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Juno (2007)

Director: Jason Reitman

Time Out rating

Average user rating

94 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

www.timeout.com

Don’t look to Jason Reitman’s multi-Oscar-nominated second film for a tell-it-how-it-is window on teenage pregnancy nor a two-finger salute to the anti-abortion right. Ignore, too, its ‘Ghost World’-styled ‘indie’ clothing. Rising star Ellen Page, dressed down and knocked-up, admittedly, gives a confident performance as the eponymous 16-year-old, put-down-queen heroine with the impressive ’70s-era taste (The Stooges, Dario Argento horror).

But, just as her supposedly ‘counter-cultural’ profile looks like an assembly from a studio’s cultural dressing department, so does her endless series of screwball-sharp quips, clever quotes and wise-before-her-years aphorisms often seem to emanate from another body entirely – presumably that of devilish scriptwriter and ex-Pussy Ranch blogster Diablo Cody. ‘Very beautiful and very mean, like Diana Ross,’ is how Juno describes the Roman god for whom she is named – how funny, high- school and 16 is that?

The most you can say about ‘Juno’ – given you can ignore the film’s air of contrivance, self-consciousness and cake-and-eat-it attitude to social and moral issues (most clearly seen in the abortion clinic scene, where Juno decides to keep ‘the thing’ because of the centre’s unpleasant smell) – is that it at least tries to inject some wit and engagement into the tired teen ‘coming-of-age’ comedy.

The direction, surprisingly for the supposedly ‘edgy’ material, is conventional, but the acting offers compensations. Allison Janney and JK Simmons (as stepmom and sympathetic dad) are engaging, despite their parts being rather obvious counter-caricatures; and Michael Cera is sweet and believable as geeky impregnator Paulie.

Author: Wally Hammond 2007-10-22 15:14:00

Time Out London Issue 1955 Feb 6 to 13, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Jana said...

Posted on Jan 15 2008 18:31 As an adopted individual, it disgusts me to hear that a movie depicting the choice for adoption is anti-abortion propaganda. You show a pro-abortion rather than pro-choice mentality, and it doesn't help your cause.

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Dan Solomon said...

Posted on Jan 15 2008 12:54 Weird, I thought "pro-choice" meant that we were supposed to be into a woman's right to choose, not lamenting movies for depicting women who choose to carry to term. That sort of thing seems to give credence to the anti-choice crowd's depiction of pro-choice as de facto pro-abortion. Not sure why you'd want to strengthen that perception, myself...

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Matt said...

Posted on Dec 30 2007 22:52 I really don't see this film as anti-abortion. The decision to have the baby is made arbitrarily and it seems more like it's taken because her opinion is that she can perform a service for someone and that she can cope with the circumstances. For me, this film wasn't about abortion or teen pregnancy at all but was far broader in scope. And it tried to be funny too. While its dialogue is populated by a 'hipster lexicon', surely there is nothing wrong with writing a movie in a specific style? That's a question of taste rather than quality/ability.
I liked it, and like most people watching it around me I found Page's character and acting incredibly enjoyable.
It seems the poster above may have a personal vendetta against consideration of the issues raised in the film. If you've been through what he did, don't go and see a comedy-drama about it.
Duh.

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paul vanotti said...

Posted on Dec 17 2007 08:00 You hit it totally right in your review. Juno is nothing more than thinly disguised anti-abortion propaganda. As in Knocked Up, the woman accepts the unwanted pregnancy and delivery of child as her fate. The glib sixteen year old Juno reminds me nothing of my sixteen year old girlfriend named June who in 1968 became pregnant by her eighteen year old boyfriend--me. I was threatened with jail by her mother under California law at the time, Later my girlfriend almost died at an abortion clinic in San Luis Sonora Mexico. I'd love to see the film of Juno with the dilema of an unwanted pregancy when abortion was a felony, and there were no services for woman and their partners.

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