Juno

Released: February 1
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason
Bateman, Jennifer Garner, J.K. Simmons,
Allison Janney, Olivia Thirbly
Written by: Diablo Cody
The Story: Juno [Page] has sex in a chair with her friend Bleeker [Cera] and discovers she is pregnant as a result. Rather than have the abortion, Juno sets
about finding the ideal parents for the baby-to-be, and finds the nice, well-to-do Lorings [Bateman and Garner].


Verdict:

Juno is a resounding success combining great performances, charm and most importantly simplicity to make what is an incredibly entertaining film. Juno succeeds
where other Independant comedies went wrong (not pointing any fingers....Little Miss Sunshine) - as the film is made up of very strong characters. Within the first half an hour you will know and enjoy seeing every member of this cast on screen with not a bad performance in sight. Ellen Page is absolutely fantastic as the strong minded free spirit Juno, making the most of the brilliantly written snappy one liners. Michael Cera puts in another great performance as boyfriend Bleeker but i can't help but feel that it is very similar to his performance in Superbad. Apart from the outstanding Page there are two brilliant performances from Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as Mark and Vanessa the would be adoptive parents. Garner plays the overly nervous and fragile wife of Bateman who somewhat strangely is fantastic as Mark who throughout the movie slowly starts to realise that maybe he is not ready for this, Bateman restrains himself from playing this character comically and it works wonders.It is also nice to note that it follows in the footsteps of comedies like Judd Apatows Knocked Up and Superbad as it takes a very simple plot and does not try anything too ambitious which works entirely in its favour.Diablo Cody [Former Stripper] has produced what is one of the most interesting, funny and downright brilliant scripts of this past year in film. Juno turns the conventions of the teen movie on it's head to the point where the lines are blurred and the only thing that is for certain is that this is one outstanding picture.

Feel free to watch it and give me feedback in the comments section.

Got a JUNO link for you:

http://video.supernovatube.com/play.php?viewkey=a3e988c2af215d4e544d


Matt Gray