Juno - Queen of the Blogs

Juno - Bloggers rejoice. Diablo Cody, proprietress of The Pussy Ranch blog, has spun the ultimate post - the screenplay of Juno, an extraordinarily funny movie that takes a thoughtful and interesting look at teen pregnancy and related phenomena. Juno, both the movie and the character played by Ellen Page, take off before the opening credits and never stop. Juno chugs a half gallon of Sunny D, strolls through a rampaging cross country team into an entertaining animated credit sequence, emerges and remorphs to human form, enters the Quickie Mart and buys a pregnancy test kit. This transaction is utterly and completely over the counter, as clerk Rainn Wilson sells "Fertile Myrtle" Juno her third test kit and explains the result isn't going to change, a prophecy she confirms immediately in the Quickie Mart bathroom.

Juno quickly navigates some pregnancy ABCs, cracking wise all the while. She tells the baby's father, Bleeker (Micheael Cera), enlists sympathy and assistance from her best friend Leah (Olivia Thrilby), crosses a one girl pro-life picket line at a local abortion clinic, switches her goal from abortion to adoption, finds prospective adoptive parents through the local pennysaver and tells her own father and step-mother. The pace finally slows, a little, as Juno interviews the would be adoptive parents. The husband, Mark Loring (Jason Bateman) is cool. The wife, Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) is a little desperate, but it seems like a nice home and Juno closes the deal on an "Old School" closed adoption.

Life as a pregnant high school student is no picnic, but Juno still has her best friend Leah, taking things a little too calmly, but always on her side. Juno doesn't know quite what to do with Bleeker, and Bleeker is listening to everything Juno says but hearing nothing she means. Mark Loring is a musician who seems to be getting along too well with Juno and not well enough with his wife. When he announces he's moving out to a loft in the city, Juno faces a new round of choices. What will happen to the baby, to Juno, to Juno and Bleeker?

Diablo Cody was "discovered" as a blogger and submitted the Juno script as a demo to establish credibility so she could pitch herself as screenwriter for a different movie - one based on her book Candy Girl, a humorous look at her year as a stripper. Juno has a lot in common with Judd Apatow's recent successes (Knocked Up comes to mind for some odd reason), but Cody is a feminist Apatow on speed. Like Knocked Up, the story has a warm hearted core and much of the dialog is the kind of buddy banter that Apatow has mastered, but with Juno it's not just buddies who banter it's everyone, everywhere, led by Ellen Page. It's not just banter either, a few of the funniest lines are completely ordinary statements, placed and timed to get yet more laughs. The dialog has everything you wish you had said when you are thinking about a conversation the next day, and more. Even if it's too smart to be true at times, you will be laughing too often to notice.

If Juno were just a comedy it would be well worth seeing, but Director Justin Reitman and Cody take on teen pregnancy with originality and warmth as they present fresh characters that are fully developed despite the fast pace of the story. Cera is awkward and believable as a very young man who loves Juno and wants to do the right thing, if she will only tell him what that is. Juno's Dad and Step mom, JK Simmons and Allison Janney, create likeable, memorable characters in limited screen time. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner also establish their characters quickly, as Bateman's charming cool slides credibly into a flawed indifference while Garner's desperation ultimately makes her seem like a real mom. The real character is Juno, and only a feminist could write the world through Juno's eyes as well as it's done here, a feminist who respects her character's choices. Juno starts out talking a blue streak, a very sophisticated and funny blue streak, when she's scared and clueless. She winds up making decisions that work for everyone. Juno knows very well that she's named after the queen of the gods, Jupiter's one and only wife. The cross country team circles constantly, a presence somewhere between a Greek chorus and Erronius from "Forum", but the thundering herd of male runners never fails to part smoothly for Juno.

This will be the last pre release film review posted here until February. Top picks from this Fall are Juno and Outsourced. Others well worth seeing, are Ira & Abby, Look and The Cake Eaters. Love In The Time of Cholera features a timeless character. Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Grace is Gone, Amexicano, Canvas and Orphanage are all films that As Good As News recommends, but not on a night when you seek something light.

Today's One Answer Only

21. Across - Grouch: grump

Grouchy grump, like today, up too late last night writing the Juno review, and like the day As Good As News posted Lost Plan Dynosaur Rant.

The Orphanage - Friendly Ghosts

The Orphanage - Laura moves into a mansion with her loving husband and adorable, curly haired adopted son, Simon. The new home is the orphanage in which Laura lived as a young girl, and her relationships with her son, her husband and the rational world will soon be tested in this gentle horror film. Simon has "normal"invisible friends, and the house goes bump in the night, but it's not really spooky until Simon meets the unseen Tomas while exploring a cave. Just as Laura tries to welcome two mentally challenged orphans into the home with an opening day party, Simon insists on showing her where Tomas lives. When Simon won't take no for an answer, Laura goes downstairs to the party without him. Simon disappears. Laura's search for Simon carries her into a paranormal tour of her youth and the sad history of the orphanage. Geraldine Chaplin shines as a medium in a brief but critical role that puts Laura on a separate path from her husband and the police psychiatrist. Ultimately Laura finds Simon, but this film creates two endings simultaneously, both plausible within the film's carefully constructed parameters, one rational , the other spiritual.

