I kind of enjoyed the film apart from Juno talking unlike any 16 year old I've ever seen. I think that by making Juno a real character the movie woud have been much more powerful. I cant understand why they made her a 16 year-old gag-spouting, care-free person. Thats a fantasy character.....
shareYou DO get unique people like Juno acting and/or talking about things or in a way that is beyond their years. Its not the norm perhaps but it still happens.
Why make a dull film about the average 16 year old when there are girls like Juno out there who'd make a much more interesting character.
Honestly I can easily imagine what it'd have been like with the average teen and to me that would've been boring. This was the right way to go.
Touching film imo.
It seems especially in the 1st Act of the movie that she seems much more on Top of things and aware/with life experience in a way only older persons can be. For example when she's talking with her cheerleader friend about the ads in Penny Saver:
"What did you have in mind exactly?"
"I was thinking more like a graphic designer, mid-thirties, with a cool Asian girlfriend, who dresses awesome and rocks out on the bass guitar...."
Oh really, how many 30 something cool couples like that would a 16 yr old girl in the burbs know? Stuff like that is all over the script.
But that's not to say it's a bad movie or script. As other people have written, it's better to write a character who is entertaining / different than one who may be true to her age. But if you can do both? Well, even better, but its not in this movie.
What annoyed me about this (overall) good movie, was mostly the long second act that didn't have much in the way of conflict for Juno and the far too numerous transitions sold by some folksy band or tune. It seems a narrative cop-out to me, far worse than the brief voice overs. I kind of missed the 1st Act Juno, once I got to the third Act. Sure, she may not have been true to her age and experience, but at least there was something surprising about her where as the 2nd and 3rd had nothing much in the way of originality really.
OP your completely right Juno doesnt talk anywhere near like a 16 year old. And certainly not a 30 or 40 year old either. The lines she says are trying so desperately hard to sound like the cliche teen that its cringe worthy. Every time she said something i was like wow nobody ever talks like that. It sounded like my dad trying to imitate how me and my friends talk. Maybe thats why Juno was such an outcast, cuz she talked like an idiot all the time. Take it from someone who knows, Juno is not a realistic teen girl.
Dear Warden, You were right. Salvation lies within.
Since we're taking it from someone who knows...
I used to work in the marketing division for Diesel (jeans) and we were assigned to find natural teenage trendsetters, the idea was if you can market to those key trendsetters, you can set off trends. So we had to get inside their heads to develop products that appeal to them. Keep in mind, these trendsetting teens are very few, less than one in a hundred.
We were surprised to find that these trendsetting teens were actually very smart kids with very high grades PLUS a social and practical intelligence which they used to uphold an extremely cool image that their peers would copy. They were a combination of school-smart and street-smart, if you will. Their language was one of their clearest hallmarks, often creative, idiomatic and following always following a very original string of logic.
Many, if not most of them spoke like Juno, not only with a vast awareness of old and new pop culture, but also historical events and political satire. It's a masterful move by the director to centre this movie around that kind of rare and smart teenager, instead of trying to make us relate to mindless horde behavior or the stereotypical outcast genius teen. The only thing about Juno that seemed off focus with real life, is that in real life, a teenager like Juno would be much more popular.
It's also natural that alot of people find Juno annoying. We found that most teens found key trendsetters to be a threat to their "comfortable indifference" as we call it. A person who talks and behaves like Juno is tacitly forcing you to pay attention and form an opinion, which is very hard for the average insecure teen and so it triggers a subconscious stress signal.
I think it was a ridiculous move by the director because Juno comes off as a teen that nobody can relate to.
Dear Warden, You were right. Salvation lies within.
If the director had wanted you to relate to Juno, he would have made her generic. She's the opposite of generic. Why do you think that is?
shareThe opposite of generic? She's the very definition of generic. Remember Laney Boggs? Or how about Andy from Pretty in Pink? She's just a modern version of that, except more annoying because at least Laney Boggs and Andy were relatable. I mean, she's definitely a poser (that is, if you take every word she said in all seriousness and write off that maybe Diablo Cody wrote her too many one-liners on accident.) She tries too hard to be witty and interesting. It may not seem that way to people who didn't know people like that in high school, and if you're over the age of 25-30, you probably didn't. The whole poser thing has been around, but the breed that we see in Juno is sort of a new development over the past couple of years. This whole - I don't give a damn, but look at me, I'm so cool and interesting, and complicated. I think ultimately what some people find "annoying" about Juno is that they can sense that she's a poser. And personally, what I find even more annoying is how people assume this is how tons of teenagers act, when in reality, it's not at all close. I mean, I'm sure there's a handful, but not much more.
share"I used to work in the marketing division for Diesel (jeans) and we were assigned to find natural teenage trendsetters, the idea was if you can market to those key trendsetters, you can set off trends. So we had to get inside their heads to develop products that appeal to them. Keep in mind, these trendsetting teens are very few, less than one in a hundred.
etc etc etc"
When i read this i thought, in defending the speech of Juno, this is in essence saying that Diablo Cody is a thirty-something year old attempting to be a teenage trendsetter. Kind of works for everybody!
