User Reviews

This could have been a very, very good film. I enjoyed the basic plot - a quirky, tomboy-ish 16 year old discovers she's pregnant, decides to give the baby up for adoption to the "perfect couple" but finds that the perfect couple isn't so perfect - and maybe no relationship ever is.

There were also some great moments, and great lines. I like when Juno tells the baby's quirky father, Bleeker (played by Michael Cera) that he is the coolest person she knows, without even trying. And he responds that, actually, he is trying really hard (to be cool).

I guess that gets me to the problem with the movie- it's trying waaaaay too hard to be cool (by being quirky - yes I have used this word 3 times already, intentionally). In the beginning, a store clerk sees that Juno's pregnancy test is positive, and he says: "that's one diddle that can't be undone, home-skillet". I cringed. As others have mentioned, Juno has an "ironic" hamburger phone, wears "ironic" t-shirts featuring 70's era toys (Slinky), wears Converse sneakers, and can't seem to have a conversation without making pop-culture references no matter what is going on - even when her water breaks and she is headed to the hospital, she has the detached sense of irony to make a reference to a mid-80's cartoon, yelling: "Thundercats are go!" I cringed again. I get it - Juno is a hip, snarky, ironic, tough, cool-because-she-trying-not-to-be-cool chick. But she becomes a cartoon, a warped caricature of an actual quirky kid. I could not accept Juno as "real" and was painfully aware that I was watching a movie.

And that is my ONLY problem with the film. The other characters and their stories are amazing - particularly the adoptive couple, and the difficulties they are facing. The best parts of the movie are those few moments when Juno gets her uber-ironic self off the screen, and we get to enjoy the other, more realistic, characters.

Would have given this a 8.5, if not for the cartoonish-ness of the Juno character. Thundercats are not go.

At first blush, "Juno" seems like a pretty great movie. It's entertaining and lots of fun to watch. There's a great cast, and each of the film's characters are well-sketched and interesting. First-rate cinematography keeps the film colorful and engaging from start to finish. There are more than enough quirks, witty dialogues and obscure name-droppings to keep the hipsters placated. Perhaps it's just a bit pretentious and tries just a bit too hard, but these flaws could be overlooked. The movie should have been a charming little indie-lite film.

But it's not. Ultimately, I stepped out of the theater feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. The problem is that "Juno" tackles two very relevant issues in today's society –- namely, abortion and teenage pregnancy –- and utterly fails to address either in a way that is realistic or compelling. Now, maybe it's unfair to expect Juno to make a decent exploration of these complex themes. It's just a comedy, after all. However, even as many critics praise the movie's keen humor and witty banter, it's hard not to get caught up in the fact that this movie painfully abuses these highly relevant issues.

In one particularly wince-worthy scene, Juno's stepmother tells off an ultrasound technician for indicating that teenage mothers are less capable of taking care of their kids than adults. She argues that teenagers could be just as devoted to their children as their adult counterparts, and that she should stick to the things that she knows about. Instead of defending her position, the technician wordlessly exits while Juno, her friend and her stepmother exchange verbal high-fives.

The film makes offers no exploration of the ultrasound technician's completely valid viewpoint. Are teenagers ready to leave school to get a job and start supporting a dependent of their own? Are these kids really mature enough to tackle these issues? Should they have to? Does the amount of devotion to the baby really matter when you can hardly afford food and shelter? These relevant questions are left unasked. The scene is telling of either the director's ignorance or else his pointed attempt to skew facts to make a point, and neither shines well on the movie.

Juno MacGuff seems to be living in a dream world. Never mind her ridiculous vocabulary or unrealistically snappy sarcasm – her parents barely react to the news of her pregnancy, she almost effortlessly finds parents to adopt her unborn child (in a newspaper want ad, no less), the legal issues are smoothed out in the span of 30 seconds and Juno's social ostracism is hinted at but hardly explored in any meaningful way. Instead of getting a believable portrayal of teenage pregnancy, the film offers the pretentious name-dropping of hip punk bands. At one point, Juno actually says "Sonic Youth is just noise" as a biting insult. It's all a tad ridiculous.

