In keeping with a longstanding Shards of Delirium tradition of only watching movies in alphabetical order[1], when I finally made it back to a theater yesterday, I saw Juno. It was exactly the sort of slice-of-life plot outline that traditionally keeps me well away from the theater, right down to the overly twee tagline[2]. And yet there was something about the previews and later the overwhelmingly positive reviews that said to me, “this one, this one you should go and see anyway.” Then, after finally getting around to seeing Jumper (alphabetical order, remember?), I did!

Juno MacGuff, possessed of the life-slice in question, is a junior in high school with rock & roll aspirations, delightful taste in Dario Argento films, smart-ass sensibilities… and a fetus. This last part and more specifically her choices about it, falling rather more outside society’s accepted norm than her other qualities, is the driving force behind the film’s plot. Despite being a sweet and funny (and at one point jarringly melodramatic) story, I don’t think there would have been quite enough there to really draw me in. (Slice-of-life = ew, on average; always has, probably always will.) But the acting! The acting was fantastic. Every supporting character[3] added real depth to Juno’s story, Michael Cera was his usually sweet, bumbling perfection, and Ellen Page… Every so often, you get to catch a movie right at the beginning of someone’s career and realize there’s a good chance that this actor is going to be something special. Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures, or Natalie Portman in The Professional. Ellen Page’s turn as Hayley in Hard Candy was another such watershed moment for me, and the only surprise behind her outstanding job as Juno yesterday is that the mainstream recognition is coming so soon. Mark my words, she’ll be even better in five or ten more years.

[1] Discussion topic: when did you first notice that habit? Don’t be shy! You might be surprised by everyone else’s answer!
[2] In case you were unaware, the tagline has been provided practically forever in the mouseover text of the movie’s title link. And eventually, even all of the archives will have this feature, after which some portion of this footnote’s truth value will be purely of historical interest.
[3] Well, okay, not so much Juno’s friend or Juno’s babydaddy’s friend. But two out of a dozen or so is an acceptable loss ratio, I say!