Juno.

"Like the titular character's accidental pregnancy, Juno has a fumbling start and an affecting delivery," writes Fernando F Croce in Slant. "Just when one is about to write off Diablo Cody's much-praised screenplay as less than the sum of its ornate quips, a scene will be flipped in an unexpected direction and a hidden vein of emotion suddenly struck."

"[L]et's hope the critical chorus brings the volume down to a reasonable level, before it gives this good film a fatal case of heightened expectations," warns Gabriel Shanks.

Updated through 12/8.

"Young [Jason] Reitman was mysteriously acclaimed for his ugly, inept film of the libertarian hipster comedy Thank You for Smoking, but that movie didn't break out the way Juno will," writes David Edelstein in New York. "It's the Knocked Up - the family-values picture with four-letter words—that the tweeners will want to see." As for Ellen Page, "She has a talent for making her motormouthed lines sound like they're really coming from her head." Logan Hill profiles her: "Just 20, Page was born two years after The Breakfast Club, and she has a very different movie legacy in mind for herself."

"[I]t's fun, it's cute, it's got a wicked sense of humor and it's got one of this year's best on-screen female performances," writes Erik Davis at Cinematical. Similarly, Robert Levin at cinemaattraction: "Of all that stands out about the film, including Reitman's assured direction, which belies his relative inexperience and Cody's sharp and moving script, nothing resonates quite so much as the uniformly strong performances."

"If you are a fan of the indie version of the human drama, it would be tough to top the one about the plucky Midwestern girl who used a stripper pole to shimmy her way up and out of a drab office cubicle and grab her piece of the Hollywood dream." For the New York Times, David Carr profiles Diablo Cody. And: "The Bagger was talking with an experienced Oscar campaigner last night and they both agreed that Juno might be the year's little movie that could."

"My favorite cover all time - Sonic Youth's version of The Carpenters' "Superstar" - will be on the Juno soundtrack," notes Rex Sorgatz.

Earlier: Reviews from Toronto.

Updates: "Juno is occasionally funny, rarely intelligent, and often annoying," writes Elbert Ventura at Reverse Shot. "A crowd-pleaser for people who like to think they're above crowd-pleasers but are actually not, it's going to be huge.... Is Juno this year's Little Miss Sunshine? You bet."

"Far less funny and shrewd than Knocked Up..., Juno pretends to care about real-world situations but is really interested only in its own trendier-than-thou cleverness, an obnoxious fantasy vision of teendom slathered in self-satisfied snark," writes Nick Schager.

Updates, 12/4: "The problem with too much buzz is that it sets up impossible expectations," writes Marcy Dermansky. "Though too precocious and polished, Juno manages to charm, with many lovely moments. In the tradition of maladjusted teen comedies, however, Juno doesn't rank among the recent greats. The pacing and soundtrack are wholly indebted to Wes Anderson's Rushmore. Ghost World's Enid outclasses Juno with her ruthless lack of sentiment. This year's overlooked Rocket Science offers more hilarious moments, as well as Anna Kendrick, who has her own way with words."

"[O]nce it works its way through the first-timer's lookatme! snark, Juno evolves into a thing of beauty and grace," writes Robert Wilonsky in the Voice. "By the end, it's unexpectedly moving without ever once trolling for crocodile tears. It's a sneak attack."

"For all its posturing as a take-no-guff whippersnapper, Juno is finally a square, predictable crowd-pleaser, timid on politics and reaffirming on family," writes Michael Koresky at indieWIRE. "[I]t's endlessly schematic, from its post-Wes Anderson (and post-Napoleon Dynamite, and post-Rocket Science, etc) fetishizing of goofy objects (orange tic tacs! yellow sweatbands!) to its rattling off of Diablo Cody's favorite things (The Stooges! Herschell Gordon Lewis!), to its Belle & Sebastian and Moldy Peaches interludes and twee, closing guitar sing-along. This final moment brings to mind a much more honest movie that Fox Searchlight has savvily marketed to major success: yet a film as delightful, odd, and innocent as Once doesn't come along very often. Something like Juno seems to open every other week."