At the end of the day, perhaps none of this should interfere with enjoyment of the movie. Perhaps one should gloss over the film's aggravating biases and enjoy what is otherwise a great film. However, the fact remains that Juno passes itself as an artsy independent film about teenage pregnancy and abortion, but it is little more than a shallow, poorly considered exploitation of these important issues.

"Juno" is funny (nearly every single line of dialogue is written to elicit laughter), directed with at just as sure a hand as "Thank You For Smoking".. possibly surer.. and acted gamely by the whole cast -- especially Olvia Thirlby and J.K. Simmons as the title character's galpal and understanding dad. The script, by Diablo Cody, is rich with one-liners; anyone who's read Candy Girl (which is unbelievably intelligent and funny; her description of Shania Twain, especially, had me rolling) will kind of know what to expect.

This is without a doubt Ellen Page's show. She's in almost every scene, and I couldn't spot an instalnce when she made a bad decision or timed a delivery anything but dead-on. During a funky, kick azz opening title sequence, Juno is on her way to the pharmacy. "I just drank my weight in Sunny D, and gotta go, pronto!" It's time for another pregnancy test, because the last result looked more like a division symbol than a plus sign. New stick: same plus.

The father's a guy Juno had sex with once upon a time, who also happens to be her best friend, Paulie Bleeker (a non-affected, quite bland Michael Cera). She decides to give it up for adoption, being 16 and all, which Paulie supports -- as do Juno's father and step-mom -- and the rest of the film is about her selection of adoptive parents.

Pretty straightforward storytelling, but with an ear for quirky, hip dialogue. If the spoken words were any more "cool", or the actors speaking them did so with any less suave, my gag reflex might have taken over. The AFF audience I saw it with, last Sunday, couldn't get enough from the second Juno tells a dog to shut up, through lines comparing babies to iPods and Alison Janney going off on a physician.

There's good stuff, here. And even though it never really swept me off my feet, the film is consistently humorous and, in one scene near the end, somewhat heartbreaking.

I rarely go the movies, I watch them on cable or rent them usually. When I heard about Juno I was interested but afraid it would disappoint. I Forgot about it and probably would have never seen it if I had not stumbled on it on cable one lazy Sunday afternoon. I think there are some very valid criticisms of the movie and of course there are some errors and questionable choices made, but the movie was filmed in 31 days which I find amazing.

One of the reasons I was afraid to see Juno was that I was Juno. Okay a little different but let's just say 17 and a senior in high school instead of 16 and a junior, everything else very similar. The biggest difference-I never met my child's adoptive parents.

I stupidly got pregnant though I knew better. Almost right away I realized abortion was not for me and that I was not ready to be a mom. No one ever talked about that 20 something years ago. You either had an abortion and no one knew or you kept the baby. At least that is the way it seemed to me.(not true I know but almost no one talked about adoption) Juno's character is quirky. I don't find her annoying in the least. She is a smart kid and she acts like one. While I can understand why some feel this movie showed teen pregnancy as having no consequences I disagree. The consequences are real for Juno. She has to deal with being pregnant, with finding adoptive parents she likes and trusts. She has to deal with school, her best friend Bleeker's emotions, her own emotions.

It is all done subtly and actually very realistically to me. Its a snapshot of what occurred. We don't know every moment of emotion and how Juno dealt with it. We do know at the end she was crying very heartfelt tears and that she felt she picked the best situation for her baby.

Its a gamble, there are no guarantees and she deals with that fact the best she can. I find her innocent relationship with Mark Loring very believable and the shaky marriage of Mark and Vanessa as real as it gets.

Yes Juno's parents seem to be over the top understanding. However you can tell they are simply accepting, loving people and are there for their daughter, why is that such a stretch for people to believe? I think this was well written, well acted, well cast and very real. The message is not that teen pregnancy and adoption is easy. To me this is one girl's story. It wasn't easy but she made the best of it and carried on with her life and gave her child a good start. As for a 16 year old knowing the references and music that Juno did, well in this day and age every one has access to old music, old TV shows, movies, etc. So its very plausible that Juno is a fan of the 1977 era and has been exposed to it via internet, cable and recordings.

