Ju-know you want to see it.

Juno
Fox Searchlight Pictures

It's being hailed as the next Little Miss Sunshine, which I hate. Not LMS, I luurrrrve that movie. I hate that people always have to compare movies with others....really, that people have to compare anything with what preceded it. Perhaps it's unavoidable...I do it myself, admittedly. But anyway....

Yes, Juno is the next independent film to get big reviews and actually be a film people will see. Will it become the next My Big Fat Greek Wedding? (See?? There I go again!) No. Juno stands on its own as a very, very funny flick about a non-conformist -- aka "weird" -- 16 year old girl who gets pregnant. Is that all there is to it? Of course not.

Ellen Page is a wonderful actress. She was really freaky-cool in Hard Candy (2005) but you would know her, if your memory is better than mine, as Kitty Pryde in X-Men: The Last Stand. One way or the other, she's definitely an up-and-comer. She's so dry and, well, the word "witty" doesn't describe her properly. Her one-liners are so brilliant you want to write them down and use them yourself. Granted, the credit for those one-liners should go to Academy Award-winning writer Diablo Cody. She completely deserves that golden statuette for writing this flick, but it's Page's delivery that sends this one to the stratosphere. My personal fave is when she's arguing with her stepmother about dogs - apparently her stepmom's goal is to own Weimaraners - and Juno (Page) responds with a "Oooh...dream big." as she leaves the room. I totally don't do it justice, but it's hysterical. Trust me.

Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman (whom I had a wicked crush on when he was on The Hogan Family -- yeah...I said it. ) play a couple Juno finds in the Pennysaver - a couple who wants to adopt. Garner's got the "I'm high-class, but feel bad for me" sympathetic character thing down...she annoys you, but you do feel for her. Bateman plays the stifled cool guy who has a room -- one whole room -- to himself for his stuff and connects with Juno over Sonic Youth...sort of...and horror movies (my kind of guy...did I mention I had a crush on him once? )

JK Simmons (yes, Dr. Skoda from Law & Order) plays Juno's dad and Allison Janney plays her stepmom. Both have great scenes in which their characters just shine. Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, and Rainn Wilson are also fabulous in their respective parts. It really is a movie about people and their interactions, but it's an extremely hysterical, yet touching, look at what happens when a 16-year-old makes an uncharacteristically unintelligent choice.

Put this one on your list. It starts off a little slowly, with interactions between Juno and her friend Leah that resound with Thora Birch & Scarlett Johanssen/Mena Suvari (Ghost World/American Beauty, respectively) but the movie definitely turns away from these others....remember those comparisons? Unavoidable, I told you. The music, writing, and character development is non-comparable. The music especially. A movie that uses a song called "Anyone Else But You", by The Moldy Peaches and has it performed by the characters themselves is touching....

...one that follows that moment with a song called, "Vampire" by a group called Antsy Pants...with lyrics that go "IamavampireIamavampireIamavampire"....yeah. That movie rocks....go see this one.



Available on DVD April 15, 2008