"Juno"

Steve, I think you misunderstood the ending. Your spoiler is wrong -- one of the characters you mention has no part in the final scenes at all.

I'm not so enthusiastic about Juno. It handles its main theme very well (the relationship between Juno and the prospective adopting couple) but drops back into lazy quirky-indie mode when supporting characters drift in. The mannered dialogue was way too precious. I'll give heartfelt props to the cast, though; those sorts of lines are hard to deliver naturally.

Indie pop, in theory, is fine for the soundtrack, and I had no problem with "I'm Sticking with You" or the other older stuff. Kimya Dawson's stuff strained for the same kind of faux innocence, but just ended up cloying.

 

I just saw it (finally, the day AFTER the Ocscars!) and the thing that hit me the hardest was that this is not really a comedy. There are funny things that she says, but the tone of it all is dramatic, to me. Knocked-Up dealt with pregnancy very much from the male point-of-view, but Juno is totally from the female perspective, and as such offers a more realistic view of the ordeal.

I found myself drawn in by the characters right away and the observations were witty and wise. I thought the music was absolutely spot-on and I am bewildered by the comments above labeling it 'lame'. I thought the music represented the age of the protagonist perfectly.

No Country For Old Men is certainly the best picture of the year, by a long shot, IMO, but Juno is always going to have a special place on my dvd shelf, when it gets there.

 

Ah, Juno and Paulie..he and Mark (the adoptive father to be) ..and tot he last poster who responded, I didn't, just was trying to keep track of the male characters (there was that platonic friendship and guitar deut with Mark (Jason Bateman to Jennifer Garner's Vanessa but Paulie ("Superbad's" Mike Cera) was also a guitarist,too. By the way I got the open song quo right ("All I want", not written I thought by the crdited writer (Kimya Dawson-there! got that right) in the open but by someone named Bruce Louis Polisar...that's the opening lyric in the quote.) Very toe tapping., Courtney Love is played, too.. "Doll Parts" when Jennifer Garner comes up...Allison Janney ("Hairspray:, most recently and many other credits) played the stepmom who reminded Juno that there was what we might call more than a little something wrong with 16 year old Juno and an older married man..then there was Allison (Bren's) "Wanamaner" (those poker playing dogs, however the breed's name is spelt, as in the popular painting.)

I agree the songs may have largely been a bit sugary bit were offbeat enough..

 

"Tire Swing"M (props to http://www.amazon.com. under "Juno" soundtrack for the smaples so's I could ID them is the best Dawson song, the one gthat goes somehting about not being there most of the time...incidentl,aly, Jame Lynn Spears coincidentlaly had that big "knock-up" at 16, and it was interesting to see what scriptwriter Diablo Cody (who one best original screenplay) had been before (peepshow, then before, stripper.)

Somebody mentioned "Knocked Up". I am watching that oN DVD and enjoy it and "Juno"., No one mentioned "Waitress".btw.(RIP to poor Adrienne Shelley who was killed in 2006,l before that came out with Keri Russell.)

("Knocked Up"/"Ringer" leading lady and "Gray's Anatomy" and "27 Dresses" star Katherine Heigl made some harsh criticisms of some aspects of the movie but then said it was a very keen experience.)

 

Clearly you haven't seen other Coen brothers films. I personally thought it was excellent and the ending fit the overall feel of the film itself--the randomness, chaos of life and how things aren't tied up neatly.