Juno
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Cast: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman
Director: Jason Reitman
WorkNameSort: Juno
Our Rating: 4.50
In Juno, Ellen Page plays feisty Juno MacGuff, an overly articulate teenage girl who discovers she’s preggers after having sex just once with her geeky maybe-boyfriend, Bleeker (Superbad’s Michael Cera). After trying to procure but deciding against a “hasty abortion,” she opts to give the baby up for adoption to a seemingly perfect family she finds in the Penny Saver. Seriously, the Penny Saver. Though directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking), this poignant comedy, which tackles the touchy subject of teen pregnancy with a frankness that startles, owes the bulk of its triumph to the screenplay by Diablo Cody. This is not to downplay Reitman’s direction, though; it’s just that the movie is really all about the dialogue, quirkily hyper-stylized, and even Reitman knows whom to thank for that. Cody has a knack for language the way Quentin Tarantino does, except hers is as estrogen-drenched as his is blood-spattered.
This article appears in Dec 19-25, 2007.