Juno

Juno is such a warm, sweet, funny, witty, smart, touching movie. I’d say less adjectives, but then it wouldn’t feel fully justified. And at this point, it practically has Best Actress and Screenplay in the bag. I repeat. IN THE BAG. Ellen Page is excellent as whip-smart, sweet teenager Juno MacGuff, and first-time writer Diablo Cody has now written the most witty, most funny, and perhaps the best screenplay of the year.

Juno MacGuff is a witty, funny, smart teenager. So naturally, that description keeps her low on the high school social radar. She and her loyal friend Paulie try an experiment and…Juno becomes pregnant. She gathers the courage to tell her parents, in a scene with the best exchange of dialogue spoken this year. She tries going to an abortion clinic in a trip that disgusts her, and so she decides to have the baby. Juno looks in the local newspaper and finds the ‘Desperately Seeking Children’ section, next to the exotic animal ads.

They find a couple that seems perfect, named Mark and Vanessa. Vanessa is obsessed with having a child, and Mark is a 40-ish wannabe rock star. But Juno’s wise-cracking exterior is subtly shown having deeper inner feelings than we expect, and as the months go by, it sort of reveals a new layer to her.

I could go on and on about the exchanges of dialogue, but I must move on to the acting. Ellen Page, as Juno, is so funny that some one-liners echoed throughout my head for hours on end after the movie. Michael Cera doesn’t have much to do, but nails the comedic aspects as Paulie, said teen who gets Juno pregnant. And in an unexpected delight, Jennifer Garner is excellent as Vanessa, someone whose obsession with having a child may or may not pay off.

When I saw this movie, there were more people in the theater than National Treasure 2 and Alvin and the Chipmunks combined. And very few movies actually deserve. Thank Ellen Page and Diablo Cody for one of the best movies of the year. A