'll be able to overlook her warped adolescent world view, or so the people behind this movie want us to believe.I never bought it for a second.
For some reason this movie is being compared to last year's sleeper Little Miss Sunshine but if you go and see Juno don't expect anything that good..
Directed by Jason Reitman and starring Ellen Page, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman; Juno is fantastically crafted with enough pop culture references to place it until the end of time.
Juno resolves to give the baby up for adoption to a yuppie couple played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner, but things get complicated with Bateman's character begins getting close to her because of their interests in rock music and slasher films, kindling long-standing desires on his part to do more in life before becoming a father.This is a very well-cast movie from top to bottom.
It has nothing to say about pregnancy (though it seems to be pro-life, whatever that means to you), does not take the responsibility of teen pregnancy seriously, is not realistic in its character portrayals, the script does not function to transmit the story, and it is not ever funny (yes, it actually makes "Knocked Up" look like a masterpiece).
Unfortunately, that alone cannot save the movie from itself.The film tries very hard to make the character of Juno into a quirky, offbeat-yet-lovable girl (a sort of American and pregnant version of Amélie Poulain, if you will).
The more you watch "Juno" the more you think to yourself "this won an Oscar for best original screenplay?" I think the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences along with critics were enthralled by the writer Diablo Cody (not her real name and Diablo is the Spanish masculine version of the word devil, it should actually be Diabla), ex-stripper turned writer more than the actual film and then they projected that admiration towards it.The best quote about this movie comes from "Variety's Peter Bart: "I like the movie, but it seemed to me Juno talked more like a 30-year-old ex-stripper trying to make a name for herself as a screenwriter." And that's the way that Ellen Page played the part, not as a teen but as an annoying 30 something trying to still be cool and hip.You have to see this movie more than once in order to grasp how truly OVERRATED it is.
As a feel-good movie it worked for me, because I definitely felt good afterward.I saw Juno as a strong character, the type of person who wants to know and experience everything life has to offer, much like Diablo Cody herself.
I think it's good in the fact that the moral of the story is cool (not aborting a baby & actually giving it up for adoption) but the problem with the writer is this: #1 the target market for this film is under 17, therefore making it a PG-13 rating.
After watching the first half of this movie, I thought I found it this year in "Juno." IMHO, this film would have worked much better had they dialed back the oh-so-clever dialog just a little bit so that it could have been a bit more plausible and real.
Ellen Page does an incredible job in the lead role, taking Juno's character and witty banter in stride and holding the film together very well.