Juno is a poser, I insist on that. She tries to be different and witty with scarce success. Just because she can quote '77 punk (although, no reference to any decent '77 punk band)that doesn't mean she's smart. The pipe is just pathetic, so cliche. If you guys are looking for a 16years old girl with witty jokes and musical culture just watch Gilmore Girls (Lane really does know a lot about punk).
Diablo Cody is so overestimated. Anyone who comes up with such a stupid script doesn't deserve any respect: she should go back to stripping.
I actually speak somewhat like this. Now keep in mind that not every other sentence from my mouth is a witty one liner--but yeah, for the most part I am known for saying clever and funny things. I'm sixteen by the way.
Can you put a price on your dreams?
*beep* was so cringe worthy e.g. "silencio old man" like wtf. I understand it's meant to be indie and all but it just comes across tryhard and forced to me.
Do not speak- unless it improves on silence.
I think she's pretty realistic for a 16 year old. Witty yes, smart, yes but also immature and very naive. And how many of us thought we knew it all when we were 16, probably most of us
Wild! I was absolutely Livid!
I think I know what you mean when you say "30/40" year old.
Juno uses a lot of strong vocabulary in the movie, but that doesn't mean anything. I don't have a strong vocabulary, though it is stronger than half of my fellow 16 year olds. My vocabulary is also stronger than some, if not equal to, 30/40 year olds.
It's like being inside a dream or something.. There's truth, but no logic.
Okay, I was a junior in high school when Juno came out and I can honestly say that she was one of the most realistically written teenage characters since 'The Breakfast Club.' She would have fit into my circle of friends perfectly. A lot of kids nowadays are into 70s music. I would even go so far as to say that Juno was incorrect. The best time for rock and roll was 73, not 77. As for her witty comments, I know it's difficult to believe that a teenager can be articulate, intelligent and humorous at the same time, but many of the kids I went to high school with were just that. A little on the pretentious side, yes, but perfectly capable of holding their own when conversing with adults.
Juno is a far more accurate portrayal of high school kids than anything I've ever seen on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel. They're not idiots (with the exception of having unprotected sex) and they don't always speak like gum-chewing nimrods with no interests past prom and Lady Gaga concerts.
Juno was a real character. Just because she was written to be a strong young woman with an unconventional outlook on life doesn't mean she was a fantasy character.
The film was powerful BECAUSE Juno acted the way she did. This film showed that even smart, unpopular, offbeat kids can wind up pregnant.
Exactly, bluejeanbaby. Most 16 year olds do not talk like this, but she is not the cookie-cutter teen. She is offbeat. But just because MOST don't, there are several that I knew that did.
[quote/]Mott the Hoople, All the Young Dudes? I know, it's not impossible, but it did strike me as improbable. [quote]
Is it so hard to believe a teen would know this song? First of all it was a song on one of the Guitar Hero games, which feature mostly old songs and are probably primarily played by teens. Besides that, "retro" things come back in style frequently. So the fact that a 16 year old knows pop culture of a decade in which she was not born is not such a stretch of the imagination. I, myself, listened to my dad's endless music trivia all growing up, so by the time I was 16, I knew my share of info. Plus I also liked to watch VH1's Pop Up Videos when I was younger. It's funny to base the realism of the movie on this song.
I spoke much better at 16 than I do now...Back then I spoke like a Harvard professor and now I'm just a bucolic imbecile...
Jesus Christ and the Brown Beaver Brand...
lol
better bucolic than post-industrial.
I think Juno is talking like a 16 year old. It usually depends on how a kid is brought up or how and where she is exposed to. When I was 15 years old, I am more mature than my brother, who was 4 years older than me. Observation suggests that females mature earlier than males. Come on, how many older men can you spot playing Magic: The Gathering?
So if Juno acts like that, it's not an inconsistency for the part of the director or writer. Juno simply signifies that not all teens are like Hannah Montana or Lizzie McGuire. We also have Lucy from the I Am Sam movie. She's also mature for her age in my view.