It has flaws, and missteps but certainly in the end a great film and one I will watch again and again. As someone who has been through this I cried my eyes out and they were happy tears, to see that some one else saw it the way I did when I was where Juno was.

Look, I do get it. I fully appreciate that a film about a girl who gets pregnant, has an early abortion, then manages to move on, would be a pretty short movie. In fact, so short it wouldn't get made. No one wants to know about reality. And certainly in 21st century North America, no one wants to portray abortion as a viable option. Very, very bad form currently.

But when I see this film reviewed as "blazingly truthful" and the pregnant 16 year old central character described as being 'in a pickle', as I did in one review, as if perhaps she'd forgotten a homework assignment and might get detention, I have to admit that the cynic who lurks in my soul gets full rein. This is basically a cutesy film about being pregnant at 16, where despite a few problems, everyone gets to live pretty much happily ever after. Gosh, girl in a pickle comes good! Ahhh!! And apparently everyone in the cinema where I saw it was quite overwhelmed by attacks of the warm fuzzies, except me. Two seats away, a woman slightly older than me was weeping joyfully by the end while behind me, young women were giggling happily as sweet Juno's bump grew. Good grief! Is this really a message we want to give to 16 year olds?

I'm beginning to think I'm something of an oddity. You see, I don't find it 'blazingly truthful' that a bright, resourceful and articulate 16 year old as Juno is portrayed, would be so dumb as to have inadequately protected sex then seem surprised to find herself up the spout. One point of the script is that Juno herself apparently initiated the sex, thought it through in advance in fact, because she was bored. I therefore assume the pregnancy was at least to some extent planned. And if she really had no idea that sex might lead to pregnancy, her parents (portrayed as bemused but supportive), should be excoriated for such inadequate parenting. And if I see one more review which describes Juno as a comedy about growing up 'and the bumps along the way….' (I'm prepared to bet good money on that having been written by a middle aged man), I swear I'm going to run amok in the local mall with a urine dip stick. Being pregnant at 16 isn't a sweet joke, abortion clinics (whatever you think of their morality - and I'm neutral on that) are not run by morons, and while Juno has some amusing one-liners, and a good central performance from Ellen Page, it is basically a deeply flawed, superficial movie which is trying too hard to be cute. It's extremely manipulative.

I'm going to be very controversial and suggest that far from being surprised by an unplanned pregnancy, Juno might actually be a very willful young woman who wants to add pregnancy/childbirth/adoption to her 'experiments-in-living' list. At everyone else's expense. It certainly makes her the center of attention. She wouldn't be the first girl to get pregnant for that reason.

I found the situation between the adoptive parents more convincing. Childless Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) is desperate for a baby. Husband Mark is not so sure, and does at least eventually face up to the truth of his uncertainty by making a break for it. He may be 40 going on 18, but he's being honest about it. And for me the most moving scene in the whole film was when Vanessa held the newborn child in her arms for the first time, having decided to go it alone as a mother anyway. If there is a message to be taken from this movie, it's possibly that becoming a mother when the time is right, is just fine.

A superficial, cutesy, lightweight movie. The fact it was written by a woman is no excuse. I am gobsmacked that it's been nominated.

While I would admit that there were definitely a few laugh-out-loud moments in Diablo Cody's dialogue, there were a lot of inconsistencies with her characters. Is Juno being portrayed as a "wise beyond her years" 16 year-old, or are we supposed to understand that she is just your typical teen who acts on impulse without forethought of the consequences? She seems mature when she is faced with a very difficult situation (Mark coming on to her), and she handles it with ethics and aplomb. Yet somehow, she is so naïve that she never saw it coming in the first place (despite the warnings of her step-Mom). Heck, if she's smart enough to figure out how to deal calmly with this accidental pregnancy, why on earth didn't she use protection with Paulie in the first place? If she's supposed to be just a regular teen, then why have all the hip-quips and precocious attitude? And is it just me, or is it hard to see why Vanessa and Mark Loring are even still together when we first meet them? They couldn't be more different than Felix and Oscar, and yet The Odd Couple was entertaining because it was about comedy and conflict. The slow demise of a marriage is sadly real, but not entertaining.

