hopscotchee: allison janney score: 91.5 rating: pg-13 time: 96 minutes
according to many of our friends, juno happens to be the only movie that michael cera is in that is great ~ or at least tolerable ~ in. call it the "michael cera effect" or whatever, but he has the strangest ability to be quirkily off-putting in his awkward roles. one could say that shows how moving his acting abilities are for you, on the other side of the screen, to be so inflicted. this is all to say that juno is the wonderful exception. there may be a few cringe-trigger moments, however, overall, cera is not a problem. in fact, this film is widely loved, not only here at twinsAF, for good reason. this 2007, indie-ish, coming of age drama brought to life such a devourable writing flare. seriously, we can't tell you how many times we've watched juno, but what we can tell you is that we were thrilled to conclude batch 3 with it!!
but let's dive into why, shall we?!?!
we already touched upon it, but, if it wasn't already said, you cannot get better than diablo cody. she is a screenwriting legend. little fun fact, she is our biggest inspiration when it comes to slaying the sayings on the screen. and her script in juno is just proof of that. the embedded eccentricity of character personalities mixed with story and plot lines of wholeheartedness make the concept reveal another side of realism. the blunt dialogue lets down your guard, watching as the characters brutally go from one scene to the next, being nothing but themselves instead of someone that is "acceptable" or "supposed" to be on the screen. in other words, this type of screenwriting stylization breaks down any barriers and let's the plot really hit the heart by approaching you with casual dialogue and everyday humorous characters which makes the climax hit harder. this alone gives script a high score from us, however we know diablo's work doesn't stop there. if you have been fortunate enough to view the best valentine's day movie ever (according to twinsAF), jennifer's body, you will notice that both films are equally fascinating to watch as they are to listen to and quote later on. so, if there was one thing that we could pinpoint as diablo cody's ace in the deck that makes her style of writing so golden, it would be the sheer unforgivableness that is her out of the box boldness. and that is why diablo cody will forever be one of our idols, and why the script for juno MUST be mentioned in our review outta the get-go.
moving along this hill, the next to receive our showering praise is the set department. likewise to the film's overall vibe, casualness quirky was key. for instance, the burger phones. they could've just had normal looking phones, but the set department chose to go with burgers. even paulie had one in the corner of his room!! speaking about paulie's room, it was very much hectic and chaotic (hashtag britney). the best way to describe it is messy but messy to the outside. like anyone who walked in and saw it would be like "dear god, paulie!! clean your room!!", but paulie probably has somewhat of an order of where things are. basically, it was a typically "teen" room ~ except: clarification our rooms are very clean. ~ despite the state of your room, we can settle on the fact that, if we gave this much thought just for paulie's room, which we, like, only see for 10 minutes max, the set department did a pretty darn good job!! they really honed in on bringing the characters' personas to the screen so that the viewers could fully understand them within the 90 minutes.
lastly it is due time that we mention the makeup. you might've not thought much about it or even expected that we would bring it up during our review. well, sure the actors and actresses weren't done up in any crazy prosthetics or avant-garde makeup, but the precision was there. an example of this was when (spoiler) leah and juno are looking through the penny saver ads, drinking blue slurppees/slushies, and we can see that leah's teeth have the dyed blue residue on them. you can correct us in the comments if you have experienced otherwise, but we've all been there, and it's SO annoying when hollywood likes to pretend that their teeth (veneers) don't stain. like, c'mon. don't half-ass the depiction of slurppee/slushie fun!! lastly, this category ALSO has to be in our review because did you see (spoiler) that monstrous alien baby at the end!! like, ew!! that thing was all gross and grey-blue and slimy. nuh uh 😐😐 nuh uh 😐😐!! though, our opinions on the goblin mode baby aside, we recognize that this too adds to the realism of the baby-birthing. usually baby delivering is shown as a clean, pretty process that shoots out a one year old that's not smothered in blood and placenta. so props for making it gross. well done.
coming over the hill, juno is an easy twinsAF must-watch. if you are looking to go into screenwriting, diablo cody is our first recommendation for learning, but, if you are just a movie-watcher like most probably are, this film is still a home-run. the entire cast ~ with the exception of batemen ~ will make you smile, laugh, and fill your day/afternoon/night (whenever your viewing enjoyment is) with immense love. 'cause that's another thing this film gets right. for a story about love, they don't shy away from giving you some too!!
ps. can we just say how great of a friend leah is?!?! watching it back, leah is truly friendship goals!! she's there with juno for everything ((spoiler) telling the parents you're preggo & even at the bedside during the delivery))!! so some advice: go find yourself a leah!!
-- thanks, allison xo
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