Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Juno (2007)
Director: Jason Reitman
Movie review
From Time Out New York
We may remember 2007 as the annus cinemus in which everyone freaked out about abortion (was Randall Terry secretly serving as a big-studio producer?) and in which the number of films with teenage-girl protagonists—ranging from the sublime (In Between Days) to the execrable (Bratz)—showed an uptick. Add to the gang of adolescent weirdos 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Page), an acid-tongued Minnesotan who’s got a bun in the oven after doing it with her puppyish track-star pal, Bleeker (Cera).
That Juno makes it into the waiting room of an abortion clinic (albeit in a scene tarnished by casual racism) already puts the film light-years ahead of the self-fellating, deeply conservative Knocked Up. That she should leave the facility in a hot second and decide to give the kid up for adoption by two yuppies (Garner and Bateman) surprisingly doesn’t register as reactionary, thanks to the zingy script by Diablo Cody and fantastic performances all around. Page is particularly blessed with terrific lines, but Cody’s smart, acerbicly compassionate observations extend to all the female characters, including Garner’s upwardly neurotic mother-to-be and Allison Janney’s cranky, supportive stepmom. It’s all the more disappointing, then, that our intrepid young heroine should be so completely sold out in the last 15 minutes of this brisk film. Juno aggressively pushes its title character upon us as a nonconformist. The strategy doesn’t grate because the movie so successfully delivers on its promise—until our gal starts speaking lines that sound more like something from Love Story. The betrayal cuts deep. In the end, Juno is a breech birth.
Author: Melissa Anderson
Time Out New York Issue 636: December 6-12, 2007
User reviews of this film
-
- Hannah said...
- Posted on Aug 13 2009 17:55 While this movie was funny, it lacked a certain depth that I cannot fully explain. Michael Cera and Jason Bateman were definitely the best parts of this funny, yet shallow, movie.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- YOU R ALL DUMB said...
- Posted on May 06 2009 17:49 JUNO ROCKS YOU ARE ALL DUMB . IF YOUI TYHINK TV TEACHES TEENS THEN YOU MUST BE MISTAKEN. ANYWAY IF YOU ACTUALLY FOLLOOW THE SATEPS OF A ACTOR IN A MOVIE YOUR RETARED AND DESERVE TO DIE.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Susan said...
- Posted on Apr 14 2009 21:03 I work with 16 year olds every day. I am a high school teacher for 30 years and have never met a girl like Juno. Especially one that faces the complexities of being pregnant with such a lack of anxiety. Her hip and witty character would have been great if pregnancy were not part of the film. This is such a shallow, unrealistic model of a 16 year old dealing with some important choices. The movie was crisply written, well acted and certainly knew how to appeal to high school kids. They love it! To me, it is a highly polished, hipster film with a very disappointing lack of depth. Definitely style over substance.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Stew said...
- Posted on May 11 2008 03:03 Every 16 year old should see this movie and see its ok to have sex and babys, hell the world is so screwed up what difference does it make if one more kid is born. It is hip to be smart and have great comebacks and scewed up parents who don't react to their kids life. Strumming a guitar makes it all OK. Write a poem, and do some art it cures all the problems of the world! Teach the poor and the starving to write scripts!
- Report as inappropriate
-
- katlyn said...
- Posted on May 05 2008 13:33 "adam from liberaltown" i dont agree with you and i dont really understand what you mean by "What this film needed was MORE ABORTION! " abortion should not be used as a birth control. if people don't think they need to wrap it up then they deserve the consequences. as for Juno, "and for any other WOMAN" its there choice if they want to keep the child or "kill" it. but as for the movie, near the end i got kinda worried i thought there was gonna be something going on with the husband...but i was glad to see nothing did. and since i work at blockbuster, the songs are always stuck in my head! I loved this movie!
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Adam from Liberaltown said...
