Honest to Blog?

So after looking forward to it for a month or so, I finally saw the movie Juno on Thursday night with my friends Mark and John. The film stars Ellen Page as a babyfaced sixteen-year-old who gets knocked up after sleeping with her best friend, played by Arrested Development’s winningly awkward Michael Cera (also see: Superbad). She decides to give the baby up for adoption to a seemingly perfect wealthy couple, played by Jennifer Garner and another face from Arrested, Jason Bateman.

I actually have this poster because my awesome friend Lewis stole it for me. A million points to Lewis.

In general, I really really enjoyed this movie. It delivers what I call “the Super Troopers effect,” whereby you’re constantly trying to suppress gales of laughter because you don’t want to miss the next funny thing. Every single character has a host of vulnerable/funny moments, especially Cera as an unwitting father. At one point, during a fight with the heroine, he imitates her by saying “Oh no, let’s make out instead, la la la.” It’s way funnier in the movie than in my blog, I promise.

In fact, these constant verbal acrobatics are almost too perfect. My only real problem with the film was the writer’s endless attempt to make the characters sound quick and hilarious. Juno’s whole “seamonkey” line, which you can hear in the trailer, is way too perfect to have been thought up on the spot by any sixteen-year-old, no matter how clever. The end result is pretty harmless, though- the actors just take on a few exaggerated features, like caricatures. They still manage to keep it real, a testament to the strength of the cast. Oh, another tiny flaw was a bit of “nonodon’tgothereJuno” drama that was pretty contrived. But I don’t want to spoil anything.

Another thing I always have to talk about is the soundtrack. I’d probably put it in my top 10 of all time just because it contained not one, but TWO of my all-time favorite love songs. Early in the film we hear the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Sticking With You,” a really cute waltzy duet and later on we’re gifted with Belle & Sebastian’s “Piazza, New York Catcher.” It’s the sweetest. Song. Ever.

Because the movie is funny and the soundtrack is awesome, Jason (my way-cooler-than-everyone-but-I'm-not-sure-if-he-knows-it boyfriend) has warned me that it’s probably going to be “the next Garden State,” a phrase which sends an icy chill down my pretentious spine. Yeah, Garden State was very sweet and beautifully directed, but I think it’s unfair to call chinless Zach Braff’s assortment of ennui faces a plot. Just saying. If my little brother’s scene friends start putting Belle & Sebastian on their iPods, I might just have to choke a bitch. While wearing running shorts and a yellow sweatband, of course.