Don't Believe the Hype

A Masterpiece!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Love this movie and think people love to hate Indies sometimes. Support strong female leads.

this is one pop culture touchstone that has aged super well. i can't believe this came out 10 years ago, because it feels as relevant and funny as it did when it first hit screens in 2007. Diablo Cody's writing mingles perfectly with Jason Reitman's soft handed direction and this remains the high water mark for both creatives. acting is great across the board. if you've been dodging this particular piece of americana, now is the perfect time to give it a watch.

When Juno, a single and pregnant teenager, announces that she is "losing faith in humanity," her long-suffering father asks if she can narrow it down a little. This scene, as serious and poignant as it is funny and charming, provides a glimpse of the tone and tenor of the film throughout. Everyone, even a convenience store clerk, has something snarky to say. Tense situations are disarmed by humor and sympathy.Juno is obviously not ready to be a mother, yet she handles her situation with inherent panache and a curious blend of independence, optimism, sarcasm and diligence. In searching for a well-off and decent couple who will provide a good home for her baby, Juno displays more maturity than most adults. The childish antics of her elders and the serious nature of her situation cause Juno to do some serious soul searching along with attempting to discover someone who loves her for who she really is.Ten years after the release of Juno and it is still original, cute and exceedingly snarky. The untraditional plot and dialogue are refreshing. Ellen Page (Juno) carries not only a baby, but the film as well. She is a natural for such a role and perfectly cast. Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons are wonderful in their supporting roles. I wonder how much their future success depended on their roles here? Depth and nuance (beyond being snarky), however, are lacking. There should be plain English subtitles for the language of other generations, young and old (ha, ha)! Maybe the wait is another ten years for such an app.

Oh yeah, just what we need, a movie that role models the glory of teenage pregnancy that makes it look like a normal, every day, kickin' thing to do. I defy anyone to find me a teenage girl like Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) who can be as glib as she was considering her condition, with the confidence to blurt out multiple cultural references at the drop of a hat. Come to think of it, prospective adoption mother Vanessa Loring (Jennifer garner) wasn't much better - custard or cheesecake? - good grief! At that point I didn't know whether the movie was a cutesy treatment of teenage angst or an outright spoof of the Millennial generation. Scratch that, there didn't seem to be any angst here at all.The biggest problem I had with the entire movie was Juno's flippant attitude with just about everything that came her way. Can anyone be that disconnected from real life situations that have the potential to be life altering in unforeseen ways? The mid-stream course reversal by Mark Loring (Jason Bateman) also seemed to come out of left field. It sounded like the couple was trying for a baby for a long time, and now that one was on the horizon, he bails on his wife? The one thing I'm glad of is that the picture didn't have him make an outright play for Juno, because it looked like things were leaning in that direction with a couple of the set ups.One thing I liked - this is only the second film I've ever seen that carried a reference to my favorite Seventies rock 'n roll band - Mott the Hoople. I never ran across anybody else who ever heard of them. In case you're wondering, the other picture was "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore".