I went and saw Juno in the theater finally. This is probably a good time to say that while I’ve previously given a fairly bad review of Sundance, when given a choice between Sundance and other local theaters (as Juno was) we have chosen to visit Sundance largely because it is a nicer place than the often trashy and gaudy theaters that usually are around, have fewer commercials, and has way better popcorn. Though think they stopped making my danishes which sucks because I loved em. Maybe the sort of high price isn’t that horrible, and lately they’ve taken 2 more mainstream movies in a time, though largely still artsy in spirit movies, to give them more solid movies always in the theaters.
So Juno. I was expecting a decent movie but that’s about it. In return, I think this movie may be one of the best movies I’ve seen in at least a decade. It was completely amazing and I was taken aback. The writing, the acting, the music, everything was just stellar. They advertised all the big names in this movie like Jennifer Gardner, Jason Bateman, that guy from Office, and even the kid from Arrested Development, but the girl who played Juno really came out of nowhere and stole this show. And that isn’t a small thing either because while those names were advertised, they were barely in it. This was all about Juno and everyone else was secondary. In fact, the guy from the Office had about three lines in the entire movie and I think every single one of them were advertised!!! I think it is hard for a single actor to really stay on screen for the duration she did and still carry it, but for such a young actress she did it with style. Seriously where did she come from!?
Outside of the acting, the plot line was fairly straight forward and the foreshadowing was subtle yet well placed. The story was that of a teenage girl who decided to put her baby up for adoption and her dealing with pregnancy as well as the new parents. I loved the subtleness of the movie throughout. Like when Juno first meets the couple and her sarcasm and jokes go sky high because she is nervous. Or when both of the couple is explaining how much they want a baby and you see the unease in Jason Bateman’s eyes. Just little things like that spot the movie and could be easily passed up if you don’t notice them, and I think the actors did a fabulous job pulling it off. The movie itself had a bit of an offbeat feel to it which I think definitely comes from Napolean Dynamite’s success, but wasn’t as out of it as that movie was and so made it feel a little more real which was good. The one thing I thought was odd was the handdrawn moments, mostly in the opening credits when they have a drawn look to her walking home drinking her Sunny D. I assume she liked to draw, but this wasn’t really portrayed in the movie outside these moments and some drawings in the background of her bedroom. This felt like it may have been something that was taken out of the movie at some point, but the remnants felt out of place. It wasn’t a big deal however as it was a very tiny portion of the movie.
Overall, I give the movie an A+, I find it hard to believe that any movie coming out this year will be able to even come close to competing with it.