Juno
Finally saw Juno tonight. It's fabulous: charming, funny, sweet, smart, and with just a bit of an edge.
It has some flaws, including some bits of political subtext I'm a little dubious about, but I enjoyed it enough that those things didn't bother me.
I'm guessing most of you who had any interest in this movie have seen it already, but I'm gonna go on about it a bit anyway. There'll probably be some spoilers in this entry.
Ellen Page is particularly awesome. Juno reminds me obliquely of various other smart funny teen rebel/outcast girls from TV and movies, and she has the vulnerability that those characters often have under the smart sarcastic surface; but Juno has a sincerity that I think is often missing from those characters. And Page does a great job with all the facets of Juno's personality.
I also quite liked both of Juno's parents, but especially Allison Janney as the stepmother—I think I may've liked her more here than in West Wing.
I liked the female friend character (Leah) as well—I get the impression she's a bit more mainstream than Juno in various ways, but I really like her for (a) being totally supportive and loyal (I'm always a sucker for sidekick/best-friend characters), and (b) retaining her sense of humor—I laughed out loud at a minor bit between her and Juno in the hospital near the end.
Now that I've seen the movie, I finally understand what N was talking about when she said that Juno was a romantic comedy. By my definition, it's not in the Romantic Comedy genre; but it's nonetheless both funny and romantic, much more so than I would have imagined from what I heard about it when it came out.
One other thing I particularly liked was the music. Dan P tried to get me into Kimya Dawson a while back, but it didn't quite stick—I liked "Tire Swing," but was a little uncertain about her other stuff. But her songs really fit this movie perfectly; I'm glad that she and the movie-makers found each other. And the soundtrack albums seem to have sold extremely well, so I'm glad of that too. This is going to get me to finally buy some of her music.
Though I can't decide whether to get the soundtrack album or the double-length and nearly double-price deluxe edition soundtrack album, which apparently also contains a bunch of extra songs they were considering but decided not to include. There's only one song from the latter that I especially want: Dawson's rendition of "All I Want Is You." But the Dawson version is album-only, and the shorter soundtrack album does have another person's version of that song, so maybe I'll just go with the shorter version.
Anyway. Good movie; recommended.