Juno

It’s always easier to pick on lousy movies rather than try to crop up a worthy review for a truly great movie. I’ve tried to write something about Juno, but it always came out as corny and less than what the movie’s worth. But I can’t stay quiet about Juno; all this silent gushing is pressing out of my mouth in jumbled vocabulary, so this time I thought better of borrowing Roger Ebert’s review and going from there.

Jason Reitman’s “Juno” is just about the best movie of the year.

It’s not the best movie of the year, it’s the best in years. I’ve never loved a movie so much since, I don’t know, Crash? But Crash had more like that overwhelming effect on me. I didn’t exactly love it, though.

It is very smart, very funny and very touching; it begins with the pacing of a screwball comedy and ends as a portrait of characters we have come to love.

I think of smart as in Juno doesn’t follow the common teenage-girl-got-knocked-up plot, doesn’t try to preach a moral message, and it is solidly built from the first minute to the very end. I’d say Ellen Page is freaking funny, but everyone in Juno seems to be contributing to that smiling effect as a whole. And also as a whole, from the parents to teenage friendship and love, to heartfelt expectant mother, the movie oozes a touching portrait of relationships.

Strange, how during Juno’s hip dialogue and cocky bravado, we begin to understand the young woman inside, and we want to hug her.

I initially imagined Juno as someone who would either be a best friend or an enemy for someone like me. But as the movie progresses, I realize that she’s the kind of cool girl, one who doesn’t give a shit what you think of her if you don’t like her, but she can totally hangs with people who clicks with her. She won’t spare a moment for pretense; what you see is what you get. That’s why I’d really love to hang out with someone like her.

Has there been a better performance this year than Ellen Page’s creation of Juno?

Er, Cate Blanchett’s Queen Elizabeth?

I don’t think so. If most actors agree that comedy is harder than drama, then harder still is comedy depending on a quick mind, utter self-confidence, and an ability to stop just short of going too far. Page’s presence and timing are extraordinary. I have seen her in only two films, she is only 20, and I think she will be one of the great actors of her time.

Ah, okay, I buy that comedy harder than drama theory because Ebert knows his thing. Still, the last statement is kinda too much, if you know what I mean. First off, I’ve only seen her in X-Men before. In Juno case, I don’t think much of Ellen Page as an actress, I just think of her as Juno the character. And whenever I think of the latter, I imagine how natural the character must have come out of the person who played it. And Ellen Page is truly Juno for me. Ellen Page = Juno. If someone tries to put, say, Lindsay Lohan in that role, though she was able to pull the act very convincingly, even worthy of recognition, then I’d think twice of Juno as an acted role. Page herself said that acting was being able to lose herself completely to someone else. If she’s really that good outside this Juno character, then I’ll agree with Ebert.

The film’s surprises, in any event, involve not merely the plot but insights into the characters, including feelings that coil along just beneath the surface so that they seem inevitable when they’re revealed.

You know, there are lot of intelligent movies out there that involve insights into the characters, but Juno does it in its own way. I’ve said it: Juno is very naturally acted. I as a viewer see her as believable as I see the next random pregnant girl walking by the street outside. But the character is something else. Honest and unpretentious and “cool”, Juno mostly speaks out her mind in words. An example of this is when Juno and Mark dance awkwardly to a song, she starts to lean in to his shoulder, when he suddenly says he’s leaving Vanessa. There, she pulls back immediately and begins to measure the damage that’s going to happen from Mark’s statement. She’s flustered, upset, denying him, demanding they must stay together for the baby, and storms out. The feelings are so natural, and so are the repercussions.

The film has no wrong scenes and no extra scenes, and flows like running water.

Yeah, and after two viewings I can totally watch it again.

There are two repeating motifs: the enchanting songs, so simple and true, by Kimya Dawson.

I’ll admit I didn’t like the songs before I watched the movie. Now the acoustic lo-fi music just sounds so sweet, especially the number Juno and Bleeker sing together at the end, Nobody Else But You.

And the seasonal appearances of Paulie’s high school cross-country team, running past us with dogged consistency, Paulie often bringing up the rear, until his last run ends with Paulie, sweaty in running shorts, racing to Juno’s room after her delivery.

The running team placement is quite funny. I don’t know exactly what purpose they serve, but their presence, as all other scenes in the movie are, blends well with everything.

My favorite scene in the movie is the one when Juno sits in the chair she and Bleeker made out in, outside his house, with a smoke pipe slipped between her lips, and she casually delivers the pregnant news to him. I’m not sure why, but that scene is really, really great.

5.5/5 or 104%/100%.