It takes a sharp ensemble to turn words into Oscars, and without Ellen Page, et al., the now popular Cody wouldn’t be a household name. The stripper-cum-screenwriter (ahem) has an undeniable penchant for pithiness, but her win for Best Original Screenplay was truly collaborative.
Nonetheless, Diablo Cody’s hip script earned high praise, and a gold statue in February. If everybody talked like this, the crime rate would skyrocket. It’s as if Woody Allen hijacked a script from Dawson’s Creek. “This is one doodle that can’t be undid, home skillet,” spits the toothy sage. Even the smarmy Rainn Wilson (of The Office) cameos as a sarcastic corner store clerk. Everyone here has something exceedingly clever to say, (teen allusions to Soupy Sales?) and it grows tiresome. While intriguing, it ultimately undermines the story’s veracity. They don’t come equipped with Chaucer-like witticisms, or razor-sharp retorts. We’ve all had our precious little catchphrases and secret languages, but on the whole, teens are nervous, fumbling creatures. Page admits as much in the DVD’s special features. It’s smirky good fun, but the simple truth is that kids don’t talk like this. Ever ironic, Juno calls Planned Parenthood from her hamburger phone, and half-jokes that she’d like to “procure a hasty abortion”. Juno’s flaw is quite simply that its dialogue tries a little too hard. The typecasting isn’t quite as irksome as the fact that thousands of kids could’ve played Bleeker, with more endearing attributes (if not whiter legs).
Cera again plays the meek geek, trying hard to convince us that “Wizard” is this season’s hot superlative. The socially anemic Bleeker gives us far less to work with, though fans of Superbad will remember his awkward sweetness. She’s not one of the Spears girls! How could such a clever chick miss the facts about unprotected sex? And why is she unperturbed? The whole thing feels a bit existential, like some adolescent experiment. It’s a bold little arrangement (what happened to passing notes in chemistry?) and there are lots of similar look-at-me moments in Juno colorful, but contrived. This is how she breaks the news to Bleeker of his impending fatherhood. Reclined with a smoking pipe, Juno sits atop a tiger rug, in a creatively staged outdoor diorama right out of Rushmore. Unfortunately, the 21-year-old iconoclast has settled a little too comfortably into her new image as deadpan diva. There, she showed the spunk (and cool manipulation) that would serve her so well in Juno. Page scared guys into celibacy with the cautionary pic Hard Candy, a simple and effective tale about the consequences of chasing underage girls. In lieu of fraternal stoners, we get a surprisingly irreverent, female perspective, set to the year’s most eccentric soundtrack. Unexpected pregnancy was all the rage in 2007 (see Knocked Up), but this “high school comedy”, penned by 29-year-old Diablo Cody, is a breed apart.
If this scenario sounds familiar, it should. Nothing impresses the charismatic teen so much as herself, and witty barbs abound.įaced with the unbearable ennui of adolescence, the 16-year-old seduces her lanky lab partner Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) and nature takes its course. As she floats through high school, her mouth half agape, Juno seems to be judging everything around her. Juno’s like a cactus prickly and unique, and it soon becomes clear that the girl’s too smart for her own good. She mixes Snoop Dogg slang (like “fo shizz”) with Minnesota twang (“pork swords” is so Midwest) and exudes a quirky charm. Strolling defiantly with her jug of Sunny D, little Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is brimming with sass.