Diablo Cody definitely has a talent for creating quirky characters with off-the-wall dialogue, but can she also create ones that are relatable? "Juno" had a "Napoleon Dynamite" feel to it…interesting to watch because the situation was real and possibly mundane, but the characters were so strange it was like watching aliens in human costumes. Juno's Dad is much more hip than any Dad I've ever met. Juno's step-Mom, except for her obsession with dogs, is way more cleverly sharp-tongued and protective of Juno than you normally see in a biological Mom. I'm guessing that Leah's taste in portly middle-aged teachers is meant as a joke; because it is so exaggerated it becomes farcical. I think the only character that even seems close to a real person is Paulie Bleeker. Don't misunderstand me; all the actors gave an outstanding performance. I just think that the media should hold off on crowning Diablo Cody the next Quentin Tarantino. She may be a professional when it comes to marketing and self-promotion, but she's not the only stripper out there who can write…pandorazblog is better than Cody's P*ssy Ranch.

First and foremost, i DID like this movie. It was a sweet little love story and by the tale's end we see a happy ending for the title character and her baby daddy. The problem i had was with Juno herself... or perhaps with the script. While i won't lie and say i NEVER laughed during the film, i feel like i did a lot more eye rolling at some of Juno's dialogue.

Juno's dialogue was rife with pop culture references, name dropping and too much heavy handed sarcasm. To hear and see it performed, it didn't come off as naturalistic or believable to the plot, it just came off that Diablo Cody (screenplay's scribe) really wanted to impress people with her database of obscure minutia. Its almost as if she knew her target audience was teens and critics and she married her targeting to both demographics.

the other issue i had with this movie was with Juno's over the top immunity to life's ire. Having been through two pregnancies with my wife, i know even in the best circumstances one cannot keep up the ridiculous front that Juno did in this film. At some point reality sets in, emotions kick in and you feel... something. This didn't happen with Juno. She is the smartest character in the entire movie. Diablo Cody has made her very own Mary Sue in Juno. the little girl she wishes she could have been. Juno will not likely grow up to strip or do phone sex.

Fans will defend and say "Well Juno is just a genius girl who interacts in this environment and this is how such a unique girl handles the situation" or as i call it the 'Max Fischer Defense' but sadly with snarky lines like "They make his junk smell like pie" "that ain't no etch-a-sketch home skillet" et al that argument falls apart. EVERYONE inhabiting Juno's world talk like Kevin Smith script rejects constantly reading off of pre-written pages.

Film Critic (fans) love the heavy handed pretentious dialogue because "Hey i have seen that movie, i know the actors to which Juno references and its so witty" and teens love it because Cody has created a too-cool-for-school character they all want to be. "OMG she is JUST LIKE ME AND MY FRIENDS-- LOL" I did like the film, a sweet little love story finds its way through the Jungle that is an overworked unrealistic script.

I rarely post things on internet blogs but this is a bit of a concern of mine. I am worried that beautiful films such as L'Infant are going to now be classified in the same category as Juno. I understand the mass appeal of this movie-- the mainstream audience being confused and thinking it's an indie flick by the gritty film used and the obscure references but Juno is in no way an independent film. I think why it is so ineffective is because the audience it was trying to attract (the movie fanatics who hate big budget Hollywood junk i.e. anything with Jessica alba in it) saw it for what it really was: Hollywood junk wrapped up in a converse shoelace bow. It was as indie as Avril is punk rock.

Furthermore it is (in my opinion) a tasteless, pointless movie. For the majority of the film I am more annoyed with Juno than I am sympathetic to her plight. I also have a hard time relating to her as she is NOT a 16year old but rather a 35year olds characterization of a 16 year old (does this make sense?) I have NEVER heard a teenager / young adult in my life ever utter ridiculous lines such as "honest to blog?" or "yea I'm total for-shiz". What the hell? I thought maybe a stripper turned blogger would have been a little more able to develop a story with characters that are down to earth but this Juno character is absurd.

