Rarely has a teenage pregnancy been put on screen as funny, warm and free of finger-wagging as it is in Juno. A girl with plenty of lip, a hamburger phone and an impossible choice. Nearly twenty years old, and still as fresh as ever.
Sixteen-year-old Juno MacGuff falls pregnant after one careless afternoon with her best friend, the ever-blushing track runner Paulie Bleeker. She thinks about an abortion, but in the end she decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption to a well-off couple in the suburbs. What follows is an honest, funny and moving portrait of a girl who has to grow up faster than she would like.
The film runs on its dialogue: quick, sharp and at times so quotable that every teenager here sounds like a stand-up comic in the making. It could easily have been annoying, but Juno is so dry, headstrong and vulnerable all at once that her one-liners never turn into armour.
And then there is the soundtrack, full of fragile, slightly off-key songs that fit the film perfectly. When Juno and Paulie sing Anyone Else But You together at the end, everything falls into place: unfinished, awkward and all the more real for it.
What makes Juno so strong is that it keeps a big subject small and human. No judgement, no sob story, just a girl making a hard choice and learning along the way that grown-ups do not always have it all worked out either. Funny, painful and surprisingly relatable. A film to fall head over heels for, just the way Paulie falls for Juno.
Please note: this film is part of our Film in the Pluktent programme.
The film starts at 7:30 PM. Tickets: €6.
