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Juno
Pregnancy isn't perhaps the most obvious idea for a comedy. As somebody of the male gender it may be hard to know how hard it is exactly for women carrying a large bump in their stomach - especially for someone like the character in this film who doesn't want the baby in the first place - but I doubt it is the most pleasant of experiences. The pregnant comedy has been attempted before in the movie Junior, featuring a pregnant Arnold Schwarzenegger:
Unsurprisingly, it's generally considered a poor movie - on Rotten Tomatoes it has a score of 32% rotten. Juno, on the other hand, is a film that featured countless praise from the critics; upon release it was certified fresh on the Rotten Tomatoes site with a fresh rating of 94%. Personally I don't quite understand why the film has such a high amount of praise; it's an okay film but not the masterpiece many hailed it as.
In Juno, sixteen year old girl Juno (Ellen Page) finds herself in the middle of an unborn pregnancy and decides to take an abortion. However once she enters the clinic she quickly changes her mind and decides to have the baby regardless. As she doesn't want the responsibility of looking after the baby, Juno searches for suitable parents to raise the kid as her own and comes across husband and wife team Mark (Jason Batemen) and Vanessa Loring (Jennifer Garning). She agrees to provide a closed adoption for them but begins to feel strong emotions towards the baby's father Paulie (Michael Cera). Will she admit that she loves Paulie? Or will Paulie have to accept he and Juno will never become an item?
My main problem with Juno is that it doesn't quite work as a comedy. I rarely found the jokes funny and it seemed like the film would work better as a drama. This is a film with plenty of heart; it is a sweet, good-natured take on the issue of unplanned pregnancies at such a young age. It doesn't really feel like the kind of idea that should be a comedy to begin with; there's nothing particularly funny about a sixteen year old falling pregnant and I think a proper comedy would feel obtuse if one were to be attempted on the subject matter. It would be like creating a light-hearted musical about Jimmy Saville or a period drama where Adolf Hitler is portrayed as a war hero.
Another thing that doesn't quite work is the suggestion that Juno and Mark have a strong romantic affection for one another. This is a thirty eight year old man developing feelings for a sixteen year old! It's just creepy and so uncomfortable to watch, also proving to be a pointless sub-plot given that it is clear Juno is in love with Paulie anyway. It's fine showing them as friends with a lot in common but the moment they start hinting that they fancy one another is the part of the film where Juno completely drops the ball.
Another strange decision the film makes is to portray the character of Vanessa as sympathetic. We are supposed to feel sorry for her because her husband is a 'big kid' and clearly doesn't want the kid as much as her but if anything I felt more sorry for Mark when watching this movie (even if he is a creep). Vanessa comes across as an extremely pushy and self-centered woman and it is hard to see why a character like Mark would want to be with her. She won't even let him embark on a music career or watch VHS horror movies; instead he's confined to writing radio jingles. I sincerely hope that if I get married one day I marry a woman who lets me watch Doctor Who and embark on a writing career as there is absolutely no way I would let somebody take those things away from me. I would sooner divorce such a woman and tell her I'd rather chase my dream of writing television and film than be with her.
Juno is saved from being a or entirely star review by the excellent acting in the movie. Ellen Page is fantastic as Juno and I can't imagine anyone else in the role. You get the feeling that she has heavily researched the issue of teenage pregnancies as she helps the character of Juno feel 'real'. Jason Bateman is great at playing the inadvertently 'sympathetic creep' too and Jennifer Garning is good at playing the obnoxious wife. More than any movie, it's the acting that carries the film here and is, I suspect, the reason why it received such glowering reviews.
The film has a very nice style in the way it is presented that feels unique to this movie. The opening has this quirky 'notebook drawing' aesthetic with the visuals that cannot be mistaken that feels like director Jason Reitman's (the son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman) unique stamp:
It's a very smooth transition too, from live-action to a sketchbook drawing:
It is certainly the best and most interesting way to present the opening credits, as opposed to the usual generic titles plastered over live-action footage you see in most movies.
Overall, Juno is a film with real heart and warmth, however as a comedy it falls flat. This is a movie that would work much better as a drama; a teenage pregnancy doesn't feel like an idea that's ripe for mickey-taking and the jokes are so careful to appear good-spirited that the humour feels somewhat forced. Then there's the odd suggestion that a 38 year old man has feelings for a 16 year old woman, which frankly is just creepy and not helped by the fact that you actually feel sympathy for this guy given how unfairly he is treated by his pushy wife. The film does have superb acting from all involved though and the way Jason Reitman makes the movie his own with a unique visual style in the opening credits is commendable. When you see the opening credits to this film, you know it's Juno and not, say, Junior - which I don't ever want to watch in my life as Arnold Schwarzenegger looks pretty terrifying with a pregnant bump.
