Juno is the most successful independent movie since 2002′s My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Sciretta). The story is simple - a high school girl gets herself knocked up. She considers getting an abortion, but later changes her mind and finds an adoption. Finally, the baby is adopted, and she lives happily with her boyfriend. So what makes the film so popular? The answer is, I believe, the audience-oriented “cool charm”. That is to say, coolness, as a merchandise of film, has been the key to Juno’s success.
The coolness can be seen everywhere in Juno. Above all, Juno, the protagonist, is a cool kid. We can make a list of how cool she is. First, the way she speaks – fast speed, mature tone, trendy and witty words such as “Honest to blog”– is not like an average high school girl. She is more smart, independent and confident. She is also very direct, and sometime may be too direct (for instance, the sex with her best friend Bleeker is her idea). Second, she is a music enthusiast who loves 70s’ punk music and a guitar player in a band. She used to go against the crowd in school even with her big pregnant belly, which makes her “stand out”, but she never cares about other people’s opinions. What’s more, she has super cool parents who are open-minded; they respect their daughter’s thoughts and decisions, and give her full support. They even react so calmly after hearing Juno’s pregnancy, which really surprises me. These characteristics of Juno and her family have totally grabbed audiences’ attention because they are so cool and we all like to be cool!
Besides the cool kid Juno, the choice of the film’s casting is also very smart as part of its cool-selling strategy. Ellen Page is mostly recognized as a cool person for her previous acting experience that involves hard-core roles, for instance, the vicious revengor in Hard Candy, or the bareheaded figure in Mouth to Mouth, which makes her a brand of coolness. Additionally, there is also a deja vu to see Michael Cera and Jason Bateman play along in Juno after their team-up in the sitcom Arrested Development (2003), in which they also played very cool roles. These three people have been targeted to youth-oriented market.
Another coolness of Juno is revealed in mise-en-scene and sound. To be specific, there is the strong contrast between the film topic (supposed to be heavy) and its theme (coming-of-age with a happy ending); and it has a powerful impact of how audiences feel about the movie. A controversial topic like “teenage mom” is supposed to be serious or dramatic. However, the mood of the film is oddly too pleasurable in terms of funny lines, happy lovely music, and bright colors, etc. Especially the film soundtrack; there are a lot of indie folk and country music which sound fresh, warming, carefree, and joyous. One most impressive song might be Barry Polisar’s All I Want Is You—“If I was a flower growing wild and free, all I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee…” This song appeared twice in the film– at the beginning, when the cool Juno walks on the footpath holding a big box of orange juice; and at the closing, when the sweet Juno rides bicycles to meet Bleeker – all the way along, green trees make shades, flowers come into bloom, and the view of Juno’s inside world is also beautiful as this scene. The great music is carrying us away so that we forget all the negatives of the story like abortion or teenage pregnancy. Instead, we remember the fineness of youth and the sweetness of young love. So far, that odd pleasure has become something appropriate; maybe the filmmaker is telling us that, since unfortunate thing happens in life, why not just face and handle them with a positive attitude?
To sum up, Juno has done a great job on its genre as a teen-comedy. For the “teen-” part, we want cool things, and the “-comedy” part, we want happy ending. Juno offers us both; no wonder it has earned so many good credits, because cool, is all we need.
Works Cited
Sciretta, Peter. "Honest To Blog: Juno Is the Most Successful Indie Film in Six Years." 19 Feb. 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2011. .
© Lydia L
1/26/2011
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