Kathmandu :

To sum up this year’s Best Picture contenders for Oscars we have Atonement, Michael Clayton, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood and Juno, this year’s feel good Little Miss Sunshine movie which is up against ‘Meaningful’ competition. Juno is the soufflé against the hard hitting other movies and if the Oscars were awarded by Box Office figures, Juno would win easily. But the golden statuettes are determined (according to veteran screenwriter William Goldman) by a bunch of fuddy-duddies with no sense of fun.

Directed by Jason Reitman, who did the very funny 2005 Thank You For Smoking, Juno is a dynamite comedy with jokes coming at you fast and furious so that you might have to watch it again.

Juno (Ellen Page) is a cynical girl with attitude. She lives in a dream-like suburb of America, which doesn’t really exist, and at 16 she finds herself pregnant after an impulsive sex session with her boyfriend Paulie (Michael Cera). She decides to have the baby and give the child to a deserving couple who would make understanding ideal parents, and she finds Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman). What happens is what Juno is all about.

The screenplay was written by a woman who did a tenure as a stripper so that she could write about it. This is her first movie script and Diablo Cody is capable of rapid-fire howlers and funny visual situations.

For example, Juno chats with her pals on a phone in the shape of a cheeseburger and everyone is funny down to a storekeeper who says of Juno’s plight, “This is one doodle that can’t be undid, home skillet”.

Of course, it’s an unreal world but what fun to escape into it.

Brian Marder says, “Twenty-year-old Ellen Page is an age chameleon as the title character: Physically, she passes for Juno’s age of 16 with ease. But it’s her range of emotion as Juno that is most impressive. Page first endears you with her ability to shoot off quick, rhythmic sarcasm at an astonishing rate — she’s hilarious but it’s her vulnerability that is even more endearing and moving. Such an amazing yet believable transformation is what makes this possibly the year’s best performance from an actress (even the Academy agreed). There’s a major drop-off in screen time for the other actors, but not in quality. Neo-geek god Cera understands what makes comedy funny as well as anybody, but he throws the occasional, and totally effective, curveball at us with scenes of tenderness. Bateman and Garner are typically flawless in small but crucial roles; and Simmons and Janney are pleasant surprises,

casting-wise, as Juno’s parents who are free-spirited voices of reason.

Even if you knew nothing of Juno going in, it’s easy to pick up on the fact that the movie’s voice is unlike any you’ve heard in a while — it’s totally fresh, in every sense of the word. That’s because a brand new writer and Oscar nominee, Diablo Cody, and a newish director,

Jason Reitman who also has been Oscar nominated, are the brains behind the operation. Cody’s is one of the best debut scripts in recent memory, fearless for refusing to conform. Cody doesn’t just elect not to go the conventional route; she gives it the finger! At the same

time, Cody is unconcerned with maintaining the movie’s sheer coolness, as evidenced by Juno’s soft-around-the-edges second half. And then there’s Reitman, who sits back and lets the writer work her untapped magic into a simultaneously upbeat and downbeat near

masterpiece.”