Juno

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Teenage pregnancy is a quite complex and hot topic today. Each one will have their opinion about it and I have mine, but I will keep it to myself, I think this is not the time to talk about it. In any case, the film is neither for nor against. It limits itself to creating a very interesting story around this theme, and the way two young people, clearly unprepared to be parents and who had sex just because of a day of boredom, face the imminent arrival of a baby. The story is quite good and the script deserved an Oscar, but what stood out the most for me was Ellen Page's superb interpretation. She was an unknown actress until this film and deserved all the recognition she earned. She is simply ultra-convincing in the role of a sixteen-year-old girl, still quite childish in her way of being and thinking, but who is experiencing a moment of maturation by force. I loved the way she spoke using teen slang, and the way her character seems almost unaware of the seriousness of what happened in her life. Michael Cera is also very good, but his character is simply amorphous, he doesn't have half of Juno's sharp and irreverent personality. However, both characters are simply too credible and really look like many teenagers that I have met in my life. Much less credible, for me, was her parents' quiet reaction... most parents would simply have had a heart attack. At that point, the film lost a little bit for me, but maybe it's the difference in cultures that speaks louder. Technically, the film didn't catch my attention, but I liked the cinematography, the way the film manages to follow the months of pregnancy and give us the perception of the passage of that time and the transformations in the body, life and mentality of young Juno. The sets and costumes are very good, sometimes with some implicit ironic or comic load. The soundtrack is also quite interesting and fits well with the spirit of the film.

Started well but ran out of steam about half way through. Page is excellent throughout but I expected more from the Bateman/Garmer couple and it did feel a little like an MTV show.

Comedy is always dependent on culture and geography. "Judo" is not an exception to this rule and the subject of the film, the child of reading, is a current and delicate subject. The strong point of the movie can be considered its good script. "Diablo Cody was first persuaded by the film's producer, Mason Novick, who had already signed him for his memoir, to write a screenplay beforehand, which became Juno". He was able to get the Oscar for the best non-adapted screenplay for this film. The film met with good success and received good reviews from critics.

Jason Bateman’s excellent (& brave) performance was the only redeeming aspect of this film. If Juno had been a boy, then that absurd, non-sexual forced sex-act imposed upon the Michael Ceramic character would have been considered assault. The sex had to be depicted as non-sexual because in American films sex must have disastrous results, & we viewers needed to view Ellen(now Elliott) as an innocent who stumbles into pregnancy, so that the rest of the ridiculous plot could unfold.