Juno

**** Stars

Juno is a reason why they invented movies. The second its over, you feel like hugging yourself and everyone around you, and then watching the film again. I fell in love with this film and Ellen Page in the very first scene.

Ellen Page not only plays Juno Macguff, she is Juno Macguff, the lovely sixteen year old girl whose future is about to change drastically when she discovers that she is knocked up (And don't worry, this is not Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, this is something different and a bit more magical.) She discovers that the father is her best friend Paulie Bleeker (a perfectly cast Michael Cera, from Superbad and Arrested Development fame) who runs with his track team every day and eat more tic-tacs then any human should. Both seem to be secretly in love with eachother, they just don't know what to do with it yet.

When Juno tells her father and stepmother (J.K Simmons and Allison Janney) about her pregnancy, they take it in a more refreshing way then the status-quo would have you believe. Of course they're surprised and disappointed, but instead of throwing Juno in her room until the end of her days, they discuss it with her and realize that she needs them to be there or else she won't get through this. Even though I have never been in any situation like Juno and Paulie, I can relate to them so much that it made me shake. They both have to live with the problems teenagers can potentially face during their high school years. Should Paulie's family find out about this even though Juno is going to be putting the child up for adoption? Can something this devastating shed some good in the world? Well Juno thinks so. She wants to give her child to a couple in desperate hope for a baby.

Jennifer Gardner is wonderful as Vanessa, a born-to-be mother ready to take on the beauty of Juno's child. Her husband Mark (Jason Bateman) is a composer who shares many interests with Juno. The film could have taken a turn for the worse involving the characters of Juno and Mark (I think you know what I mean by that), but instead the screenwriter Diablo Cody brings us to a point in the story we didn't see coming: everything we basically expected, but in a beautiful and poetic way. The last frame of this film will have you crying with happiness.

I want to talk more about Diablo Cody. This is her first screenplay, and she wrote it while getting naked for men in a Minneapolis strip club. Her real name is Brook Busey, but she ditched the name and kind of told the establishment to go to hell. Now, she has serious Oscar buzz for Juno's screenplay and already has Steven Spielberg calling her for work. Because of this writer's strike, Cody is getting the best deals of her life with basically no competition.

Director Jason Reitman seems to know exactly how to handle material like this. It seems that the Thank You For Smoking director is not a one hit wonder. Even though Juno is fourth on my top ten list, it is one of my favorite films of the decade. I have a strong feeling that it will grow on me more and more each day I think about it. It reminds me to continue towards my dream the way Diablo Cody did and never give in to something I don't believe in. Juno is destined to become an iconic teenage movie character. I am three years older than her and I look up to her more than most adults. I hope this film makes the careers of Ellen Page and Michael Cera, who should realize that 2007 is their year to shine.