Introduction
Welcome to my corner! This week, I'm sharing my thoughts on the film Juno. This is another movie that was on one of the lists that claim, "you must watch before you die," or something similar. Enjoy!
Juno
Juno is a 2007 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Elliot Page (at the time Ellen Page) stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting her unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney and J. K. Simmons also star. Filming took place in 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia. It premiered on September 8 at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, receiving a standing ovation.
Juno won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earned three other nominations for Best Picture, Best Director for Reitman, and Best Actress for 20-year-old Page (who was presenting as female at the time, and is the sixth-youngest nominee in the category). The film's soundtrack, featuring several songs performed by Kimya Dawson in various guises, was the first chart-topping soundtrack since 2006's Dreamgirls and Fox Searchlight's first number-one soundtrack. Juno earned back its initial budget of $6.5 million in twenty days, the first 19 of which were when the film was in limited release. It went on to earn $232.3 million worldwide. Juno received acclaim from critics, many of whom placed the film on their top-ten lists for the year. It has received criticism and praise from members of both the anti-abortion and abortion rights communities regarding its treatment of abortion.
Plot: When precocious teen Juno MacGuff becomes pregnant, she choose a failed rock star and his wife to adopt her unborn child. Complications occur when Mark, the prospective father, begins viewing Juno as more than just the mother of his future child, putting both his marriage and the adoption in jeopardy.
Acting: Elliot Page (Ellen Page at the time) played Juno MacGuff, pregnant teenager and Paulie's girlfriend. Having admired his performance in Hard Candy, Reitman cast Page in the lead role, saying that when he read the screenplay for the first time he pictured Page as Juno. Reitman visited Page on the set of a film on which he was working to offer him the role. His four most notable titles currently are Inception, Hard Candy, Juno and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Other than Juno, I really enjoyed The Umbrella Academy Netflix series.
Michael Cera played Paulie Bleeker, the father of Juno's child and Juno's boyfriend. His four most notable titles currently include Superbad, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Juno, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Other than Juno, my favorite is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Jennifer Garner played Vanessa Loring, Mark's wife and the prospective adoptive mother of Juno's child. Jennifer Garner, who accepted a lower salary than usual to prevent the film from exceeding its budget, was confirmed by Reitman to have signed into the project in January 2007. I love Jennifer Garner. She seems like such a great person. Her four most notable titles currently are Daredevil, Juno, 13 Going on 30, and the Alias television series. I love 13 Going on 30.
Jason Bateman played Mark Loring, Vanessa's husband and the prospective father of Juno's child. After working with Jason Bateman on The Kingdom, Garner recommended him to Reitman when they first met; Bateman was cast as Mark, the last cast member to be signed. His four most notable titles currently include Game Night, Zootopia, Bad Words, and the Arrested Development television series. My favorite is the Zootopia franchise.
Minor roles were played by Allison Janney as Bren MacGuff, Juno's stepmother; J. K. Simmons as Mac MacGuff, Juno's father; Olivia Thirlby as Leah, Juno's friend; Eileen Pedde as Gerta Rauss, the Lorings' lawyer; Rainn Wilson as Rollo, convenience store clerk; Valerie Tian as Su-Chin, anti-abortion protester; Emily Perkins as punk abortion clinic receptionist; Ashley Whillans as Katrina De Voort.
Background Information: Diablo Cody was first approached to write a screenplay by film producer Mason Novick, who had previously landed her a book deal for her memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper, after discovering her blog about stripping. He persuaded her to adapt the book for the screen, but suggested that she first write a screenwriting sample to show studios; that sample became Juno. After deciding on an adoption storyline, Cody collected the stories of adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents, including that of her then-husband, an adoptee who reunited with his birth parents after she wrote the film. She also found inspiration in the story of a close friend who had become pregnant in high school and used some details from her friend's experience in the film, such as mistreatment from an ultrasound technician. Much of Juno, however, was based on Cody's own high school experiences: She dated a tic-tac-loving boy similar to Paulie, she was best friends with a cheerleader like Leah, and she used a hamburger phone identical to the one one that appears in the film. (My sister, Jesi, got a hamburger phone because of this movie. It's now housed at the Courier office.) After writing the screenplay over seven weeks in the Starbuck section of a Target store in Crystal, Minnesota, Cody compared writing to breathing, seeing Juno as an extension of herself.
Novick sent Cody's screenplay to his friend Jason Reitman; by the time Reitman had read halfway through the script, he felt that if he did not direct the film, he would regret it for the rest of his life. Initially, Reitman found it difficult to acquire the script, because his first film, Thank You for Smoking, had not been released yet, so he did not have any feature film credits. Other directors, including Jon Poll, were considered, but Reitman was chosen and he interrupted work on his own spec script in order to direct Juno. Cody says she had a cynical attitude when writing Juno ("I didn't ever think this film would ever be produced") and, indeed, the film was delayed by financial problems. After its controversial nature scared off a number of major studios, John Malkovich's production company, Mr. Mudd, took on the project. It was later brought to production company Mandate Pictures by co-producer Jim Miller.
Final Thoughts: I can't watch his movie and not think of my sister, Jesi. She was obsessed with Juno, and quoted it often. We (our family) still all quote the film when the time arises. Even if you were to only watch it once, Juno would certainly stick with you. It's an interesting take on coming-of-age.
My favorite scene is honestly the end, after Juno has the baby and you get to see her return to her teenage life, and also get to see where the baby ends up.
My favorite quote is "Liberty Bell, if you put one more Baco on that potato, I'm gonna kick your monkey butt." —Mac MacGuff.
Rated: PG-13
Where to watch it: According to Google, Juno is currently available on Hulu and Disney+ with subscriptions. You can also purchase or rent a digital copy for a few dollars. There's also a DVD copy of the film available at the Emil M. Larson Public Library in Clark.
