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Created Jan 01, 2008 06:37PM PST • Edited Mar 01, 2013 06:10PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   Fresh, funny, snarky, and quick as a whip, Juno is bound to become a cult classic, funnier the more times you watch it. Along with Superbad and Knocked Up, Juno defines a new era in youth comedies: movies that are equally surprising in their traditional values and jaw dropping language.

   Kudos to first time screen writer Diablo Cody and to Juno herself, Ellen Page. These bright gals promise to light up the silver screen for decades to come.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Ellen Page’s bravura performance as Juno stands up to any ingenue in the history of film: though vastly different in terms of era and style, Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly comes to mind as a favorable benchmark against which Page’s Juno can be measured. Page deftly handles the torrents of fast, acerbic dialog, imbuing in Juno a wry intelligence that is a pleasure to observe.

   Michael Cera reprises his same awkwardly funny persona from Superbad, here forming an empty vessel into which Juno can pour her dreams and aspirations.

   Allison Janney (CJ Cregg from The West Wing) and JK Simmons (Dr. Skoda, the shrink from Law & Order) nail their roles as parents who love and support Juno to the best of their ability, delivering more than a few hilarious speeches in the process, especially Janney’s put down of an offending ultra-sound technician.

   Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman are pitch perfect as the adoptive supermom-in-waiting and her Peter Pan husband.

   Oh, yeah, the movie opens with a killer funny routine by Rainn Wilson as an ultrasnarky 7-11 clerk.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Cleverly constructed by Jason Reitman, hilariously scripted by Diablo Cody, and self-consciously full of great music, this is a well crafted film.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

    Jason Reitman proves himself to be at least as good a director as his father Ivan, though some would say that isn’t a high bar to exceed. His use of Fall/Winter/Spring/Summer section titles and the silent running of the high school track team are simple devices that effectively pace the movie and punctuate the comedy.

12. Play Perfect 5.0

    Every bit as fast, funny and often impenetrable as Superbad. Juno and her girlfriend, in particular, have a vaguely obscene and extremely arch lingo all their own.

    As with many great comedies, Juno also includes lines of insightful poignance. In reply to her Father saying he thought she was a girl who knew when to say when: “I don’t know what kind of girl I am yet.”

    Most of all, the script feels like Diablo Cody followed the first time writer’s dictum to ‘write what you know.’ We’ll know based on her next screenplay or two whether there are more like this one back home.

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    As with many high school kids, music is the most meaningful part of Juno’s life, cluing her into who and what is cool. Serious at this, she comes across like a coed Jack Black from School of Rock.

    Two guys meet her exacting musical standards: Jason Bateman’s grown up musician and Michael Cera’s no longer awkward singer-guitarist. Her scenes with the former are bittersweet, while her duet with the latter at the end of the movie reveals why she chose him above all others.

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.1

    Deserving of a strong PG-13.

17. Sex Titillating 2.5

    I gave it a 2.5, the highest Titillating score possible without tipping over into Eroticism.

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Profane 2.7

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0