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After Sin saw Juno with her boyfriend, Positive Pat, she called me and said, "I thought of you through that whole movie." She said I'd like it because me and Juno had a lot of similarities. Juno kinda reminded her of me. Having now seen the film I can see what she's talking about.
Juno: prickly and defensive, sarcastic and opinionated, given to melodrama, frustrated by other people's apathy and stupidity, Sometimes short tempered and always interested in things that aren't "normal". Normalcy, in my world like in Juno's, is highly overrated.
I loved the movie. I loved Ellen Page and Michael Cera. Jennifer Garner was beautifully controlled and yet vulnerable. She was that character who always looked on the verge of cracking. Jason Bateman was perfectly lovely and vaguely loser-ish. I knew where their relationship was going as soon as he sat down on the couch. Although the tenor of the move makes you hope that he won't leave in the end, he really is a character "living out of boxes." There is no real sense of him in the house and as you realize his personality has been relegated to certain rooms, you realize that his investment in the marriage and in the baby is non-existent. The developing relationship between Mark and Juno is vaguely uncomfortable as you realize that in some way they are attracted to each other. It's especially odd because although you can see the Juno to Mark thing (there's always that point where teenage girls love older men), Mark being attracted to a sixteen year old teen pregnant with his soon-to=be adopted baby is a little disturbing. It also highlights his immaturity, the way that he is married to this idea of a life post high school, but before marriage. To Juno's credit, I think mostly she's looking for companionship, having distanced herself from Bleeker, and to not be quite so alone.
Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons were awesome as Juno's parents. They were parents, I think; any kid would love to have, stable, caring and proactive. I loved that Janney (as Juno's stepmom, Brenda) dived right into the practicalities of pregnancy. The slap down with the ultrasound tech was all shades of awesome.
Oddly, the movie wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be in terms of morality and social consciousness. There were two small moments of tension, with the lone picketer outside of Women Now (where they help women now) and with the holier-than-thou ultrasound technician, but in general the burden of Juno being pregnant didn't really seem to affect anyone. I did wonder if this movie was going to end with Juno having some kind of revelation about being a mother and deciding to keep the baby or opt for the "Open" adoption initially presented to her, but I was very, very glad to see that didn't happen. It would have been a trite and clichéd way to end a lovely, thoughtful movie. Although Juno's declaration of undying love to Bleeker was a little eyeball rolling with the mushy, it was sweet. What was even sweeter was the end voiceover where she admits that Bleeker is the cheese to her macaroni, a perfectly Juno-esque sentiment. Bleeker holding her after the baby's birth while she mourns, just a little bit, was bittersweet. The Orange Tic Tacs in the mailbox were awesome!
Juno is only superficially about teen pregnancy. To me, the themes of the film revolved more closely around owning your actions and being unafraid of the decisions that you will make. The people are flawed, they make mistakes but they deal with those mistakes using their bright minds, punchy dialogue and a pretty neat soundtrack. The so-called "Juno Effect" that circulated in the media after the movie's release, I think, was a desperate and silly attempt at assigning blame for the mistakes we have made and continue to make as a society. It's so en vogue to blame films or music or TV. People don't like to look at the ugly cold sores of their own contributions to the problems in the world. Juno does not glorify pregnancy; it doesn't make adoption or abortion look like easy alternatives. From the beginning, its obvious Juno isn't interested in mother hood, but she weighs her options and then dives in full steam ahead. After the baby's birth while Bleeker comforts her and Vanessa (Garner) goes to see her new baby, Juno's voiceover says that the baby was never *really* theirs (hers and Bleekers), he was always Vanessa's. That detachment from the pregnancy and the baby permeated the movie and made the ending a plausible conclusion because Juno (the movie) is NEVER *really* about the baby.
So, Juno has a baby, gives it up for adoption and then gets back to the business of being a kid. I read one review for the film where the critic really hated it, disparaging pretty much everything. That critic and the people who tried so hard to blame the sins of society at Juno's tiny feet, I think, are pretty preposterous and I wonder what kind of role models do the y *want* for their kids. Ignoring Juno's naïveté and her pregnancy, everything else about her was pretty sharp -- smart, confident, definitive and self-possessed. I'd rather my kid watch and emulate Juno than the vapid, cookie cutter trollops on shows like Gossip Girl and The Hills. I'd take a Juno over a Heidi any day.
Diablo Cody, the scriptwriter, had this to say about the movie:
"You can look at it as a film that celebrates life and celebrates childbirth, or you can look at it as a film about a liberated young girl who makes a choice to continue being liberated. Or you can look at it as some kind of twisted love story, you know, a meditation on maturity."
I think that Juno is all of those things. Each character is on a different journey and just happens to meet briefly at the same crossroad.
I could only wish that I were as snarky, cool and clever as Juno when I was sixteen. At that age, I was buried in books and avoiding the real world with single minded determination. Juno is more of me, now, older and far more confident, but still dealing with issues beyond my maturity level.
Juno: prickly and defensive, sarcastic and opinionated, given to melodrama, frustrated by other people's apathy and stupidity, Sometimes short tempered and always interested in things that aren't "normal". Normalcy, in my world like in Juno's, is highly overrated.
