“Yeah, I’m a legend. You know, they call me the cautionary whale.”

Favorite movie of the year, plain and simple. What higher praise can I give? I’d be thrilled to see a movie like this get Oscar attention.

Writing: First time screenwriter (and former stripper…) Diablo Cody (real name: Brook Busey) pulls off a strikingly smart and amusing character drama. With casually sharp dialog and a carefully restrained sense of eccentricity, it’s hard to not be engaged and entertained.

Production: In recent years, I’ve found it interesting how many second generation directors of prominent industry vets have not only shown themselves as good as their parent, but have surpassed them. There has been the likes of Sofia Coppola and Jake Kasdan (and brother Jon Kasdan is a possibility as well). But if there’s a prime example of such, it would be Jason Reitman, son of legendary comedy director Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters, Stripes, etc). It was hard to say for sure about Jason after just one movie, his absolutely fantastic Thank You For Smoking, but now that there’s a track record of two films to judge, it’s clear that he’s got more directing chops than his father. This movie is beautifully shot, with a goal towards simplicity. It’s brilliantly edited, with a pitch-perfect sense of timing and narrative. And it’s got a sense of irony and comedic timing like few others.

Cast: Ellen Page - performance of the year. The remarkable thing about that (aside from her young age) is that it’s not for an overtly dramatic performance. This is a dramatic performance hidden inside a comedic and eccentric delivery. I have to believe this is one of the hardest performances to pull off so perfectly. With a character that’s endearingly so off-center, you have to be careful to not take it too far. I mean, to announce the news of her pregnancy to the father, she sets up a discarded easy chair and a throw rug outside his house with a smoking pipe in her mouth, delivering the news with quirky confusion and flippant casualness. Her performance is simply perfect. It took me a bit to figure out where I recognized her from, until I realized she had played Kitty Pride in the third X-Men film (she’s the third actress to play the role in the films, and I was impressed with her in the role). Incidentally, I couldn’t help but be reminded by one of my all-time favorite TV performances while watching Ellen Page in this role - that of Caroline Dhavernas as Jaye Tyler in the absolutely fantastic series Wonderfalls. Perhaps it’s a young, cute, brunette, Canadian thing. But their performances are not entirely unalike. Michael Cera is equally charming and also a bit off-beat. The two of them play off each other effortlessly and awkwardly, simultaneously. Jennifer Garner does an admirable job as a somewhat reserved but quietly desperate character, turning in an excellent performance (as always). Then there’s Jason Bateman as the somewhat overwhelmed father-to-be, playing the immaturity with amusing maturity (for whatever sense that makes). Then enter the truly caring parents played so wonderfully by Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons. Simmons had been in Jason Reitman’s previous film, Thank You For Smoking. It’s still in the style of his typically frank performances, but this one has plenty of heart behind it (very unlike his Thank You For Smoking character). And Janney pulls off some great scenes. Then there’s supporting performances from folks like Rainn Wilson and Olivia Thirlby. Wilson plays a small role of a store clerk, and gets in some great dialog delivery in his one scene. It took me a bit to figure out where I recognized Thirlby, till I finally put it together that she was the actress playing the daughter in Kidnapped - a performance I was impressed with while watching that under rated show.

Music: Music plays a key part in the movie. A number of the characters in the film are musicians, and they talk about music quite a bit. Add to that the fact that the songs are featured prominently as almost a character of their own in production. The closing scene of Juno & Bleeker sitting on the steps playing the song is an excellent little coda. Outside of the folksy songs, the score itself is also quite quaint and folksy. It works effortlessly.

“You should’ve gone to China, you know, ’cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 12:22 am and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.