Film: Juno

A film about teenage pregnancy eh? How can it be anything but boring? I mean you'll have the whiny girl putting out only to be forced to grow up and handle this new life that has been thrust upon her. Zzz indeed.

Except Juno is already pretty damn smart. Or at the very least she's a smart alec, brilliantly sarcastic and sassy. Whatever the details of her character it does make for different situation, one which the film manages to leverage throughout the 90 minutes or so running time.

Although I'm still not quite sure if its Oscar worthy or not, Ellen Page is a joy to watch as the pregnant teen. She eventually manages to steal the show, an impressive task given the calibre of her co-stars. Needless to say there were few problems with the acting in this film - I would love to have seen some out-takes, since it's obvious they were all having a good time on set.

The plot is just as good, with the story engrossing and conclusive. It's also slightly schizophrenic, morphing from a teen-drama through to coming of age and finally settling on a good ol' love story and it's a testament to the producers that they managed to pull it all off so well.

Still I have to say that I was mildly disappointed given the hype. As independent cinema goes, Juno was nothing particularly special in an ever-expanding crowd of genius movies. That's not to say that it wasn't excellent; it's thoroughly recommended and you should all go watch it, I just hope that the inevitable excellence of Juno isn't an ironic sign of an over-saturated genre or style.