"Juno" Oddly Creepy, but Still Solid?

 

What? Huh? This was the film? For complete context I only watched this film because Sabrina Carpenter named a song after it, and Juno is a fantastic track. The only issue is I just can't say the same for this film. It's a bit unnerving frankly, not bad, just a little messy and perhaps a bit creepy. I mean it's called a rom-com, yet there's very little comedy, and if we're being honest this movie was focusing on the wrong romance the entire time. I just don't get it. It's really short, doesn't explore the relationships it needs to do, yet still has a star-studded cast, and I came away still thinking it was an alright film? Is that so bad? Let's talk about it.

    I think what throws me off so much is the pacing of this entire film. It's only an hour and a half long, which is fine for rom-com lengths, except that the way the film decides to divide up this time is woefully terrible. I mean the movie poster literally features Michael Cera's character, Bleek, yet he has like five total minutes of screentime in this film. Yes, I'm a little biased as a fan of his, but they try to have this big climactic moment for both Juno and Bleek, but it just falls so short because ultimately Bleek has like 7 scenes in this film and so the ending doesn't feel particularly earned. I mean at first Juno's literally complaining that he's a deadbeat father who basically doesn't know what to say or do now that she's pregnant, then she decides to give the kid up and they have one more scene where she's completely flipped to basically doing a cry for help for him. It's not particularly subtle, and the issue is those are the two scenes, which is why the ending while cute feels a decent bit forced to be honest. 

    Which of course brings me to the second side of this relationship. This bizarre inappropriate age gap between Juno and Mark that clearly has put a wedge into his relationship with his wife Victoria. Both my sister and I were very uncomfortable at any scene between those two. The stepmom's apparently the only character who even makes a note that "hey, I think you spending all this time with the dad might be a little weird," and even if he doesn't say it, from the mixtapes to the dancing and moving his hands it was just a deeply odd dynamic between the two. I won't victim blame and say Juno was at fault here because frankly Mark should have cut it off immediately and he does not come out of this film in a particularly good light. I don't even know what his character is meant to be, he's just feels kind of predatory.

    But even despite it all, something about this movie made it feel pretty solid. Aesthetically I did like the small-town indie vibe it was going for, I thought it was pretty amusing how dated the film felt, particularly the way Juno and her friend spoke, it did add to the humour a little bit. It just felt unfocused, like they cut out the wrong scenes, because they wanted to feature Jason Bateman more. I just expected something slightly deeper, something perhaps funnier, something perhaps more romantic? This film just kind of dips its toes in a lot of waters, and you're just left with really damp feet, not the best feeling in the world.

Final Score: 60/100

    Why did Sabrina Carpenter decide to make a whole song referencing this movie? I think it's actually a pretty cute movie. The concept of liking someone so much you'd let them knock them up doesn't sound as pleasant, but the song makes it sound a little adorable. Which this film should have been. I don't hate the premise, I think if you remade this film you focus on Bleek's character more, and make Mark feel like remorseful about this feelings, like in any capacity. I do think Victoria's largely blameless in this, though to be honest most of the characters in this film don't feel the most developed, which normally wouldn't be an issue considering the length, but also this film isn't funny enough to cover it up really. Just a very puzzling film.