Juno

A friend of mine saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival, and said she really enjoyed it. There's a whole little Canadian thing going on there with Cera, Page, and Reitman.

I thought Ellen Page was great in The Tracey Fragments, and I hear she is good in this, too. I really want to check it out.

When we went the TIFF showing of The Tracey Fagments, my friend pointed out that she used to hang out, through mutual friends, with one of the actors, and went to school with his brother. At the party. I grabbed the brother and reunited him with my friend, and it turns out he works on a national Canadian TV show and the host of that show had a cameo in Tracey...

Small world...

At the bar I bump into a guy I know (he hangs out at a relative's cafe) that has a show he created and stars in on TV, and he is there with the co-creator. We chat a bit, and then I go of to find the director so we (my friend and I) can congratulate him on the film and thank him for the tickets.

It was out there, on that patio, that I realised the industry in Canada is waaayyy too small. It's not even six degrees of seperation...it' like one and three quarters.

In the states, you always hear actors saying they don't know a particular so and so, but they absolutely would love to work with them, or how a director never met another such and such, but they really admire their work.

Here it's like...yeah, I know her...I waited tables with her sister.
 
I really can't get excited for this film.

Hearing about it originally, it sounded interesting, but the trailers have turned me off.

It just seems like the by-now-standard quirky tale indie film. The girl isn't even funny to me in the commercial, she just seems like a stuck up smartass.

I just have this feeling it's gonna be huge but 4 months from now it will be completely forgotten.

That said, if I hear good things I'll probably end up checking it out.
 
Juno was entertaining, but nothing all that special. One of my biggest problems is the fact that there's so many sharp-witted people in one small circle of people, who all have quips, and funny one-liners. The dialogue suffers from the Napoleon Dynamite school of quotable, but dialogue that sounds written, and therefore fake. The film is also insufferably "indie" with cool obscure music (which I'm sure will become HUGE after this movie) and an animated opening credit sequence with that deliberatly "free-hand" squiggly look. And I really wanted more of Michael Cera's character. He should have been far more significant, but ended up being relegated to a side role. Although the more serious parts in the last act were done well. The only thing that really saved the film was the acting. Overall it's good for one watch, but nothing to write home about.
 
Yes, Juno is a little self consciously indie, but it's a pretty solid film nevertheless. The casting and acting are very good and Ellen Page is a standout. She's very funny and breathes a lot of life into the script. The characters are surprisingly three dimensional and the film's ending, which could have been sappy and maudlin, is handled in a fresh way. Michael Cera's character is *intentionally* minor, because this is the story of a 16 year old girl coming to terms with her pregnancy--not the story of a young couple. They turned up the cute control a little high, but underneath is a nice little film.
 
Barry_S said:
Michael Cera's character is *intentionally* minor, because this is the story of a 16 year old girl coming to terms with her pregnancy--not the story of a young couple.
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I never said he was accidentally small, I just think he should have been more fleshed-out. And he was at least somewhat important to Juno's story. The movie does end on Juno and Bleaker together, so I think it does have some relevance to the story. But it's as much of a story about the couple, as it is about two other characters' crumbling marriage and the wife's desperate need to be a mother. It's just as much about the people around Juno and how her pregnancy affects them. I just don't think eating red tic-tacs is good character development.
 
Disagree. It's about Juno coming to terms with the pregnancy--pretty much on her own. Making it a "couple" movie undercuts that basic theme. The bland passive boyfriend, adoptive parent backstory, and her own family story provide the backdrop that forces her to chart her own course and make some hard decisions.
 
I'm not sure where I land on the Michael Cera debate. My question is this: did anyone else feel like the Jason Bateman character got a bit short-changed at the end? I felt like he was portrayed as a sympathetic character throughout much of the film, then near the end he's selfish and juvenile-- then never heard from again. I'm wondering if this was a decision made in post.
 
macyfilms said:
I'm not sure where I land on the Michael Cera debate. My question is this: did anyone else feel like the Jason Bateman character got a bit short-changed at the end? I felt like he was portrayed as a sympathetic character throughout much of the film, then near the end he's selfish and juvenile-- then never heard from again. I'm wondering if this was a decision made in post.
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I think you're probably right, but I don't think it was a post decision because the reversal of Jason Bateman's and Jennifer Garner's characters is very intentional. I agree that it seems like an abrupt transition for Bateman, but he has to disappear to wreck Juno's neat plans and force her to her transformative moment. He does turn slimy in the dancing scene, so it's not completly out of left field, but they could have made his character a little more ambiguous from the outset.
 
i loved the film. written well and extrodinary acting put this in the top 3 of 2007 for me.

Jason bateman character was so much like juno that, he thought they were made for one another and the age difference didnt matter you could tell from the start he wasnt happy plus he wasnt expect to find juno in the penny savor he was hoping to find desperate people to make jennifer garner decided it hopeless so you can see from the start the unwillingness to change from the juvinile ore child like state he was still in. he was still a teenager not a grown up that garner wanted him to be. the pregnacy forced juno to change, and for the better and she grew up. that what i got of it.

anyway loved this movie.
 
wow Billy, I was going to write a review for this flick but you already said everything I wanted to say. So I guess I don't have to write a review. Will say a few things after reading the comments however. Michael Cera should have been in it more. I understand that this was Juno's journey - but she would have never gone on this journey without him. And he's so good! You don't put Michael Cera in your movie and relegate him to a minor role. Not only that but they gave fully fleshed-out arcs to characters like Bateman and Garner - why not give Cera more of a fleshed-out role? They didn't even have to make them a "couple". Just have him dealing with it on his own. But they did what they did and I guess we have to live with it. Jason Bateman - I've read a lot of stuff about how his character is slimey. I don't think he's slimey at all. Juno is clearly a lot more mature than most girls her age. And Jason never wanted to grow up. He never puts out the creepy vibe. He's just sad and lonely. A girl comes into his life - a girl who seems to like all the same things that he does - she's elevated to adult status because of her condition - it seemed very natural that there's a level of attraction there.

And lastly, sometimes Ellen Page tried a little too hard to be that alternative hipster girl that's too-cool-for-school. It got a little annoying. That said, I can't think of one other actress who would've played this part better.
 
I adored this movie. Definitely one of my favorites from the last few months. It's best attributes by far would have to be the pitch perfect casting - seriously, every part, from Juno's parents, to her friend, to of course the heroine herself - and the dialogue - I enjoyed the almost relentless sarcasm and "dryness" of it all. Sorry if my opinions a bit one sided, but hey, it was my kind of flick, and I loved it for what it was. That, and after "Thank You For Smoking" I couldn't NOT be a fan of Jason Reitman's directing.
 
this is my favorite of the year so far. i was worried at first because it felt way too clever. The convenience store guy was too much. but then once it got going it was funny enough that it didn't matter.

The thing i like the most about this movie is how the jokes don't seem to be written for the audience but for the other characters (with the exception of the convenience store guy). i saw it twice and laughed harder the second time (except for the convenience store guy).

Is Ellen Page old enough for me to have a crush on her?
 
She's 20, I believe (though she looks even younger than Juno's 16, IMO).

I liked this film a lot too, but my favorite characters were Juno's father and stepmother. Those were great, dry comedic performances.
 
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