Juno: ***
Nonna Rating System: $$$
I actually saw Juno about a month ago and completely forgot to write the review. -- not that the movie was forgettable! Quite the contrary. It's as delightful as everyone seems to think it is and it manages to please teenagers as well as senior citizens. That, in itself, makes it a film worth seeing.
By now, everyone knows that Juno gets pregnant as the result of her first sexual experience. The father of the baby is Juno's good friend Paulie Bleeker, played by Michael Cera with the same blend of innocence and naivete he employed so effectively in Arrested Development. Juno recognizes that keeping the baby is neither in her or the baby's best interests. She decides to select the adoptive parents herself -- and then the story gets a bit more complicated.
Some have criticized the movie for making teen pregnancy "too attractive." They contend that the pregnancy seems to constitute only a minor interruption in Juno's life, a blip easily forgotten. There are, they argue, too few consequences of her irresponsible behavior. I can't agree with this assessment. The film makes clear to us, for example, that being pregnant generates all sorts of physical discomforts. In addition, Juno agonizes over her decisions about the baby and, finally, must deal with the fact that life often presents us with ambiguous situations for which we must make difficult decisions. After I watched the film, I thought, "If I had a teenage daughter and I wanted to talk to her about the possible negative consequences of sexual experimentation, I would take her to see this film and then sit down with her to talk about it."
Ellen Page's performance as Juno deserves the accolades being heaped on it. She manages to be funny and vulnerable at the same time. There is something very real about her performance. There were a few moments, however, when I groaned, when I realized that Diablo Cody, who wrote the screenplay, had put words in Juno's mouth that no teenager would utter. There were a few references which were joltingly out of place, appropriate for a 50 year old, but not a teenager. Nevertheless, Juno's smart mouth was generally a delightful entertainment. the film is definitely worth seeing. Go to the reduced price matinee. Take a teenager. You might learn something. I would have.
Nonna Rating System:
$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price
$$ = Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it
Nonna Rating System: $$$
I actually saw Juno about a month ago and completely forgot to write the review. -- not that the movie was forgettable! Quite the contrary. It's as delightful as everyone seems to think it is and it manages to please teenagers as well as senior citizens. That, in itself, makes it a film worth seeing.
By now, everyone knows that Juno gets pregnant as the result of her first sexual experience. The father of the baby is Juno's good friend Paulie Bleeker, played by Michael Cera with the same blend of innocence and naivete he employed so effectively in Arrested Development. Juno recognizes that keeping the baby is neither in her or the baby's best interests. She decides to select the adoptive parents herself -- and then the story gets a bit more complicated.
Some have criticized the movie for making teen pregnancy "too attractive." They contend that the pregnancy seems to constitute only a minor interruption in Juno's life, a blip easily forgotten. There are, they argue, too few consequences of her irresponsible behavior. I can't agree with this assessment. The film makes clear to us, for example, that being pregnant generates all sorts of physical discomforts. In addition, Juno agonizes over her decisions about the baby and, finally, must deal with the fact that life often presents us with ambiguous situations for which we must make difficult decisions. After I watched the film, I thought, "If I had a teenage daughter and I wanted to talk to her about the possible negative consequences of sexual experimentation, I would take her to see this film and then sit down with her to talk about it."
Ellen Page's performance as Juno deserves the accolades being heaped on it. She manages to be funny and vulnerable at the same time. There is something very real about her performance. There were a few moments, however, when I groaned, when I realized that Diablo Cody, who wrote the screenplay, had put words in Juno's mouth that no teenager would utter. There were a few references which were joltingly out of place, appropriate for a 50 year old, but not a teenager. Nevertheless, Juno's smart mouth was generally a delightful entertainment. the film is definitely worth seeing. Go to the reduced price matinee. Take a teenager. You might learn something. I would have.
Nonna Rating System:
$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price
$$ = Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it
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