When sixteen-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) gets pregnant from a one-time-in-a-chair-act with her best friend Paulie, she decides to give the child up for adoption. She finds Vanessa and Mark’s (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) ad in the “Penny Saver” and decides this perfect yuppie couple will be the ideal foster parents for her baby.

The film is told over four seasons, starting in autumn when Juno discovers that she is pregnant to summer when she has given up the baby and can start being a normal teenager again.

First off: Ellen Page is absolutely brilliant. Juno is one of the coolest girls I’ve ever seen on screen (possibly too cool to exist in reality). She is honest, straightforward, unusual and absolutely lovable. She uses her incredible wit and sharp irony to cover herself up against the cruel situation of being a teenager. Her not-quite-boyfriend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) is on the cross country team, wearing gold shorts, head and wrist bands. He is quirky, confused and sweet. Juno definitely has the upper hand with him.

Screenwriter Diablo Cody decided at the age of twenty-four that life should have more to offer for her then being a secretary and out of a whim became a stripper. After a year of stripping by night and blogging (there is still hope!) by day, Mason Novick (who later became her manager) got interested in the writing on her extremely popular blog Pussy Ranch (one of the many she wrote) and secured her a publishing contract. Soon her memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper came out which enabled Diablo to write the wonderful script for Juno.

Jason Reitman had only directed one notable film before this, Thank you for Smoking (which I have not yet seen, but which got quite good reviews). It is so refreshing to have a bunch of fairly unknown creatives coming up with such a great film. Juno got nominated for endless amounts of awards and even got a (deserved) Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

This film is a wonderful coming-of-age story. It is quick paced, full of witty dialogue and reminds me a bit of a pop song. There is no way of not feeling ecstatic after watching Juno. I hope to see more films written by Diablo Cody (will order her book) and films with Ellen Page soon.

Juno is rewarded the MovieCat Award for the really fun soundtrack and for being a film to fall in love with.