- Posted on May 03 2008 19:56 I agree with Melissa Anderson's review. What this film needed was MORE ABORTION! I was so excited to see an intelligent film about teen pregnancy, but apparently it wasn't so intelligent after all. I felt BETRAYED by the life of that baby being allowed to continue (not that it was living before it was born, of course. Its unique DNA magically appears in the living tissue as it passes through the birth canal, before which it is made only of the mother's DNA and therefore is a part of her body). But I agree that Juno is better than the ultra-conservative Knocked Up. Excellent observation by Melissa Anderson - whoring around at clubs, internet sites about nude celebrities, getting fecal matter in your eyes; the whole movie was like a sermon at a Baptist (evil) church. Juno isn't conservative like that, but it still isn't progressive enough. When will we finally get a movie that represents the real America: a story about lesbians getting artificically inseminated just so they can exercise their right to have abortions. THAT would get a good review here. The only argument I have with Miss Anderson is her pejorative use of the term "breech birth". A breech birth is better than a regular one, because there's more chance of the baby dying. So I would call Juno "a healthy delivery". Yuck!
- Report as inappropriate
-
- G said...
- Posted on Apr 17 2008 14:34 Good Movie; appropriate dialog, mostly; appropriate music, mostly. For those who think being "Indie" or not really matters or think posting a movie review entitles you to go off on your own ideals related to "Pro-choice" or Pro-Life", Get Over Yourself. It's a movie and a decent one.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Sofia said...
- Posted on Apr 09 2008 16:42 The soundtrack and film are mediocre. Yes, it follows current trends in mediocre music and overly sarcastic teenager being glorified. Keeping in mind that I am a teenager, a message on the Pro-Life/Pro-Choice issue was a cheap ploy for density from a movie so sparse.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- gabo said...
- Posted on Apr 07 2008 22:56 Apparently for some of you it seems like Juno doesn't care enough about the baby, for some others at the end she sells out because she does give a crap and does not have an abortion as a liberal girl would do. It does have a point however. Although everything sounds way too easy at first, it's not weird that a marriage whit a divorced father and a stepmother takes a casual approach on a situation like this. It's even more common that 16 year old kids take it so lightly, TV teaches them to do so, it's everyday stuff according to it. However on the way the movie lets you know that it's not quite so easy and at the end Juno does realize that she lost a part of her (she does have feelings after all), therefore it's not as conservative as too drop out of school, learn to cook and raise it (cause as we learn from the movie not everyone, young or adult, is fit to be a parent), nor is she as indiferent as too let it die like something you throw in the garbage (have sex and if something happens you can always end it). To me it seems like the most reasonable thing to do and the movie does a fine job showing it as well as showing that in this case no choice is 100% a happy one.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- ruby said...
-
Posted on Apr 03 2008 18:19
completely disagree with "joel"..apart from anything "left-leaning person I've ever met is disturbing and a serious step backwards in our fast-declining culture"... what a load of pretentious crap.
I loved the film anyway - Report as inappropriate
-
- Joel said...
- Posted on Apr 02 2008 12:01 This film is in no way "light years ahead" of deeply conservative values. The "do what you want, when you want" attitude of every left-leaning person I've ever met is disturbing and a serious step backwards in our fast-declining culture. This movie exudes unapologetic selfishness in the extreme, almost by every character, and is a disgusting perversion of human love.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- annah. said...
- Posted on Mar 25 2008 12:22 Damn awesome :) Best film ive seen in YEARS
- Report as inappropriate
-
- RoxieM said...
- Posted on Mar 13 2008 10:57 Juno had potential but the constant raving from all sides about how wonderful this is gave me high expectations... they were not met.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- JohnP said...
- Posted on Mar 03 2008 10:12 Best summed up with one word - RUBBISH
- Report as inappropriate
-
- mushie said...
- Posted on Feb 23 2008 19:14 thought that it was gonna be awesome. however apart from some awkward dislogue (funny at times), it was way too dry. not enough character development to portray the reality of the situation. good acting (as in portrayal of script requirement), however the storyline did not permit the characters to shine (apart from juno that is). tried too hard to be funny in my honest opinion.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Jason Reitman
Cast: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney full cast
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 95 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now