LGM Film Club, Part 516: Juno

Last night, I watched Juno for the first time since I saw it in the theater. I’ll be damned if it doesn’t hold up incredibly well. What really works now (maybe it did then and maybe it wasn’t obvious) is that Jason Bateman’s wannabe hipster not ready to have a child is initially portrayed as a cool guy and then becomes the worst possible character. when he decided he’s not ready and leaves his wife. The film is fairly obvious about this when Juno ends up giving the baby to Jennifer Garner anyway. But boy does nearly 20 years of bad male behavior make Bateman’s character seem awful now. And of course he’s perfect in that role, which isn’t all that different than his supposed nice guy in Arrested Development. It’s perhaps too bad that Elliott Page (the former Ellen Page) doesn’t act a heck of a lot these days, but hey, whatever, people can do what they want. Still, it was a hell of a performance from a young actor. I was also struck at how clean the language was. Not a “fuck” to be found in that movie, which you’d at least expect among the friends. But maybe we’ve become a lot coarser since 2007. I know the world has.

I also thought even at the time that the liberal critique of “she should have just gotten the abortion” to be as tiresome then as it was now. First, there’s no movie that way. Second, lots of people make the choice to have the child. Not every film has to reflect the choices you would make. That’s how you end up with fan fiction, one of the true horrors of the modern world.

Anyway, thought it might be interesting to see how people consider this film in 2025.