YNOT at the Movies

"Juno" (USA 2007, 92 min.) just might be the funniest film I have seen this year. It's quirky, sharp, hilarious, and sometimes even touching, without a dull moment. After giggled in the theater for an hour and half, I walked out the theater with a Juno tee shirt, and still giggling.

Ellen Page outstandingly plays sixteen years old Juno, who gets pregnant by her shy classmate Paulie Bleeker (a name that is funny already to me), brilliantly played by Michael Cera. Juno decides not to have an abortion, but puts the baby up for an adoption. The film unfolds the pregnancy and adoption story, and creates a few more funny yet complex characters.

If you think you have seen enough quirky teenagers in recent films such as "Napoleon Dynamite," that's because you have not met Juno yet. Juno is the queen of all of those teenagers. She always has the sharpest tongue knocking people around, thanks to the smart and splendid screenplay by Diablo Cody (who is on strike right now by the way).

Despite that it's unlikely for a sixteen-years-old to be so witty and always to be able to say the smartest lines, Juno appears to be the coolest girl everyone would want to hang out with, even she has a "sea monkey" inside of her and she is underage. Juno's step-mom has a tongue as sharp as Juno, again, thanks to the screenplay. I want to stand up give Juno's step-mom a high five and ask her to adopt me after she shouts back to a technician at a clinic.

The film is "OMG funny" in a weird way. Simply just look at the character Michael Cera plays, I start to laugh already. It's like I feel ticklish when I imagine I am tickled.

Started with a brilliant screenplay, accompanied with fun songs, acted by an incredible ensemble cast, this terrific comedy might be a surprising dark horse at this year's Oscar race. You just never know what "other kind of shenanigans" this film might get into.

p.s. If you want to see this movie for free before everyone else can see it, check out other advanced screenings in a town near you.