Movie Review: Juno by ME

Title: Juno
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman
Directed By: Jason Reitman
Produced By: Joe Drake, Nathan Kahane, Daniel Dubiecki (II)
Genre: Comedy, Drama and Teen
Release Date: Various
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content and language.
Distributors: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Juno takes a serious situation and makes it extremely funny without crossing the line into absurdity, while also never letting you forget that teen pregnancy is not a joking matter. Sixteen year old Juno (Ellen Page) gets pregnant by best friend Paul Bleeker (Michael Cera) and decides to give the baby up for adoption to couple Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman). While dealing with her pregnancy Juno must also contend with her rather cool parents and figure out her feelings towards Bleeker. Things go from bad to worse when problems between Mark and Vanessa cast a shadow over Juno's hopes. All of this adds up to be one of the best movies of the year.



Following up 2005's Thank You For Smoking, Jason Reitman, son of director Ivan Reitman, shows that he has inherited his father's talent for comedy. A rather quirky film that should appeal to todays audiences with it's wit, likeable if not lovable characters portrayed by a perfect cast, and way too many comedic verbal fusillades to count, Reitman and Cody surely have a hit with Juno.



Ellen Page will be a star in the near future. After the cult hit Hard Candy and her small role in the mainstream X-Men 3: The Last Stand. Page comes through once again as a talent to be reckoned with. Perfect comedic delivery and the ability to turn serious without being melodramatic is one of her key talents. Michael Cera still bugs me a bit, the kid seriously needs to man up a little. I have only seen him in Superbad and Juno but there is basically no difference in either character. Sure he's funny in these situations, but he's going to be pigeon holed if he doesn't show some variety soon. J.K. Simmons and Alison Janney almost steal a few scenes away from Page as her parents. The best way to describe them is the most realistic version of a teens fantasy parents. Simmons is great in every scene but watch for Janney's tirade against a snobbish ultrasound technician, it's one of the best scenes in the movie. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner are great as the proposed adoptive parents. They don't seem to fit together perfectly, which may have been done on purpose, but Bateman plays the slightly whipped husband perfectly. I know a few guys whose stuff has been relegated to one room in the house and can feel for Bateman. Garner, having just had a child in real life with husband Ben Affleck, probably didn't need to dig too deep for motivation in this film, which makes her performance that much better. Last mention is a quick cameo by Rainn Wilson of The Office, who has one of the best lines in the film as a lowly convenience store clerk.



Even though I haven't given many reasons to see Juno, I can only say that it is a package deal. The closest thing I can even consider a flaw is the dialogue. I don't think that many teens actually speak the way these characters do, but if you can get around that, then Juno is for you. Aside from that, Juno is by far one of the best comedies I have seen in a long time that doesn't feature gross out humor. It has already become one of my favorite films and will be a welcome addition to my collection.

There are multiple release dates for Juno for different cities. Head here to see when Juno opens in your city.

Until Juno 2, Juno Junior,
keep reading

Mitch Emerson
mitchemerson@hotmail.com

Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody interview for Juno by ME

I feel that I need to explain why this interview ended up being so short. See, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody turned out to be two of the nicest and coolest people I have met. When I first got there, Jason, who by the way was wearing a Ghostbusters t-shirt, commented on my tattoos. (For those that don't know, I have quite a few tattoos of comic book characters) and then Diablo walked in and literally screamed when she saw the tattoo of Rogue from the X-Men on my leg. So a good amount of the alloted time was spent chatting about tattoos, the IMDB and truck driving. For those interested, I will be posting the full interview with all the chit chat on www.velvetropereviews.com in the near future.



ME: In Juno. how hard was it to ride that line between being funny and being serious?

Diablo Cody: You know, that’s always really tough. Originally I didn’t really set out to write a comedy strictly. And then it was my first screenplay, so I was still kind of discovering myself as a writer. As I moved forward I realized it definitely had a comedic voice to it. It was difficult because I always wanted it to be a little dark, and I always wanted it to be a little emotional but not too much so, so it was challenging. But the great thing about having a director who really understand the material is that he is very good at establishing tone, and so that perfect balance that you speak of is achieved.

