Saw the movie last night and, well, I was totally underwhelmed.
For me, it was nothing more than an above-average Lifetime Move Of The Week:
Glib, Pregnant And In High School: The Juno MacGuff Shenanigans Story
How this film got hyped into the list of great films of the year is a total mystery to me. While all the actors did a decent job, I kept saying, “Oh, she is from West Wing, he’s from HBO’s Oz, isn’t that the guy from Arrested Development, and look, it is Sydney from Alias…” All that was missing was Bea Arthur as gruff great-Granny MacDuff and Brad Garret as the quirky gardener. James Burrows could have directed it and it would have been a one-season sitcom for Fox.
Sorry, but my suggestion is to wait until it comes on a cable network and watch it while you are doing some ironing and dusting the coffee table.
One thing about Juno’s supposed maturity that felt a bit off…the whole flirtation with the husband. Did she really not have any idea how she was coming off…or what? The scene where she is weirded out by the fact that he has had feelings for her just came as a little odd to me.
The way I interpreted that… she was testing the boundaries, being a normal flirty teenage kid, unconsciously feeling she could be flirty with him because, duh, of course a married adult man isn’t going to make a move on a pregnant 16-year-old. But, he did. I think she found that rather shocking. His actions took it beyond the realm of her fantasy and confronted her with a reality she wasn’t mature enough to deal with. So her reaction made sense to me.
I thought she was genuinely naive about how her interactions would be interpreted, even after her stepmom tried to warn her. I think she still had somewhat of a “kid and adult” mindset about the dynamic and that she was sincerely shocked that he would take things that way. One of the things I liked about the movie was the treatment of her parents. They weren’t stupid, they weren’t assholes and they actually were a little wiser and more mature than their smartass daughter.
I liked this movie and I liked several of the songs in it. I am, however, tired of the hackneyed, Wes Andersonish, movie about quirky people needs a soundtrack with all these weird folksy songs in it. When the first song came on during the opening credits, I rolled my eyes and thought every hipster in the world has gotten their cue to adore this movie, its just too bad Napoleon Dynamite already used “Gonna Be Friends” by the Whitestripes.
I hate that, myself. That whole, “We’re so quirky and odd and different!” vibe. You know, most of you aren’t that adorably quirky as you think you are–you’re really quite dull. I just hate this pretentious genre of movies.
Late to the party, but I saw this film today and enjoyed it. I thought the dialogue was pitch-perfect, and unlike “Knocked Up,” where I didn’t understand why Katherine Heigl’s character didn’t consider an abortion, I felt like the path Juno chose was consistent with her character.
The cloying music got old, but I thought the end was cute. Not essential to the plot, but almost like one of those musical interludes in a Marx Brothers movie or something. (Maybe that’s a stretch, but that popped into my mind in the theater.)
I saw Juno last weekend and absolutely loved it. I thought Ellen Page was superb in Hard Candy and I wasn’t disappointed with her performance in Juno. Nothing really new to add to everyone else’s comments, I quite liked the music and I really enjoyed the dialogue. I don’t think it’s very similar to Napoleon Dynamite, but I can see where the comparisons come from. I’m a ND fan too, by the way.
I saw the movie this weekend and I really liked it. One thing that concerned me that was never discussed at all in the movie (nor in this thread): Bleeker’s rights as father to the baby.
I get that his character was pretty shell shocked and confused through the movie, not knowing what to do or how to act and just trusting Juno to do what she thought best. But he has legal rights to the child and unless he signs those away, that adoption can’t ever go through. Did this whole subplot get dropped on the cutting room floor? I can’t believe the Loring’s lawyer wouldn’t have even mentioned it during the initial meeting.
I wondered the same thing but I guess it’s theoretically possible he did it at the hospital after the birth.
I did think that his rights were kind of ignored in the movie, but then again, I also thought he displayed a rather appalling lack of concern or interest about the whole thing. I thought the weakest aspect of the movie was that we were never really shown any reason for Juno to think he was so great.
Totally agreed, and I’m surprised that more people haven’t been bothered by this. In fact, I thought Juno’s sudden realization that she genuinely likes Bleeker came completely out of nowhere, since all the movie really tells us about is how much of a weirdo he is.
I’ve seen the movie several times and I’m still not really sure why Juno likes him so much.
I actually sort of found Bleeker to be sympathetic. He tries to get involved, but has no idea how to go about doing it, and every time he tries to get close, Juno just pushes him away. When he finally called her on her bullshit, I wanted to cheer.
Agreed. To me, it seemed Juno liked him because he was a fairly good-looking guy who wasn’t getting a lot of attention from anyone else and who she could toy with, and she knew he would go along at whatever pace she liked. This is high school, remember. An outsider like Juno would have relished the ability to do everything she wanted with him completely on her own terms. Bleeker developed slowly throughout the film, but when he called her on her shit it was clear that he was finally starting to become a man. From where I’m standing, that’s the moment when she subconsciously realized that she didn’t just like toying with him, she loved him.
IANAL, but since Juno and Bleeker weren’t married, Bleeker would have to go through a lot of paperwork to assert paternity. Also since Juno is a minor, her father would have to sign all the paperwork. Presumably, Bleeker’s parents would have to file paperwork for him as well.
If you’re not married and there’s no paternity test to prove who the father is, the mother holds the cards.
I was sort of wondering why she liked him so much. He seemed like a decent sort, and I did like him, but I personally didn’t get why suddenly he was “totally boss” in her eyes. Overall good movie, though. I agree that it did seem like Juno liked the idea initially of getting attention/etc. from someone–Paulie definitely had a huge, huge thing for her from the beginning.