Juno MacGuff has a supportive family and lives a pretty comfortable life in an ordinary town. She is sixteen, and have you ever met a sixteen year old that is content being comfortable? I didn’t think so. Juno gets bored and decides that it is time to have sex, and recruits the assistance of her friend-that-is-a-boy, Paulie Bleeker. Completely ignoring the no glove – no love rule. After ten tons of Sunny-D and three pregnancy tests, Juno is pregnant, regardless of how hard she shakes the pregnancy test.

She and her friend Leah explore the options available, including that of having an abortion. Juno discovers that her baby has fingernails and that “All babies want to get borned,” leading her to decide to keep the baby, but not for herself. Leah suggests Juno look for ads for adoptive parents in the Penny Saver, right next to the iguanas, terriers and fitness equipment. “Desperately seeking spawn” she calls them. Juno is attracted to the photo of Mark and Vanessa Loring, who were beautiful even in black and white. They don’t match the kind of people she would like to raise her child, but it is clear that they are her best option.

Juno and Leah are not your typically portrayed high school teenage girls. They are not helpless, superficial or sentimental; they are brutally honest and self-efficient. They live in the moment, and talk in a way that only really people of their generation can appreciate. As cool as they are with their witty quirks, they are still young and vulnerable, and essentially ill equipped. Therefore, when she comes out to her parents, Mac and Brenda her step mom, it is only the right thing to do.

They offer a completely refreshing take on how to handle the situation, and one could only hope to have parents that supportive in the event of us getting pregnant, or that of our girlfriends. They are warm and caring, with a quick sense of humour, and never once go overboard in their preaching on how Juno’s actions were completely dim-witted and thoughtless. Mac decides to help Juno out by taking her to meet Mark and Vanessa, to make sure they do not take her for a ride.

Mark and Vanessa are a young and wealthy couple, but they are childless. Vanessa thinks she was born to be a mother, and Mark would love to coach the soccer team. They do not share the same take on this adoption, but Mark just wants Vanessa to be happy. He is, in fact, an immature man who is still caught up in his dream of becoming a rock star, a dream that is usually tucked away safely when people reach adulthood. This is how Juno and Mark connect; Juno is every teenage boy’s idea of the cool girlfriends, the hipster.

Unfortunately, we different boys usually do not get the chance to hook up with these hipsters, and they eventually grow up to be high school librarians. Then we lose interest.  Mark and Vanessa have a shaky relationship, and Mark and Juno’s surprising connection puts unwanted pressure on the situation. This only proves that being immature has nothing to do with age, and where Mark lack’s immaturity, Juno only gains it as the film and her pregnancy progress.

The dialogue in the screenplay written by Oscar-winning Diablo Cody (Brook Busey-Hunt) is so sharp and quick in some moments and so genuine and heart warming in others, anything that seems annoying is balanced out. Without a fine cast of performers, Diablo’s sparkling writing would have been a complete waste. The film is far from a waste. Ellen Page perfectly displays how Juno’s quick wit and confident exterior is worn down as her pregnancy progresses, and she is able to show us the genuine emotion and soul underneath her quirky shirts and pregnant belly. She never once falters and I felt her performance was completely believable.

With one powerhouse performance, it would be easy to expect that everyone else in the film fades away in Page’s shadow, but it is not so. Allison Janney gives one of the funniest performances in the film, and every time she is onscreen, you never want her to leave. I have never that way towards a step mom before. It is refreshing to have a stepmother portrayed as something other than a wicked witch, even if you would probably not find a Brenda MacGuff in real life, which is unfortunate.

In particular, I loved the scene where she gives that ultra sound technician a piece of her mind and stands up for Juno, it is hilarious. After a third viewing, I got slightly bored of Michael Cera’s performance as Paulie Bleeker to tell the truth, I can only take so much of his comic talents. Other than that minor quibble, I thought ever other actor in the film was brilliant, without clichés and over-used character traits, they were able to deliver performances that were intuitive and special.

The actual setting of the film was completely absorbing for me, and I took pleasure in noticing the details. Take Juno’s room for example, with all the punk posters of the Stooges and the like, the photos of Juno and her band, the Buddha light switch. Then you get Leah’s room, which is filled with all the sentimental girly junk that certain types of girls just love to hoard.

This shows that Juno is not your typical girl but Leah, to a certain extent, is. The changing of seasons, from the mellow golden browns of Autumn when Juno first discovers her pregnancy, to the bleak Winter when Juno has to grow emotionally and make a series of tough decisions, and finally to the optimistic and blossoming Spring where Juno is at her happiest. All this tied along with the occasion passing of Bleeker’s running team are a simple metaphor for Juno’s transition into maturity.

Music plays a big role in the film too, and I think Kimya Dawson’s efforts find a place in Juno that not many other songs could have. They are true and honest, but I doubt they would work anywhere else but in the context of this film. Jason Reitman is lucky that he got such talented people to calibrate with him on making this film, he can thank them for his Best Director nomination, and I do not think he had all that much to do with why Juno turned out so great.

It is not an unknown fact that Juno is my favourite film of last year, and I cannot use words to describe how I feel. The laugh-out-loud moments I had when watching the film for the first time last November have gone now. I still manage to get a huge smile on my face, but the laughs are now internal, a deeper kind of love and appreciation than any laugh could express. Juno never feels like it is trying too hard for me, it has no dull moments or scenes that do not work; it all fits perfectly into place. We all want to find a person, or film, that we can love for exactly who or what it is, and with Juno, I have found mine.

Fatac Rating: *****

Juno. Directed by Jason Reitman. Written by Diablo Cody. Music by Mateo Messina. Starring: Ellen Page Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, J.K Simmons, Olivia Thrilby and Jason Bateman. Running Time: 94 minutes. Age Restriction: 13 MLS. Year: 2007. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. [A+]