JUNO

Year 2008
Rating M
Genre Comedy
Director Jason Reitman
Cast Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, J.K Simmons, Alison Janney, Olivia Thirlby
Distributor Fox
Available For rent & sale from August 6
The Film 4.5 Stars
The Disc 4 Discs

Sitting somewhere between a hagiography of precocious youth and subversive social comedy, Jason Reitman’s glittering Juno took Hollywood by storm last year, pushing its enfant terrible star Ellen Page into the stratosphere of young female leads, and making a household name of its writer, Diablo Cody, whose mesmeric script drives the film. Its deceptively simple narrative follows Page, as the titular 16-year-old, over the course of her unplanned pregnancy as she confronts rushing adulthood.

That skeletal description, of course, is only half of the story. Page’s chemistry with on-screen sorta-boyfriend, Paulie (Michael Cera), is heartrending, unadulterated and real, and the contained mess of her life with a loving if bewildered father (J.K. Simmons) and stepmother (Alison Janney) is similarly recognisable. However, all is witnessed with near surrealism through Reitman’s lensing, which dusts the film with wardrobe hyper-colours, set design bric-a-brac, and a haunting soundtrack (much of which is provided by Kimya Dawson and her band The Moldy Peaches) – none of which ever damages Reitman’s de rigour naturalism.

Opening around Christmas last year in the states, the film grew larger than anyone could have expected, taking home an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as three other nominations (Best Picture, Director, Actress). Cody’s background as a third wave feminist essayist who worked as a Minneapolis stripper/blogger before earning a film commission proved a fertile area of interest, especially as it informed her particular and identifiable use of language. Full of curious, nearly inexplicable idioms, pop culture references and grubby humour, Juno’s screenplay reads like “kids these days” talk – or an exaggerated version, anyway – which proved hugely successful in winning over adult types looking for a window into youth culture, as well as the kids themselves, chuffed to be on the big screen.

While neither Reitman nor Cody could have estimated the enormity of the film’s final returns (about a quarter billion dollars worldwide) they, and distributors Fox Searchlight, did have the wherewithal to bring on top form actors like Simmons and Janney, as well as Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the power couple that Juno adopts out to. Garner especially impresses, as her textured, strikingly different portrayal of expectant motherhood (if not pregnancy) lends a drop of pathos to her waspy coldness. Those moves, compounded by the film’s rich aesthetic and natural warmth, makes it an easy one to like, and even the inevitable backlash that accompanied its massive success did little to tarnish what is, at its essence, a quietly remarkable film.

This is Reitman’s second movie, after the excellent, if somewhat overlooked, Thank You For Smoking, but it shows him bursting with veteran intuition and gentleness in his cuts, music and pacing. Both flicks are tightly constructed and efficient, if Juno more so, with nary an overlong or bloated sequence; if anything, he trims in too tight, but even that works in this film’s favour. Rather than proffering an oppressive, claustrophobic feeling, it liberates the characters, allowing for more ambiguous incarnations, especially in the case of Bateman’s vaguely creepy Mark. In short, Reitman and Cody know what they’re doing, as does the supporting cast.

For most viewers, however, it is Page that is the revelation. Scintillating in the little seen but affecting Hard Candy, and cutely rousing in the third X-Men film, she honed her child acting chops in Canada before becoming the most sought after early-twenties actress on the planet. Even against her fellow Oscar nominees – the legendary Julie Christie, modern masters Cate Blanchett and Laura Linney, and French starlet Marion Cotillard – she hardly looks out of place, which is a testament to her maturity and an underrated, chameleon quality. Conventional wisdom says that, as a 21-year-old, she’s been playing fairly close to her own admittedly precocious personality; however, with the character of Juno, it’s clear that it is Cody that Page is channelling, updated to suit her own instantaneous modernity.

This “Special Edition” is indeed so. It includes a rollicking commentary from Reitman and Cody, in which they agree as well as quibble, demonstrating a warm camaraderie and mutual affection. They also speak over the twenty minutes worth of deleted scenes, explaining the cuts (which usually come by way of an apology from Reitman to Cody). The deleted scenes themselves are well worth a fan’s attention, especially because none is a throw-in. All the scenes could and perhaps should have been included, although that would have pushed the film to a solid two hours, which is something its director desperately wanted to avoid.

The disc also hosts another four featurettes (clocking in at about forty minutes) about the central characters, writer, director and making-of process, respectively, each of which brings a fresh perspective to those elements, and allows the principals the luxury of blowing smoke at each other without self-consciousness. Also on the disc are outtakes, year-old screen test rehearsal footage, and a cast and crew jam session, complete with plenty of guitars, a drum set and rock god posturing. Throughout, the film feels like a good time – especially in its undeniable bond between Cody, Page and Reitman – and is never dull nor contrived.

Brian Duff