So, Juno.
It is as good as you hope it’s going to be. And even though it’s UBER indie (in more of a SXSW way than a Sundance way) it doesn’t get in the way of the movie. Hell, it’s the reason you love it more. Which is quite some feat. Considering how fashionable it is to love to hate that kind of a movie right now.
Ellen Page is super-fantastic as Juno, it would have been incredibly easy for the characters eccentricities and speech pattern to become all kinds of irritating, She plays it well though and suddenly quirky doesn’t seem so annoying at all. It actually seems kind of cool.
That was one of the things that really resonated with me here. So many hooks for me to reach out and connect with. From the Tara McPherson artwork in Juno’s room, through the pop culture infused dialogue, to the bit where Jason Bateman’s character shows Juno the Carpenters tribute record as he gushes about the Sonic Youth cover, which caused me to turn (somewhat excitedly) to my boyfriend and proclaim, “I have that, I have that!”
The world that Juno inhabits is the same one that I do.
The other thing (and stop me if I’m getting too personal here) that really struck me about Juno is, essentially its a movie about growing up. And not just in a regular coming of age way. Although there’s plenty of that to keep the younger segment of the target demo happy. As much as the movie is about Juno herself trying to deal with having a child, without cashing in her own childhood completely, it’s about the ” Lorings” (the adoptive parents) doing their final part of growing up too. The curious thing (and I felt this ALL the time during gossip girl) is that the *adults* in this movie do things like make mix CDs with Sonic Youth on, and wear familiar band shirts, and once opened for the Melvins and have Kozik Artwork framed on their walls.
And I’m not sure who I relate to the most. Do I have the bigger crush on Michael Cera, or Jason Bateman ?
The more I think about this I realise that this is the intrinsic different between this kind of a movie/tv show now, and anything released pre - my so called life. The grown ups are just as important as the kids, and it would appear, the film-makers can’t make up their minds who it is they identify with the most.