Juno

Reitman, Jason. Juno. 20^th Century Fox, 2007. PG. DVD. 96mins. ASIN: B000YABYLA 

Plot Summary

In Minnesota, sixteen-year-old Juno MacGuff and her best friend, Paulie Bleeker, have one sexual encounter in a chair in the Fall, when school starts. They like each other, but they don’t consider themselves exclusively in a relationship, much less parents. When Juno is at the abortion clinic, she decides she cannot go through with it and chooses to have the baby and give it up for adoption instead. When she tells her parents, they are supportive of her decision. Juno searches the local Pennysaver and finds an adoptive couple in the suburbs, Mark and Vanessa Loring. Mark and Juno become close as they bond over horror movies and music. Juno continues to attend high school as her belly continues to grow, and she takes it all in stride as she has always marched to the beat of her own drummer. Paulie is clearly in love with her, but is too passive to tell her while she maintains an indifferent toward him until he asks someone else to the prom. Meanwhile, as her friendship with Mark deepens, problems develop between Mark and Vanessa, who seems to want a baby more than he does. When the baby boy is born, he is ultimately in the hands of someone who loves him.

Evaluation
Juno received four 2008 Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress for Ellen Page, and Best Original Screenplay for Diablo Cody, which she won. There was much talk about the movie being pro-life and anti-abortion propaganda, while many others saw it as pro-choice. Ellen Page herself commented, “What I get most frustrated at is when people call it a pro-life movie, which is just absurd... The most important thing is the choice is there, and the film completely demonstrates that.” The character of Juno shows this throughout the movie in all her decisions. Likewise, Juno has been labeled feminist because of its portrayal of the main character as an intelligent and confident teenage girl. The dialogue and actions support this assertion, as Juno’s wit is sharp and original. The setting takes place over three seasons beginning at the beginning of high school, which mirrors the three trimesters of pregnancy. Furthermore, Juno’s struggle with adulthood provides the audience with an opportunity to question their own values and decisions in their lives.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_%28film%29)

Readers Annotation

Offbeat, sixteen-year-old Juno sleeps with her best friend, Paulie, only once but gets pregnant. When she decides to place the baby with an adoptive couple, she learns about true love and friendship.

Information about the Director
Director Jason Reitman, who also directed Up in the Air and Thank You For Smoking, is known for making comedy films that touch on serious subjects that have highly subjective narration by the main characters. His films usually contain a theme of some kind of generational gap between older and younger characters, and his films often center around characters who are self-confident but who also begin to rethink their lives.

He was born October 19, 1977 in Montreal, Quebec, he is the son of director Ivan Reitman. He graduated from Harvard-Westlake School in North Hollywood, CA in 1995 and then graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a major in English. He frequents STK, a steakhouse restaurant in Los Angeles.

Information for Jason Reitman was found at imdb.com.

Genre
Comedy; Drama; Romance; Teen movie

Curriculum Ties
Sex education, teen pregnancy

Why Included?
This movie is hilarious. Juno is such a strong female character who defies stereotypes. This movie is an example of how an unplanned teen pregnancy can be handled in a pragmatic way that ends with love all around.