Saturday Night At The Movies

Girl, you’ll be a woman soon

By Dennis Hartley

Here’s a line you’ve likely never heard in an “ABC After-school Special”:

“I’m already pregnant, so what other shenanigans can I get into?”

It’s a bullet-proof rhetorical question, posed by a glibly self-aware 16 year-old named Juno MacGuff, played to perfection by the ever-surprising Ellen Page (“Hard Candy”) in the cleverly written and wonderfully acted film “Juno”, from director Jason Reitman.

Juno is an intelligent and unconventional Minneapolis teen who finds herself up the duff after deciding, on one fateful evening, to lose her virginity with her (initially) platonic buddy, a gawky, introverted but sweet-natured classmate named Paulie (Michael Cera). Not wanting to be a burden to Paulie, or trouble her loving parents (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney) with the news, Juno decides to take sole responsibility for her situation.

After losing her nerve at an abortion clinic, Juno brainstorms with her girlfriend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) who suggests a search in the Penny Saver (!) for couples looking to adopt. Enter Mark and Vanessa (well-played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), a childless yuppie couple with a sprawling house in the ‘burbs, complete with the requisite unfinished nursery (Pink, blue, or “gender neutral” yellow? Decisions, decisions.)

With the blessing of Juno’s supportive dad, papers are drawn up and Mark and Vanessa become the adoptive parents-in-waiting. Everything appears hunky dory- but you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice (with apologies to Douglas Adams).

With such oft-used cinematic fodder at its core, this film could have easily descended into cliché-ridden piffle, but it doesn’t; in fact it surprises and delights at every twist and turn, without feeling manipulative. I can’t give enough praise to the acting ensemble here. Page and Cera mange to convey Juno and Paulie’s growing pains in a very genuine and touchingly palpable manner, even through all the hyper stylized dialog. Simmons and Janney deserve kudos as Juno’s dad and step mom, respectively. It’s refreshing to see Simmons play such a likeable character after all the heavies he’s played in the past (I think this role will finally exorcise the creepy inmate he played for 6 years on HBO’s brutal prison series, “Oz”). In fact, all the actors emanate that same understated vibe of “Minnesota nice” that made the characters in “Fargo” so endearing, despite their travails.

Reitman (son of director Ivan Reitman) has hit one out of the park with this sophomore effort (his first film was “Thank You for Smoking”) thanks in no small part to Diablo Cody’s smart and airtight script. While this is Cody’s first screenplay, she has previously gained some notoriety via her “Pussy Ranch” blog and subsequent book “Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper”, a sort of anthropological feminist treatise on the peep show/stripper world (based on her brief employment in the industry).

I have to mention the film’s soundtrack, which is one of the better ones I’ve heard in a while. The original songs, by Kimya Dawson and Antsy Pants, are catchy, whimsical alt-pop in the Moxy Fruvous vein, but I was more impressed by selections from the likes of The Kinks, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Velvet Underground, Mott the Hoople and Astrud Gilberto (it sounded like they had raided my CD collection!). A must-see.

“Juno” and its young star reminded me of one of my all-time favorite films, “Wish You Were Here”-David Leland’s 1987 comedy-drama about a headstrong 16-year-old girl “coming of age” in post WW 2 England. The story is loosely based on the real-life exploits of infamous British “madam” Cynthia Payne (Leland also collaborated as screenwriter with director Terry Jones on the film “Personal Services”, which starred Julie Walters and covered Payne’s adult years). Vivacious teenager Emily Lloyd made an astounding, Oscar-worthy debut as pretty, potty-mouthed “Linda”, whose hormone-fueled manic behavior and sexual antics cause her somewhat reserved widower father and younger sister to walk around in a perpetual state of public embarrassment. With a taut script and precise performances, the film breezes along on a deft roller coaster of deep belly-laugh hilarity and genuine, bittersweet emotion. Excellent support from the entire cast, especially from the great Thom Bell, who finds a sympathetic humanity in a vile character that a lesser actor could not likely pull off. It’s quite unfortunate that Emily Lloyd, who displayed such amazing potential in this debut, never really “broke big”, appearing in only a few unremarkable projects and then basically dropping off the radar to join that sad “whatever happened to…” file. Let’s hope that Ellen Page fares better.

Early bloomers: A Summer Place, Love with the Proper Stranger, Splendor in the Grass, Georgy Girl, The Family Way, The L-Shaped Room, The Snapper, Gas Food Lodging, Just Another Girl on the Irt, The Last Days of Chez Nous, The Playboys, Desert Bloom, Gregory’s Girl, A Little Romance, The Last Picture Show , Foxes, Little Darlings, The Opposite of Sex, Election, Blue Car, Lolita(1962), Manhattan, Guinevere, Ghost World, Thirteen, Kids, Slums of Beverly Hills.