Jason Reitman
Juno

Until recently, I was convinced that cheerful and witty comedies were only simple family entertainment, unlikely to go hand in hand with art and poetry. I also thought that those few comedies that are funny yet reflective were mostly unknown to the majority (just think of the grotesque humor of a Finnish Aki Kaurismaki or the almost parodic Korean comedy film "Please Teach Me English," a hilarious epic that reduces contemporary Korea to a simple caricature that refuses to speak English out of patriotic love).

Then I found "Juno" and my idea was diametrically opposed: "there is a way to embrace poetry with laughter and simultaneously earn the favor of the audience."

As soon as it is inserted into the player, the film begins with an unstoppable verve and never wanes: it doesn't become tacky, it doesn't get lost in melodrama (a very grave and dangerous peril for many comedies) or in the love story, it's not banal, it’s not predictable: "Juno," despite its teenage cut, is a raw film, cold and at the same time warm and pleasant.

The beginning is already groundbreaking: the film doesn't start with the usual teenage party accompanied by any old tune from an emerging trendy rock band. "Juno" astonishes: it begins with very simple cartoon-like shots of the protagonist, accompanied by a swirling and folkloric "All I Want Is You" by Barry Louis Polisar.

And, unlike many, many films, "Juno" gets straight to the point: the spirited protagonist doesn’t discover she's pregnant after about twenty minutes, she finds out right from the start and maybe she already knew it.

The sex scene between her and her best friend doesn't exist: it is shown only in very quick fragmented shots, revealing nothing but the initial courting. Great idea: many other works of the same genre attempt to make it vulgar and disgusting. "Juno" captures teenage sex and love with extreme care, with sweet poetry, with calmness.

And the more the film progresses, the more one gets involved, devoted to identifying with that girl with the huge belly looking for the most suitable family for the baby she is carrying: Mark and Vanessa, a couple only seemingly happy and serene, but in reality falling apart. He is a musician who would like to enjoy life with sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. She is all prim, sterile, and more than anything else desires to have a child: two extremely opposite poles that do nothing but separate and attract each other, who already knew they were not made for each other (how else to explain Vanessa’s surreal reaction, almost not upset to Mark's request for a divorce?).

Intelligent film, that never falls into the usual Disney-like sentimentalities, no honey... just raw sarcasm and poetry that blend in a falsely teenage environment, surprising for the incredible creativity in the realization of the ending: it is not the predictable ending that the viewer would expect from the beginning... it is a much more realistic end, not confined within the four cinematic walls. And so among the many lousy American blockbusters, every now and then, a few pearls emerge...

Juno is the twenty-first-century American fighter.

All I Want Is You