Toronto. Juno.

"I don't know when I've heard a standing ovation so long, loud and warm as the one after Jason Reitman's Juno, which I predict will become quickly beloved when it opens at Christmas time, and win a best actress nomination for its 20-year-old star, Ellen Page," writes Roger Ebert.

"[H]ere's why I dug this movie so much that I wanted to crawl up on the screen and give it a big sloppy kiss." Scott Weinberg presents a bullet-pointed list at Cinematical, where Kim Voynar talks with Reitman and with screenwriter Diablo Cody.

"[A]s much as I steeled myself against the wisecracking whimsy of Juno, by the end it had mostly won me over," writes Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "This is an indie crowdpleaser that's much more enjoyable - in other words, not nearly as horrifying - as Little Miss Sunshine."

Updated through 9/30:

At the AV Club, Noel Murray offers a dissenting opinion: "[T]hough some of the movie is laugh-out-loud funny and even moving almost despite itself, the parade of not-quite-of-this-world characters and their not-in-the-least-believable behavior makes it a trifle at best, and insulting at worst."

"10 minutes into Reitman's follow-up to Thank You For Smoking, I definitely wasn't feeling it: The too-quirky dialogue, singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson's cloying music, and the snide attitude carried over TYFS all put me off completely," admits his colleague Scott Tobias. "But from the scene in which Ellen Page... confesses her pregnancy to her family and then later meets a upper-middle-class couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) anxious to adopt, the film permanently wore down my defenses."

"The Juno screening was a total madhouse!" reports Ali at the Film Experience. "I have certainly experienecd my share of chaotic movie experiences at TIFF, but this is what is must have been like when Borat premiered at the Ryerson last year."

ST VanAirsdale talks with Page for the Reeler.

Update, 9/30: And the Winner Is... talks with Reitman and Cody.

Posted by dwhudson at September 25, 2007 12:36 PM