Pregnancy isn't perhaps the most obvious idea for a comedy. As somebody of the male gender it may be hard to know how hard it is exactly for women carrying a large bump in their stomach - especially for someone like the character in this film who doesn't want the baby in the first place - but I doubt it is the most pleasant of experiences. The pregnant comedy has been attempted before in the movie Junior, featuring a pregnant Arnold Schwarzenegger:
Unsurprisingly, it's generally considered a poor movie - on Rotten Tomatoes it has a score of 32% rotten. Juno, on the other hand, is a film that featured countless praise from the critics; upon release it was certified fresh on the Rotten Tomatoes site with a fresh rating of 94%. Personally I don't quite understand why the film has such a high amount of praise; it's an okay film but not the masterpiece many hailed it as.
In Juno, sixteen year old girl Juno (Ellen Page) finds herself in the middle of an unborn pregnancy and decides to take an abortion. However once she enters the clinic she quickly changes her mind and decides to have the baby regardless. As she doesn't want the responsibility of looking after the baby, Juno searches for suitable parents to raise the kid as her own and comes across husband and wife team Mark (Jason Batemen) and Vanessa Loring (Jennifer Garning). She agrees to provide a closed adoption for them but begins to feel strong emotions towards the baby's father Paulie (Michael Cera). Will she admit that she loves Paulie? Or will Paulie have to accept he and Juno will never become an item?
My main problem with Juno is that it doesn't quite work as a comedy. I rarely found the jokes funny and it seemed like the film would work better as a drama. This is a film with plenty of heart; it is a sweet, good-natured take on the issue of unplanned pregnancies at such a young age. It doesn't really feel like the kind of idea that should be a comedy to begin with; there's nothing particularly funny about a sixteen year old falling pregnant and I think a proper comedy would feel obtuse if one were to be attempted on the subject matter. It would be like creating a light-hearted musical about Jimmy Saville or a period drama where Adolf Hitler is portrayed as a war hero.
Another thing that doesn't quite work is the suggestion that Juno and Mark have a strong romantic affection for one another. This is a thirty eight year old man developing feelings for a sixteen year old! It's just creepy and so uncomfortable to watch, also proving to be a pointless sub-plot given that it is clear Juno is in love with Paulie anyway. It's fine showing them as friends with a lot in common but the moment they start hinting that they fancy one another is the part of the film where Juno completely drops the ball.
Another strange decision the film makes is to portray the character of Vanessa as sympathetic. We are supposed to feel sorry for her because her husband is a 'big kid' and clearly doesn't want the kid as much as her but if anything I felt more sorry for Mark when watching this movie (even if he is a creep). Vanessa comes across as an extremely pushy and self-centered woman and it is hard to see why a character like Mark would want to be with her. She won't even let him embark on a music career or watch VHS horror movies; instead he's confined to writing radio jingles. I sincerely hope that if I get married one day I marry a woman who lets me watch Doctor Who and embark on a writing career as there is absolutely no way I would let somebody take those things away from me. I would sooner divorce such a woman and tell her I'd rather chase my dream of writing television and film than be with her.
Juno is saved from being a or entirely star review by the excellent acting in the movie. Ellen Page is fantastic as Juno and I can't imagine anyone else in the role. You get the feeling that she has heavily researched the issue of teenage pregnancies as she helps the character of Juno feel 'real'. Jason Bateman is great at playing the inadvertently 'sympathetic creep' too and Jennifer Garning is good at playing the obnoxious wife. More than any movie, it's the acting that carries the film here and is, I suspect, the reason why it received such glowering reviews.
The film has a very nice style in the way it is presented that feels unique to this movie. The opening has this quirky 'notebook drawing' aesthetic with the visuals that cannot be mistaken that feels like director Jason Reitman's (the son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman) unique stamp:
It's a very smooth transition too, from live-action to a sketchbook drawing:
It is certainly the best and most interesting way to present the opening credits, as opposed to the usual generic titles plastered over live-action footage you see in most movies.
Overall, Juno is a film with real heart and warmth, however as a comedy it falls flat. This is a movie that would work much better as a drama; a teenage pregnancy doesn't feel like an idea that's ripe for mickey-taking and the jokes are so careful to appear good-spirited that the humour feels somewhat forced. Then there's the odd suggestion that a 38 year old man has feelings for a 16 year old woman, which frankly is just creepy and not helped by the fact that you actually feel sympathy for this guy given how unfairly he is treated by his pushy wife. The film does have superb acting from all involved though and the way Jason Reitman makes the movie his own with a unique visual style in the opening credits is commendable. When you see the opening credits to this film, you know it's Juno and not, say, Junior - which I don't ever want to watch in my life as Arnold Schwarzenegger looks pretty terrifying with a pregnant bump.