Quite frankly I've been pretty **** off over the last month that I haven't been able to see this yet. I had tickets to an advanced screening early in December, but the tickets were sent via e-mail and our school's e-mail system was down the day of the screening. Didn't get to see it.
Over a month later I finally decided to take a look at JUNO. Needless to say I am highly disappointed.
I have several problems with this film, first being the fact that the attempts to make this film modern and fresh are overwhelmingly nauseating. The language Juno uses in this film (especially in the scene where she's telling her friend Leah that she's pregnant) is too much; bordering on exaggeration of epic proportion. Teeangers don't talk like that, or at least none that I know. That's really going to hurt this film in the long run. Twenty years from now when people look back on this project they're going to watch a film that has dated beyond belief. I can barely swallow the dialogue as it is... I can't imagine watching this film a few decades down the road and getting the false impression that kids of this era talk like that.
I've been hearing that Ellen Page will be the next big thing. I don't see it. I think that Page's success from this film is nothing more than a result of the script (and the popularity of the film), not her acting ability. I find her acting to be boring to no end. Without the overload of sarcasm written into her part by Diablo Cody, Juno's persona would be bordering on the edge of a corpse.
The score is another thing that I take issue with. The indie crowd has been wetting themselves over this soundtrack, and that's fine I suppose, but I don't like the score at all. The music is just as boring as Juno, featuring tracks with a slow, morose caroler singing over a few piano notes or guitar plucks. Maybe it's the Hollywood influence, but that's not what I look for in a score. Give me an original score with some semblance of soul to it, not this empty indie crap.
The story is cute, and overall it's not a bad film by any means. There are some generally funny moments, mostly from J.K. Simmons (who I think is the real highlight of the film), but I don't find anything so special about it that will honestly earn it the Oscar nods it will receive. Franly I feel like I'm watching the independent version of KNOCKED UP, but replacing the drugs and toilet humor with sarcasm and indie music.
I expected much more out of this, instead all I got was a film that was nothing more than a product of hype. I'm glad this film is doing well at the box office just because it may persuade the masses that there are films coming out of the independent studios that can appeal to the general public, but apart from that, JUNO is an incredible disappointment.
6/10