Plus the rest of the film is completely underdeveloped-- you never see the relationship with her stepmother develop or understand why it is the way it is. Her relationship with bleaker has maybe 25 minutes but it is in no way a developed understood relationship. In fact he's barely even seen! The summary of the movie includes the words "and with her beautiful friends help…" but in the movie there is absolutely no connection with her friends beauty and the relevance of it. Was there supposed to be some conflict? All these story arcs that were never completed.

I was very disappointed with this movie. Fox searchlight has produced many good films (notes on a scandal, little miss sunshine, the last king of Scotland, etc) but this is just an embarrassment. It wasn't as though the actors were bad-- Michael Cera as usual plays the adorable awkward adolescent and Ellen page, Jason Batemen, Jennifer Gardner, etc play their roles respectively but the whole premise of the movie was so over the top and unrealistic. Oscar worthy? It's ludicrous. This is a movie worth missing.

This is a well produced, well directed, well written and extremely well acted film. Its essentially a one woman show, and Ellen Page becomes a star with this picture, or at least she should.

So why am I not jumping on the bandwagon? Its a game played with a stacked deck and that turns out to be its downfall.

Juno is a 16 year old high school girl who gets pregnant after a single sexual encounter with her boyfriend of sorts, Paulie. Does Juno panic? Not on your life. Juno is smart as a whip, adventurous and once she decides to have the baby, she sets out on her own to find proper adoptive parts. The first family she visits turns out to be a rich yuppie couple who seem fine and they strike a deal. After a few doubts, Juno winds up having her baby and turns the child over to the rather rigid and somewhat frigid Jennifer Garner, who probably takes the kid right home and registers him for the right pre-school.

The problem with this whole thing is that Juno encounters virtually zero problems along the way. She is not kicked out of school or ostracized by her classmates, her parents are supportive, the boyfriend doesn't disappear on her and the adoptive couple, while facing their own problems, don't turn out to be too bad.

So essentially, what we have is the after school special about teen pregnancy, or one of a thousand Lifetime channel stories on the same topic, but minus most of the conflict. Its also minus what seems to me to be the real life emotion 16 year old girls would go through if this happened to them, and any of the self doubt that goes with the decision to give up their baby.

Lastly comes the question of whether any sixteen year old would be as self assured and well rounded as this girl? It's possible, but rare.

As such, the picture is worth seeing for Page's performance, but Juno is not exactly what you'd call high drama.

I saw this film at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

Juno MacGuff (played magnificently by TIFF regular Ellen Page), finds herself pregnant, knocked up by her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) on their first attempt at sex. Juno, with the help of her best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), takes it upon herself to find some adoptive parents. Courtesy of the local Penny Saver, she soon finds childless couple Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner).

With the help of her surprisingly supportive father (J.K. Simmons) and stepmom (Allison Janney), Juno embarks on her pregnancy, which ends up affecting everyone in some unexpected and touching ways.

This was a great film, probably the best I've seen so far at the festival. Ellen Page gives a wonderful performance as Juno, convincingly portraying her as a real independent free spirit. Michael Cera was good and funny, although I occasionally had trouble divorcing his character from George-Michael Bluth. J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney did a nice turn as Juno's parents. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman were great as the adoptive parents who, while seemingly the perfect suburban couple on the outside, have their own sets of issues on the inside. Bateman especially gave a great performance as Mark, who is worried about sacrificing his own dreams as he connects with Juno over a shared love of music and the reality of the baby sinks in.

This is director Jason Reitman's follow up to his first feature film, Thank You For Smoking, which also debuted at the festival on the exact same date and time in 2005. This is screenwriter Diablo Cody's first feature film, and she put together a refreshing take on the typical teen pregnancy story with some great dialogue for the actors. The audience laughed so hard at some of the lines, they drowned out the ones that followed.

