Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney Directed By: Jason Reitman Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Color, Widescreen, NTSC Label: 20th Century Fox Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: April 15, 2008 Running Time: 96 minutes Theatrical Release Date: December 14, 2207
Amazon.com: Somewhere between the sharp satire of Election and the rich human comedy of You Can Count On Me lies Juno, a sardonic but ultimately compassionate story of a pregnant teenage girl who wants to give her baby up for adoption. Social misfit Juno (Ellen Page, Hard Candy, X-Men: The Last Stand) protects herself with a caustic wit, but when she gets pregnant by her friend Paulie (Michael Cera, Superbad), Juno finds herself unwilling to terminate the pregnancy. When she chooses a couple who place a classified ad looking to adopt, Juno gets drawn further into their lives than she anticipated. But Juno is much more than its plot; the stylized dialogue (by screenwriter Diablo Cody) seems forced at first, but soon creates a richly textured world, greatly aided by superb performances by Page, Cera, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the prospective parents, and J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man) and Allison Janney as Juno's father and stepmother. Director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) deftly keeps the movie from slipping into easy, shallow sarcasm or foundering in sentimentality. The result is smarter and funnier than you might expect from the subject matter, and warmer and more touching than you might expect from the cocky attitude. Page's performance is deceptively simple; she never asks the audience to love her, yet she effortlessly carries a movie in which she's in almost every scene. That's star power. --Bret Fetzer
Get to Know Juno's Cast
Ellen Page (Juno MacGuff)
Michael Cera (Paulie Bleeker)
Jennifer Garner (Vanessa Loring)
Jason Bateman (Mark Loring)
Allison Janney (Bren MacGuff)
J.K. Simmons (Mac MacGuff)
Beyond Juno
Juno Soundtrack
More from Screenwriter Diablo Cody
More from Fox
Stills from Juno
Description: Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is a cool, confident teenager who takes a nine-month detour into adulthood when she's faced with an unplanned pregnancy-and sets out to find the perfect parents for her baby. With the help of her charmingly unassuming boyfriend (Michael Cera), supportive dad (J.K Simmons) and no-nonsense stepmom (Allison Janney), Juno sets her sights on an affluent couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) longing to adopt their first child.
Funny, Heart Tugging, and must see... Juno MacGuff, is 16 and pregnant. On her way to the Abortion clinic, one of her teenage high school friends catches her attention by letting her know that her 12 week old fetus has finger nails - this hits home with Juno that something human is growing inside of her - so she decides to put the baby up for adoption. She finds her adoptive parents in the want-ads and the story grows from here.
Juno reminds me of the great French film Amelie - it's hard not to smile throughout this movie and the feel-good-finish tugs at your heart. Ellen Page, who plans Juno MacGuff, is the star of the show - she's quirky and sarcastic with her one-liners yet you are drawn to her as she wrestles with one of life's toughest challenges.
The catchy contemporary folk songs round out this "must-see" movie.
Awesome movie Great movie. It absolutely substantiates the idea that you don't have to give up your life if you get knocked up as a young teenager. A lot of societies, including where I grew up, insist that you need to take up responsibility for your "mistakes" and bind innocent children to resentful parents. The movie is very well written and the actors are great and funny. I'd recommend this to anyone.
Hilarious, fun, touching, warm, cute, what can I say? I love this movie! First of all, it's laugh-out-loud funny. The language is fast and off-the-wall and you'll wish you had a kid with you to translate, but then you'll find yourself using (or at least thinking) with some of these expressions. (If you are way over the hill like me, it's fun to at least sound cool again! LOL)
Juno is your typical "misfit" kid, albeit with a very quick wit and her own take on the world. She's crushing on Paulie, who is not your typical teen-movie hottie, and so, she seduces him, resulting in yep, another teen pregnancy.
I think this movie is a *must* for parents of teens or pre-teens. Even if you need a translator. Watch it with your kids and talk about it. Even if it scares the crap out of you.
P.S., I love the music, too.
A potential classic To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what Juno is supposed to be. If it was intended as a true-to-life story of teenage pregnancy, then it's almost certainly a failure. The film's titular sixteen-year-old protagonist is the luckiest teen mom in the history of humanity; her parents are completely supportive, the father is hopelessly in love with her, and there's even a nice yuppie couple that's willing to take the little tyke off of her hands. And that's only because Juno decided not to have an abortion, which also would have been fine with all concerned parties. Which isn't to say that it's all sunshine and flowers for the girl (at one point, she even cries real tears!), but it is safe to determine that the movie romanticizes all of the anguish out of teen pregnancy. A female friend of mine jokingly remarked that watching Juno made her want to rush right out and get knocked up. Similarly, Juno isn't much of a coming-of-age story. That genre demands that its characters be challenged,
So why the not-too-shabby rating? Well, I like to look on the bright side of things. I see Juno as a vehicle for some great characters and fantastic acting. Of course, Ellen Page steals the show with her generation-defining take on the title role. Her performance is just plain completely wonderful, full of humor and warmth and intelligence and charm. The character itself is a fantastic creation, an endearing balance of coy sarcasm and raw vulnerability hidden under a charming sheen of pop-culture references and smart teenage cool. She's what every sixteen-year-old kid with an above average IQ wishes they could be (Trust me, I tried but couldn't pull it off). Other highlights include Mark and Vanessa (played ably by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), the complex, shifty, but ultimately sympathetic adoptive parents of Juno's kid. There's also Michael Cera, whose portrayal of the meek, endearingly awkward father provides a great foil to Juno's quiet strength. Throw in a duo of goofy parents (yes, Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons are great), a pleasantly ditzy best friend (Olivia Thrilby), and a hilarious appearance by Rainn Wilson, and you've got yourself an irresistible cast of characters.
In the end, I see Juno (film and character) as a female counterpart to boy-driven smart teen comedies like The Breakfast Club and Charlie Bartlett. Its subject matter isn't handled perfectly, but its humor and charm are spot-on.
16 is the new 40 In this fairy tale for adults [I've never seen so many happy endings to plot threads] global warming shows its upside. The Q10 factor kicks in and high school students have undergone rapid maturation, due to temperature rise, which makes them SO ready to take over the world. Since this is is fairy tale land no adult seems to mind or even really notice for more than a nano.
A plus was the acting which was uniformly good - except the baby daddy who was so bland I can't remember his name, and Jennifer Garner. Her role had an unfairytale-like odor of desperation about it, but even worse, her acting was thin and shrill, in an evil step-sister way that just hit the wrong note.
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