ME: I didn’t see a lot that was dark, there were some little things….

DC: Yeah, not much left. Put it this way, I never imagined a cheerful orange and white poster when I was writing this movie. But Jason really brightened it up, and I’m glad that he did.

ME: I understand that you wrote a book so this becoming not quite a celebrity but more and more popular is kinda new, right?

DC: Yeah

ME: How has that treated you, and are you happy or do you wish you could go back?

DC: I’m incredibly happy, but at the same time it is a double edged sword, because you are praised and criticized in equal measure when you become a somewhat public figure.

Chit chat about IMDB

ME to Jason Reitman: You did a survey for the site trashwire.com for Thank You For Smoking. I was intrigued by one of your answers. I’m not a big fan of documentaries but This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated is one of my favorites. You had mentioned that if you had a billion dollars you would buy the MPAA and change how they do things. Have you had some kind of negative dealings with them?

JR: No no no, the MPAA has been very good to me. I don’t like a nanny state in film. I don’t like being told what to do, I don’t think people should be told what to do, I think people should be left to make decisions for themselves. That is somewhat at the core of both of my films, that people should be left to their own decisions.

Chat about This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated (which Cody hadn't seen yet) and the MPAA, and JR and DC chatting about their schedule, and truck driving

ME: I gotta ask, what kind of cool shit is going to be on the DVD?

JR: All kinds of cool shit. Deleted scenes, the original screen tests for the actors, there’s a music video that we cut together, there’s a blooper reel with a fake fight between me and Rainn Wilson, there’s a whole documentary on Diablo going from an internet blogger to a screen writer, some behind the scenes things. There’s like a Mystery Science Theater 3000 thing, Diablo and I deconstructing a scene like over our shoulders inside a movie theater. There’s tons of cool shit.

ME: I’ve always been a fan of the special features. Nowadays that’s more than half the reason to buy a DVD.

JR: The cool thing is, also, when you pee on the DVD case it tells you if you’re pregnant.

(laughter)

ME: Is it harder to direct established actors such as Bateman and Garner or younger talent like Cera and Page who are starting to make names for themselves?

JR: You know, every case is different, but on this film everything was easy. It was a delight with Jen, who’s very professional and very warm. And Jason is like the funniest guy you could have on set, so they make it very easy. And then Ellen and Michael are so easy going but so good and just tuning in to the perfect tone that there’s not many adjustments. You asked earlier about tonal adjustments….frankly that’s what made this movie so easy to do is that the actors were always kind of right there on the line and the adjustments that I would make would be very minor.

ME: Since Hollywood seems to be very sequel happy these days, at the drop of a hat for movies that really don’t deserve them, what you would see happening in a sequel?

DC: It’s hard for me to say because I feel so protective of the characters and I love them so much that I really want to freeze them in time and I don’t want them to have to go forward and experience any more.

JR: You talked a little bit about it…you know how Mark becomes an astronaut.

DC: Oh yeah, Mark becomes an astronaut.

JR: And he actually is the first guy to walk on Mars.

DC: It’s called Mission to Mark.

(laughter)

JR: And Vanessa and the baby actually become a singing duo, and they take their act on the road and they go worldwide. But then it’s actually kind of heartbreaking because they get into a fight over like are they artists or do they create product, and it breaks them apart which is kind of sad. Juno becomes an ice cream inventor for Baskin Robbins and works as a scientist inventing flavors of ice cream.

ME: I missed the screening last night but I figured that seeing it twice in one month was enough. How many times have you guys seen it?

JR: I edited it so for a few months I constantly was watching it.

ME: Once you’re all done with this, all the promotions and the DVD is out, how long does it usually take before you go back and watch it. Like how long has it been since you watched Thank You For Smoking just for the hell of it?

JR: Start to finish? I have not watched it completely through. If it’s on TV I’ll watch a scene or two, but it’s a little hard to watch. I would watch it with an audience if they’re liking it. Like if they were going to put it in theaters for a night I would totally go.

And we chatted for a few minutes about Cody's upcoming project Jennifer's Body, but that is a story for another time.