Juno

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ec/Junoposter2007.jpg/215px-Junoposter2007.jpg

Bibliographic Information:

Juno

Director: Jason Reitman

Writer: Diablo Cody

Producers: Joseph Drake (as Joe Drake), Daniel Dubiecki, Lianne Halfon, Nathan Kahane, Kelli Konop, John Malkovich, Jim Miller, Mason Novick, Russell Smith, Brad Van Arragon

Music: Mateo Messina

Cinematography: Eric Steelberg

Editor: Dana Glauberman

Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Alison Janney, J.K. Simmons

Copyright: 2007

ASIN: B000YABYLA

Summary: Juno MacGuff and Paulie Bleeker are best friends who decide to have sex. This leads to Juno getting pregnant. She considers an abortion, but a classmate telling her the baby has fingernails already turns her around. With humor and intelligence Juno decides to find a good family for the baby. Juno's best girlfriend, dad and step-mom stand by her while she picks an apparently perfect couple to adopt the baby. Paulie, meanwhile, goes on with his typical high school activities, but we learn that he is dealing with the emotions of the baby, too.

Critical Analysis: Ellen Page is outstanding in the role of Juno. Her tone as she delivers each line is dry and believable. It would be hard to believe this character was meant for any other actress. The emotional breakthrough near the end of the film is all the more poignant because she was full of humor and sarcasm throughout. This film expresses the reality of teen pregnancy in a relatable way. Showing the choice to find an adoptive family, the consequences of being pregnant to a teen emotionally and socially and the power of a support system ends in an uplifting message for teens.

Annotation: A quirky girl makes remarkably mature decisions while keeping her sense of humor.

About the writer:  After trading in her given name of Brook Busey-Hunt for the snappier pseudonym Diablo Cody, this Illinois native raised eyebrows online in addition to dimly lit peep-show booths with her blog, <i>Pussy Ranch</i>, as well as her 2006 memoir, {-Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper}. Cody, who graduated college with a degree in media studies and spent the early days of her career doing clerical work at a Chicago bankruptcy firm, found herself intrigued by the darker, raunchier elements of nightlife; eventually, her participation in a notoriously seedy Minneapolis strip club's amateur night led to the decision to leave her day job and become a full-time stripper. As luck would have it, anyone with an Internet connection and a penchant for living vicariously through others could check Cody's goings-on via her blog, which, thanks to her trademark humor and keen insight into the mass psyche of the sex industry, paved the way to other, more traditional journalistic endeavors, including writing for the City Pages (a Minneapolis publication), The Village Voice, and Jane magazine.

After the completion and subsequent success of {-Candy Girl}, Cody was propositioned to write a screenplay; she accepted and wrote the coming-of-age comedy drama Juno, a runner-up for the People's Choice Award at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival. Juno also earned Cody an award for Breakthrough Screenwriter at the Hollywood Film Festival, a Golden Globe nomination, a Writers Guild nomination, and an Oscar nomination. In addition to selling several of her other screenplays, most notably Girly Style and Jennifer's Body, Cody also wrote for the Showtime television series The United States of Tara, a comedy starring Toni Collette as a mother with multiple personality disorder, created by Steven Spielberg and produced by his DreamWorks production company. Over the coming years, Cody would continue to pen a variety of projects, like the dark comedy Young Adult.

retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/481757/Diablo-Cody/biography on 8/05/2015

Genre: Film, Realistic Fiction

Curriculum Ties: Sex Education

Interest Age: 13+

Challenge Issues: The frank treatment of teen sex is a forseeable challenge. The library's policy for material's selection supports the addition of this film to our collection. Our public desk retains a copy of the selection standards and critical reviews of films in our collection for any patron to examine. We have a formal challenge process, if patrons still have a problem with titles after examining the records.

Reason Chosen for Collection: This film is a contemporary handling of sexuality and teen pregnancy. It won an Oscar in 2008 and was nominated for numerous other awards. 

References:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/ retrieved 8/31/2015