I loved the movie. I loved Ellen Page and Michael Cera. Jennifer Garner was beautifully controlled and yet vulnerable. She was that character who always looked on the verge of cracking. Jason Bateman was perfectly lovely and vaguely loser-ish. I knew where their relationship was going as soon as he sat down on the couch. Although the tenor of the move makes you hope that he won't leave in the end, he really is a character "living out of boxes." There is no real sense of him in the house and as you realize his personality has been relegated to certain rooms, you realize that his investment in the marriage and in the baby is non-existent. The developing relationship between Mark and Juno is vaguely uncomfortable as you realize that in some way they are attracted to each other. It's especially odd because although you can see the Juno to Mark thing (there's always that point where teenage girls love older men), Mark being attracted to a sixteen year old teen pregnant with his soon-to=be adopted baby is a little disturbing. It also highlights his immaturity, the way that he is married to this idea of a life post high school, but before marriage. To Juno's credit, I think mostly she's looking for companionship, having distanced herself from Bleeker, and to not be quite so alone.
Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons were awesome as Juno's parents. They were parents, I think; any kid would love to have, stable, caring and proactive. I loved that Janney (as Juno's stepmom, Brenda) dived right into the practicalities of pregnancy. The slap down with the ultrasound tech was all shades of awesome.
Oddly, the movie wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be in terms of morality and social consciousness. There were two small moments of tension, with the lone picketer outside of Women Now (where they help women now) and with the holier-than-thou ultrasound technician, but in general the burden of Juno being pregnant didn't really seem to affect anyone. I did wonder if this movie was going to end with Juno having some kind of revelation about being a mother and deciding to keep the baby or opt for the "Open" adoption initially presented to her, but I was very, very glad to see that didn't happen. It would have been a trite and clichéd way to end a lovely, thoughtful movie. Although Juno's declaration of undying love to Bleeker was a little eyeball rolling with the mushy, it was sweet. What was even sweeter was the end voiceover where she admits that Bleeker is the cheese to her macaroni, a perfectly Juno-esque sentiment. Bleeker holding her after the baby's birth while she mourns, just a little bit, was bittersweet. The Orange Tic Tacs in the mailbox were awesome!
Juno is only superficially about teen pregnancy. To me, the themes of the film revolved more closely around owning your actions and being unafraid of the decisions that you will make. The people are flawed, they make mistakes but they deal with those mistakes using their bright minds, punchy dialogue and a pretty neat soundtrack. The so-called "Juno Effect" that circulated in the media after the movie's release, I think, was a desperate and silly attempt at assigning blame for the mistakes we have made and continue to make as a society. It's so en vogue to blame films or music or TV. People don't like to look at the ugly cold sores of their own contributions to the problems in the world. Juno does not glorify pregnancy; it doesn't make adoption or abortion look like easy alternatives. From the beginning, its obvious Juno isn't interested in mother hood, but she weighs her options and then dives in full steam ahead. After the baby's birth while Bleeker comforts her and Vanessa (Garner) goes to see her new baby, Juno's voiceover says that the baby was never *really* theirs (hers and Bleekers), he was always Vanessa's. That detachment from the pregnancy and the baby permeated the movie and made the ending a plausible conclusion because Juno (the movie) is NEVER *really* about the baby.
So, Juno has a baby, gives it up for adoption and then gets back to the business of being a kid. I read one review for the film where the critic really hated it, disparaging pretty much everything. That critic and the people who tried so hard to blame the sins of society at Juno's tiny feet, I think, are pretty preposterous and I wonder what kind of role models do the y *want* for their kids. Ignoring Juno's naïveté and her pregnancy, everything else about her was pretty sharp -- smart, confident, definitive and self-possessed. I'd rather my kid watch and emulate Juno than the vapid, cookie cutter trollops on shows like Gossip Girl and The Hills. I'd take a Juno over a Heidi any day.
Diablo Cody, the scriptwriter, had this to say about the movie:
"You can look at it as a film that celebrates life and celebrates childbirth, or you can look at it as a film about a liberated young girl who makes a choice to continue being liberated. Or you can look at it as some kind of twisted love story, you know, a meditation on maturity."
I think that Juno is all of those things. Each character is on a different journey and just happens to meet briefly at the same crossroad.
I could only wish that I were as snarky, cool and clever as Juno when I was sixteen. At that age, I was buried in books and avoiding the real world with single minded determination. Juno is more of me, now, older and far more confident, but still dealing with issues beyond my maturity level.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-14 01:51 am (UTC)From:I'm not trying to be snarky, so I hope I don't come off that way. I really am interested in what you have to say on films, even when my opinion differs.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 05:11 am (UTC)From:I have an easier time finding something good in film than in books. I'm more tolerant for some reason, keeping in mind that different movies are made for different effects. It's easier for me with movies than with books because I am SO much more tolerant of film for some reason.
It's kind of how you and Joy are really getting a kick out of the Twilight series, but how I can only stomach it from afar. I'm in love with all the recaps and lol's when it's filtered but reading the books myself was an utter failure.