Updates, 12/5: "The passive-aggressive pseudo-folk songs, the self-consciously clever dialogue, the generic, instantly mockable suburban setting - if you can find Sundance on a map, you'll swear you've been here before," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "But Juno... respects the idiosyncrasies of its characters rather than exaggerating them or holding them up for ridicule. And like Juno herself, the film outgrows its own mannerisms and defenses, evolving from a coy, knowing farce into a heartfelt, serious comedy."

"I'm dreading the inevitable: that Juno will be seized upon by groups and individuals with all sorts of pregnancy-related agendas," writes Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "But this is a story about people, not about political or even moral convictions. If anything, it stresses that even though the whole idea of pregnancy and childbearing is an intensely personal issue for any woman, it's still the sort of thing that invites random aggressive pronouncements and proclamations - generally disguised as helpful advice - from friends, family members and total strangers alike.... Juno doesn't make judgments or pronouncements. Its great beauty lies in how generous it is toward all its characters."

"Juno is hilarious and sweet-tempered, perceptive and surprisingly grounded," writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. "It's also a gust of fresh air, perspective-wise, in that it follows the gestational misadventures of a girl, whose hotness is not actually her most salient characteristic, from the girl's point of view."

"If you love to hate the ellipsis-riddled speech of the mumbleborg, then you'll have an apoplectic blast with the baroque geek-snark pouring forth from Juno's little trooper," writes Nicolas Rapold in the L Magazine. "What keeps Juno bearable is Page's bobbing and weaving her way to a semblance of character."

Tricia Olszewski talks with Cody and Page for PopMatters.

"[T]here is no point in complaining that every character in the movie, right down to the clerk at the convenience store - who notes of Juno's predicament, 'This is one doodle that can't be undid, home skillet' - talks as if they're in a hipster screwball comedy," argues Premiere's Glenn Kenny. "Because every character in this movie is, in fact, in a hipster screwball comedy, take it or leave it. I for one am fairly happy that I took it, not least because of Page's enthusiastic, note-perfect work, which actually convinces you that a person such as Juno could actually exist."

"Juno is a wildly appealing heroine, a bright, tart-tongued girl with a self-possession beyond her years," writes Slate's Dana Stevens. "But what saves her - and the movie - from foundering in a sea of snark is Juno's slow realization that brains, wit, and good taste in music aren't enough to get her through an experience as lifeshaking as pregnancy."

Online viewing tip. Cody and Page talk about their favorite movies at Cinematical. Briefly.

"It's a nice surprise to watch Juno, who trafficks, if lightly, in the usual teen angst bullshit, get a taste of actual disillusionment, and Page does a solid job with some fairly tricky scenes," writes Michelle Orange at the Reeler. "Though the dynamic between Juno and Bleeker is not explored to much satisfaction, the tentative sweetness of Cody's ending feels earned."

Update, 12/6: "I'm not sure I'd call Juno ground-breaking - for that you'd need a pimply heroine who stays that way and still gets the guy - but what sets this engaging little movie above the pack of glib, brittle or sickly-sweet teen comedies is the clear eye it casts on the suburban American family, while stoutly defending that battered institution's elastic ability to adapt," writes Ella Taylor in the LA Weekly.

Updates, 12/7: "[T]he movie beats a hasty retreat to sitcom safety, ultimately concluding on a would-be-adorable note involving yet another cloying Kimya Dawson tune," writes Mike D'Angelo at Nerve. "Still, this dramatic copout, while disappointing, doesn't make the film's innumerable one-liners and sight gags any less hilarious, and Page's quicksilver performance in the title role is already justifiably the stuff of legend."

"Juno is not a great movie; it does not have aspirations in that direction," writes Richard Schickel in Time. "But it is, in its little way, a truthful, engaging and welcome entertainment."

Update, 12/8: "Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody has described herself as a 'naked Margaret Mead,' a cultural anthropologist who for years studied the rites and rituals of the stripper tribe in lieu of the nine-to-five grind," notes Lauren Wissot at the House Next Door. "It's a great line and a quite telling one, for this writer's scientific approach to life is precisely why Juno ultimately fails."

Posted by dwhudson at December 3, 2007 9:12 AM