Review of Juno

Yay White People!

Unlike the macho Thank You For Smoking, Jason Reitman’s latest film, Juno, is a more feminine indie comedy complete with an animated title sequence, thrift-store costume design, and a twee soundtrack featuring Kimya Dawson, the Moldy Peaches, and Belle & Sebastian. Juno, the film’s protagonist, is a sharp, precocious, Daria-like teenager that Ellen Page (Hard Candy) plays brilliantly. But while the film is well-intentioned, attempting to tackle the theme of teen pregnancy with tact and sensitivity, ultimately the characters operate from a privileged place, deflating the movie’s ostensible critique of American class relations.

In the film, Juno, a teen from a modestly middle class home, becomes pregnant after an awkward encounter with her boyfriend (Michael Cera). She decides not to abort it, but rather to give the baby up for adoption to a yuppie couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). Through a mildly funny joke about China, the film only flippantly addresses the fact that this option is only open to Juno because she is white. The constant and overbearing references to indie rock and other hipster cultural touchstones only further drive home the fact that Juno’s pregnancy is not your average teen pregnancy – which is probably the point of the movie: even smart, pretty, suburban white girls can get knocked up. Diablo Cody’s script is proficient, but it often seems a little too pleased with itself, forcing some one-liners and unnecessary you-go-girl rants from some of its characters. While the film pulls out a lot of stops to prove its edge, ultimately Juno succumbs to a quaint, white-washed view of suburban America where a woman isn’t a woman until she’s had a baby.

Posted on 12/15/07 by: Lord Grimmak 04:43 PM