The Orphanage does many things right. Executive Producer Guillermo del Toro cashes in on his success with Pan's Labyrinth to give a first feature film opportunity to the director, screenwriter and editor. Belen Rueda takes on a very heavy load as Laura. Horror, suspense and dramatic tension rest almost entirely on her taking maternal love to another dimension in the face of peril, fear and rational counsel. She carries the burden with ease. Her performance, and the brief but pivotal appearance by Ms Chaplin, keep the paranormal plotline credible and allow the picture to survive a story line dry spell that bogs down much of the film's second half. There is no gore here. Shock is used sparingly to good effect and suspense builds slowly, too slowly at times, to a conclusion that works on at least two levels. The final scene is essentially an unnecessary epilogue, this picture should have ended with Ms Rueda's last scene.

If you like horror and don't need gore, if you want to see something a little different, if you just want to see a great, and beautiful, actress and practice your Spanish, then try The Orphanage.

Second Opinion

Former Law Adviser Speaks Out On Bush - Jack Goldsmith is a conservative lawyer who served as head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department. He resigned after just nine months and his book paints an ugly picture. The entire review is well worth reading. The W administration did whatever it wanted, then looked around for a lawyer to confirm that this was legal. Often they found John Yoo, a lawyer who did not let a small thing like the Constitution (or the Geneva convention or any other source of law) interfere with his legal opinion that W and Darth Cheney could torture and wiretap at will. Administration officials were constantly pushing the lawyers to expand executive authority. Michael Hayden (then NSA, now CIA Director) wanted to be sure that he "had chalk on his spikes", i.e., that he was acting at the outer boundary of executive authority. Thanks to Mr. Yoo's advice, Darth and W went so far beyond the chalk line that their cleats were picking up popcorn from the cheap seats near the top of the stadium. Yoo was a lap dog, selected for his conservative views, desperately eager to please in the post 9/11 world and directly loyal to Darth and W with an eye on the main chance and not much concern for his Justice Department superiors. A process in which an executive constantly pushes an independent, principled and capable lawyer for approval can work, the lawyer can say no when the law so dictates, witness Goldsmith's service. Although sometimes functional, executive pressure is not the best way to go - it's more fun to have a client who actually wants an advisor during the decision making process, not a rubber stamping scape goat. Even when the executive pressure system works, it makes life miserable for the lawyer (Goldsmith lasted only nine months) and requires nearly superhuman dedication unless the lawyer has organizational support. The Justice Department was at least somewhat functional until Mr. Gonzales, another lap dog, took over. An executive giving orders to a lap dog doesn't generate advice, it generates an excuse. Mr. Yoo's sole function was to justify W's "we didn't do anything illegal" soundbite when the extent of his domestic surveillance was uncovered. Sit Yoo sit, roll over Albert, atta boys, now tell us we don't need warrants for domestic surveillance - great job, here's a steak we'll ask you to define torture tomorrow. W and Darth should get no co credit for relying on advice of counsel in a process they rigged. Goldsmith's book is undoubtedly self serving, but as a conservative insider who shared W's objectives, his story has credibility.

An Opportunity for Wall Street In China's Surveillance Boom - China continues to install a grid of cameras and face recognition software and function as Internet super nanny. This technology can be used to fight traditional crime (muggers, Internet kiddie porn or fraud). It can also be used to repress dissent, free speech and political opposition. So what's new? Chinese security official Li Runsen made it obvious that he's getting rich from the surveillance by putting himself on the board of a private surveillance technology supplier incorporated in the US. California Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos is sputtering publicly about the fact that US hedge funds and investment banks are funding China's police state through investment in the the suppliers. The financiers point to surveillance cameras in NYC and say what's the problem. The problem is that NYC is not a repressive one party state (well at least we have a meaningful primary once in a while) that crushes democracy with tanks when the occasion arises. Supplying the high-tech police state is certainly a lucrative business. Returns must be great when the party officials involved in the suppliers are also guiding the purchases. Beware nonetheless, US financiers, it's only a matter of time before this technology is used to make sure that everyone who shows up for the next Tiananmen Square (wherever it may be, even if it is a virtual rally) and everyone who knows anyone who shows up for the next Tiananmen Square will be hunted down and reeducated. Then you, Barry Kitt of Pinnacle and you, Kenneth Griffin of Citadel, and you Jeff Feinberg of JLF can take pride in your role, and if you would prefer to forget about it, then I suspect Congressman Lantos and many others will be kind enough to remind you.

Low Technologies High Aims - MIT hosts the International Development Design Summit, the engineering and design equivalent (or perhaps much needed partner would be a better view) to the red hot field of microcapitalism. The goal -find affordable, available solutions for real needs of less developed areas, the backpack that makes it easier to carry water, the bicycle powered grain mill, the expandable drip irrigation system. The Summit is a four week workshop (including the welding seminar pictured above) that makes real progress on specific projects, not just a meet, greet, inspire and scatter. Let's add a fifth week next time, invite hedge funds in to view the projects as potential investments, maybe come up with a home for some money that doesn't help to make a powerful police state impregnable.