Juno (Two-Disc Special Edition with Digital Copy)

Buy This Item Juno (Two-Disc Special Edition with Digital Copy) by Twentieth Centuy Fox  Available from Amazon  $22.99  on 8-29-2008     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. Reader Reviews Besides the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men and Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, the film that I heard the most about last year and pouring into this year was Jason Reitman's Juno. For a short duration of time, it became the hip film to watch, and praise was spreading like wildfire across the Internet and college campuses, however, as these things go, as the film gained popularity, the film gained quite a number of detractors. I honestly could not tell if the film was gaining criticism because it was not as great as the ballyhoo of the masses was making it out to be or if it was being criticized because it had become such a popular film and had "loss" its indie cred. Therefore, when the film came to my local indie theater/bar/restaurant, my companion to the film had a large beer within the theater, I decided to check out the film. My reaction: cute...but definitely not the best thing ever. With so many others already having written a plot synopsis of the film I won't elaborate too much here on the story. The story centers on a Juno MacGuff, a precocious, sharp-tongued high school student who after her one and only sexual foray with the meek, geeky Paulie Bleeker finds herself pregnant. Almost instantaneously after finding out that she is pregnant; she decides to have an abortion, but partially because she runs into a classmate named Su-chin protesting in front of the abortion clinic, "All babies want to get borned!," and learned that her baby has fingernails, she decides to give the baby up for adoption. In the classifieds, next to a section concerning parakeets, she finds a couple looking for a baby: Vanessa and Mark Loring. With her gruff, but supportive, heating and air conditioning repairman father in tow, Juno meets Vanessa and Mark in their rich, yuppie neighborhood. Juno likes Mark because he is a musician, although he writes commercial jingles instead of the Seattle grunge scene music he once aspired to, and is tolerant of Vanessa who seems to have a good heart despite being a bit high strung, so she seems to be pretty set to give the baby to the couple, however, are things ever that simple? I must be honest and say that I was prepared to dislike the film, and at first I did. The dialogue was quite artificial, ala Kevin Smith, and seemed to be trying too hard at some points. Also, the name dropping was quite prevalent, Thurston Moore, Dario Argento, etc., was a bit too thick and seemed to smack of "oh, look how indie we are, hur, hur," but as the film continued, I was drawn into it and came to enjoy it for what, in my opinion, it was: a cute movie that does tackle some heavy issues. Also, the film does have a good soundtrack, and I am glad that it introduced me to the anti-folk musician Kimya Dawson.

Juno (Two-Disc Special Edition with Digital Copy) Available from Amazon Price: $22.99 Updated on 8-29-2008.

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