The unexpected and overwhelming affection for ‘Juno’ among critics and moviegoers alike seems to have shocked its producers. After all, it’s just a quirky little movie about a pregnant teenager with a bunch of no-name TV actors that they were only ever going to release in a few dozen theatres.
To date it’s made over 115 million at the box office, and it’s still going strong.
The secret of the movie’s appeal is a rare alchemy between actors and script, resulting in an utterly unique group of characters that you can’t help falling in love with. They aren’t really like anyone you’ve ever met, and yet they’re so richly detailed and complete that you don’t doubt that somewhere, somehow, these people really exist.
I wish they had their own TV series so I could watch them every week.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m giving Juno a perfect five out of five stars. Go see it. This week. And don’t tell Murray it’s (mostly) Canadian.
(I'm guessing someone told him. Either that, or he's congenitally predisposed to despise Canadian movies. Murray's review is finally up on the Champion website, and it seems that he is one of the half dozen people on the planet who actively disliked 'Juno'. He actually uses the word 'rancid'. Go figure.)
If you want a TV show with teenage pregnancy there was always "Degrassi Junior High" where Spike got pregnant. Remember that?
ReplyDeleteI find mainstream movies involving young pregnancies often too fake to watch since they almost never broach the subject of abortion. It's almost like the two options presented are always "baby or adoption"? Abortion just simply is not even considered for some reason, I guess to keep the audience happy.
I never watched Degrassi. Sorry. I'm a bad Canadian.
ReplyDeleteIt distresses me that 'Juno' is being held up by the anti-abortion crowd as some sort of celluloid vindication of their cause. Especially since the whole point is that Juno CHOOSES to carry through with the pregnancy, not for any grand moral reasons, but because the whole idea of the foetus having fingernails freaks her out.
If she hadn't been free to make that choice, well, it wouldn't have been much of a movie.
If you're looking for some reasonably good Canadian tv shows with Ellen page, the protagonist in Juno, check out ReGenesis. The new season should be starting up soon, but it's well worth starting from the beginning (she's been phased out a bit lately).
ReplyDeleteI've been a huge fan of ReGenesis and Ellen Page from the beginning. I just wish I got TMN so I didn't have to wait for Global or whoever to re-air it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd find it hard to believe that the producers would be shocked.
ReplyDeleteI was just watching it again, and really noticed how emotionally hardcore it is.
It's not just a little postmodern yawp, and I'm sure the producers are gratified to know that they hit their target; people who need to be deeply touched by a story involving the other side of that coin called "choice."