Fourth Pick's a Charm

Right, so I have a few things to say:

The Comebacks? Easily the worst film I have EVER seen. I am not gracing it with a review. Do not see it. You will lose 120 minutes of your life and you can NEVER get them back. EVER.

(For the record, Mike wanted to turn it off after ten minutes. I held out, because I was expecting at least a little gratuitous nudity. I was wrong. There was no nudity. There was nothing. NOTHING. And I died a little inside.)

Next, Live Free or Die Hard. Not bad. Not great, either, but what can you expect from a fourth installment and recycled dialogue? (For the record, there were some great new lines. But there was no Alan Rickman, and that was sad.)

Then, 27 Dresses.

When your mother asks you to come see a chick flick, say yes. Generally, it's going to be cute, formulaic, and predictable, but it's going to be enjoyable.

It was. Pretty much. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

But then? The diamond in the rough.

Juno.

Oh! This movie! It was so lovely and wonderful and adorable and I LOVED IT.

I know, I know, I sound like the millionth broken-record reviewer, as many, many people also loved this film, but I wouldn't lie to you. Would I lie to you? No. No, I would not.

Juno? It's an indie. Juno (Ellen Page) is a sixteen-year-old high school junior (also kind of an "indie"), pregnant with her best friend Bleeker's (Michael Cera) baby. She was bored, she says, so she slept with him.

There's an annoying exchange between Juno and a store clerk (Rainn Wilson - Dwight from The Office - vastly underused in my opinion) at the beginning, but once you get past that, you're golden.

She's sixteen, aged beyond her years, obviously. She didn't fit into a "high school mold" even before the pregnancy, but like most free-spirits, she doesn't care. She's snarky and clever, sweet and obnoxious. You just love her.

By far the most important and touching performances in this film were those of J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney, who played her father and stepmother, respectively. They were wonderful as the caring parents who accepted Juno for who she was and didn't ignore her plight or ridicule her decisions. Her father had some of the best lines in the movie, and her stepmother had one of the best scenes. (Sidenote: I love Allison Janney. She stole my heart as the guidance counselor in Ten Things I Hate About You and absolutely killed me in Drop Dead Gorgeous.)

Ellen Page portrays the sixteen year-old Juno to perfection. With her emo wit and snarky remarks, she is the quintessential teenager. But just because she's living in 2007 doesn't mean that she's immune to the emotions felt by all teenage movie heroines: she was Samantha Baker, she was Ariel Moore, she was Kat Stratford. Hell, she's the freaking Little Mermaid.

Again, I know that this film has been reviewed to death, but I just had to throw in my two cents. It is the little movie that could. See it!