What is it about any movie that shows a hip white woman bringing her baby to term that causes film critics to temporarily lose their minds? "Knocked Up" was given a free pass and Juno is inspiring some of the worst film criticism I've ever seen.

The truth is that "Juno" is a calculatedly juvenile film with an immensely appealing main actress (Ellen Page), fake meta-dialog, and an inability to follow-through on its central theme of abandonment.

Juno is constructed so as to allow moviegoers to feel as if they've gone through a significant emotional journey, without doing the work. One way it blunts serious emotions is through the use of hipster patois in the place of real dialog. Rob Harvilla, a music critic with the Village Voice described this best:

"Teenagers who talk like thirtysomething screenwriters. "Cool" parents who talk like teenage screenwriters. A 16-year-old heroine who actually says things like "Just looking to secure a hasty abortion!" and "Just dealing with things way outside my maturity level!" and (grits teeth) "Swear to blog!". Just appallingly cute cute cute CUTE CUTE." The cutesy dialog has been universally panned in reviews, but its also serving to throw critics off serious discussion of the film's major shortcomings. A.O. Scott in the New York Times:

"...not many are so daring in their treatment of teenage pregnancy, which this film flirts with presenting not just as bearable but attractive. Kids, please! Heed the cautionary whale. But in the meantime, have a good time at "Juno." Bring your parents, too." Scott cannot resist writing in a similar style to the dialog, in fact thinking in this teenage way. "Heed the cautionary whale. But in the meantime, have a good time at "Juno." I don't know anyone personally who has brought a pregnancy to term and given up her baby, but I can imagine it's a lot more painful and less attractive than is portrayed in Juno. No amount of squiggly animated fonts and warbly hypersincere outsider-style singing can make up for that fact, and pretending otherwise is the opposite of daring.

At one point in the film, after he adoptive couple has seen their relationship dissolve, the character Juno gives voice to the main point of the movie. She says something like: "I just want to know that love can last. That two people can love each other and it's not going to go away." A movie-sequence childbirth follows, then a shot of Juno saying she does not want to see her newborn, followed by a single tear coursing down her face. Cut to a postpartum Juno, happily riding her bike, spitting wisecracks and singing twee duets, with the afraid-of-his-own-shadow Paul Cera.

I'm not being a moralist here, I don't want to see the character Juno punished for giving up her baby. But it's an unsatisfying experience to have the main theme of the movie evaporate, and to instead be fed a dose of indy candy rather than a resolution, or at least a coherent point of view. Critics have responded to this shortcoming by either ignoring it - offering, as Scott does, a blithe positive assessment of the films earnestness, or else, as Stephanie Zacharek does in Salon, constructing tortuous "filmic" criticism:

"Juno" is partly about the necessity of making choices for ourselves, but it's also about knowing when we need to accept help from others. That idea is never spelled out in so many words; it comes through in the actors' faces. "Language is the house man lives in," Jean-Luc Godard told us, borrowing from Martin Heidegger, in "Two or Three Things I Know About Her." There are lots of words in "Juno." But in the end, it's really all about language." OK I'm going to let the royal "we" pass. Her evasive argument reminds me of "cold-readings" by psychics, who employ verbal tricks to keep their marks engaged: "you're a shy person, but if it's something you care about you have strong opinions, although you mainly keep them to yourself, but when the chips are down..." Zacharek's version is: "it's all about language, but not the talking kind, but instead the kind you find in actor's faces, when they are letting you know they need help, which is really what it's all about, just ask Jean-Luc Godard, when he borrows from Martin Heiddeger." Anything to keep abandonment at bay.

Perhaps it's a zeitgeist thing, there seems to be a generalized post 9/11 anxiety about the future of mankind, for example the spate of recent movies about apocalyptic threats to civilization (cf. "Cloverfield", "I am Legend"). Combine this with role-uncertainty created by modern decisions to delay childbearing (cf. Lori Gottlieb's article "Marry Him" in the Atlantic Monthly), and the result may be that a simple squiggly-lined movie about a young woman's lack of anxiety in furthering the human race has an appeal that is irresistible. Just not to me.

Swear to blog.