REVIEW: Juno

On Christmas Day I saw Juno starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera (Superbad), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Jennifer Garner (Alias), Allison Janney (The West Wing) and J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man). The film has been getting rave reviews from such heavyweights as Roger Ebert (Best Film of 2007) and many other critics. It's from the same studio that brought us last year's Oscar sleeper hit, Little Miss Sunshine (see Mad Professah review).

Juno is at least as good as last year's Little Miss Sunshine, in fact it's probably even better. It's definitely funnier and there are more stellar performances in Juno: Ellen Page's eerily dead-on portrayal of a nonchalant pregnant 16-year-old, Jennifer Garner's frighteningly perfect potential adoptive mother of Juno's baby, J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney exhibiting immaculate comic timing as the unflappable parents of Juno. Rainn Wilson (The Office) has a memorable cameo in the first 5 minutes as a convenience store clerk where Juno takes another pregnancy test.

The real highlight of the film is (already widely celebrated) Diablo Cody's script. It must be considered a front runner for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The dialogue is simply astonishing (Juno calls almost everyone, regardless of gender, "dude"). Although, in some films this can come across as inauthentic or simply annoyingly grandstanding (*cough* Quentin Tarantino *cough*) in Juno somehow the actors playing the teen characters (Page, Michael Cera and Olivia Thirlby) infuse the lines with absolute sincerity and after the first 5 minutes of "did she just say that?" the audience is completely sucked into the film and fully emotionally vested in the characters' lives.

The plot is also quite interesting, with some unexpected (but well telegraphed) twists and turns which, combined with the realness of the characters provides the audience with one of the most enjoyable cinematic experiences of the year.

GRADE: A+.