For about every dozen disposable, degrading films about teenagers, there's one of these: a gem of a picture about adolescents with heart and soul. This year there has been more than most when you factor in Jeffrey Blitz's stunning Rocket Science, Tom Vaughan's retro-Hughes tribute Starter for 10 and Greg Mottola's reliably funny and coolly relatable Superbad. That's no small miracle when gaged in relation to the pantheon of sticky pop petulance that's dominated the teen market for the past several decades. It's also a sad fact that all of these films came to us through indie channels and yielded minuscule box office success save for one (the aforementioned Superbad whose rise to prominence may have never come about without the producing muscle of comedy king elect Judd Apatow). So as Juno arrives into theaters with a warm heap of festival praise behind it and a golden road toward major accolades clearly in its sight, it glimmers like something of a capstone to a genre redefining year that just may change teens in film forever.There has certainly never been a girl quite like Juno MacGuff in a teen comedy before. Girls with bad attitudes and short tempers abound but more often than not they are the villains of the piece, or the dark-haired sidekick to the perky blonde heroine of teen rom-com lore. Juno MacGuff (played bravely and pitch-perfectly by rising actress Ellen Page) is neither of those things. She's an outspoken pseudo-renegade with good intentions and honest emotions that she skillfully denies having to further assert her alluring anti-social snippy exterior self. She speaks in riddles and rhymes that call to mind the impish charms of a young person too articulate not to end up a writer. And when she gets pregnant unexpectedly after a strange night with longtime friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) she has nothing but the best quips, and "bun in the oven" puns to offer. It's to the credit of first-time screenwriter and bona fide breakout scribe Diablo Cody that Juno's witty tough shell hits with such honest hilarity. She pens some of the best one-liners of the year while simultaneously her characters and transforming her characters into complete 3-dimensional beings with strengths and weaknesses to savor. Even the smaller roles played by supporting players Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner (as the adoptive parents Juno plans to give her baby up to) and Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons (as her step-mother and father respectively) are so effortlessly, gleefully crafted with both character specific humor and warm, honest passion. They are all characters that live beyond the four corners of the movie screen. They emerge as clear as day and as real as real could be.
If there is an unsung hero in this production (and it's safe to say that the singing is far from over), it has to be director Jason Reitman who solidifies his status as one of comedy's leading new talents with this, his second feature. Following the deftly handled satire Thank You for Smoking, Reitman has grown to new heights. Here he draws captivating performances and enlivens the film with a stylish but uncompromising look and feel that plays to typical teen flick strengths (trendy colorful costumes, cleverly designed bedrooms 16 year-olds only dream about having, and catchy music courtesy of the splendid Kimya Dawson) while also bringing to life a hazy warmth and prickly awkwardness that is utterly real. He's never too self-involved with his choices but he also doesn't let the jazzy dialogue and attractive stars get in the way of telling a very potent, and very funny story.
Grade: A
