Juno American Feature Film - Research Paper Example

? Juno – American Feature Film  - Alicia Chisholm  and number - ENG225: Introduction to Film (GSJ1124E)  - Paul Wiltz  Date submitted - June 27, 2011  Juno – American Feature Film Juno is an American feature film that was released in the year 2007, directed by Jason Reitman and written by renowned Hollywood scriptwriter, Diablo Cody. The film follows a young teenage girl on her journey to life as she encounters an obstacle in the form of an unplanned pregnancy. It is thus about how she manages to handle her life despite deciding to have the baby, and the kind of impact the situation has on her maturity and lifestyle. The movie has gained worldwide recognition due to it being able to address a large audience on a global scale that has been able to relate with every aspect of it. This paper thus helps to provide an insight into the technical factors of the movie including things like its acting, storyline, cinematography as well as style and direction, and how the story of Juno managed to engage people all over the world and help it become worthy of receiving international accolades. Juno the film has a very basic story line as well as concept attached to the tale; it is about a young girl trying to explore the nooks and crannies of intimacy and relationships without understanding the implications that might arise along with the same. The film has been directed in a very concise manner making use of pencil stylized ‘rotoscoped’ images right from the credits in the beginning, making use of animation in order to help the audience understand the maturity level of the girl and the kind of colourful life that she always wanted to live for herself. This entire sequence took a period of seven to eight months to be mastered as each and every shot that follows Juno on her way to the medical pharmacy was taken in short screenings. The set design is incredible, assisting in providing the film with a touch of wonder. The story has been told through the eyes of Juno herself, as she takes the audience along on her woven tale of how she ended up having sexual relations with her classmate whom she did not have any feelings for. The film thus helps teenagers to explore the kind of curiosity that reigns within them, and how the same should be understood not by simply jumping in and trying things out with friends, but by reading about things and comprehending the facts about life from one’s parents first. It helps children and young adults to understand how friends might not be the best option when it comes to understanding such information about pregnancy and intercourse. These aspects of life are crucial to one’s existence and they must be understood well by every individual so that he is able to make his own decisions without falling into trouble or having unplanned circumstances crop up in his life. (Sciretta, Peter) Thus, the film achieved mass appeal because of the story telling as well as how the girl managed to learn her lesson without panicking much about the situation. The various characters within the movie have been portrayed in a very interesting manner. The director has taken his time to choose the main protagonists and provide them with a different twist. Juno is a young teenage girl who comes off a little strong on the first meeting with everyone. Full of sarcasm, she helps to put an indie spin on the movie and gives a very intense performance with her dominating nature and need to control everything that might not even be in her reach. However, she understands where she went wrong by getting pregnant but decides to bring about a change in a couple’s life with the help of her baby who she is willing to give up in order to make someone else happy. There was a vast amount of dramatisation in the film played by the other characters, namely Juno’s parents which helped to calm the situation by making her understand what she had gone through, and helping her come out with a solution rather than screaming at her and making her feel the pain of the implications and consequences that she was already suffering. The two characters acted in an excellent manner, almost very real and lifelike, helping parents all around to understand how to cope with their children if they befall such a similar situation in their future. Juno herself wonderfully shows the kind of solid and sincere relationship she always wanted a child to be under the influence of during his or her growing up years and thus decides to give the baby to the perfect couple who will be able to raise it with love and patience. The film has been divided into various chapters, giving the film a very succinct outline. The one thing that sets this movie apart is the idea of Juno trying not to become a victim of the situation she was thrust into, and rather treat the predicament as a stepping stone and move ahead in life, having learned a lesson. The entire design of the film is based on the four seasons of the year and the film has thus been divided into four aspects with different materials used to give the picture of the various seasons that passed by. For example, the use of fake flora and flowers were made in order to depict spring taking place. Fans were used in order to blow leaves and flowers around in order to show autumn and the shedding of leaves and trees. The use of fake cherry blossom trees were also made to make the set look more real. Different colours were also used wisely by the director as he tried to use each colour to signify the weather on the outside. For example, the opening sequence of the movie shows Juno walking in a red hoodie jacket, walking through sombre coloured green and brown lush greenery around her. Juno’s bedroom as well was a very cleverly designed set as it helped to appeal to the minds of most young teenagers, showing how most young people keep their rooms; messy as well as clean enough to find things around. Posters helped to indicate the girl’s interests to the sub conscious mind of the audience as objects like her famous ‘hamburger phone’ helped to show hoe different and varied her interests were and that she was just another ‘random’ teenager trying to find her way through life. The rooms of Paulie as well as Juno’s friend Leah have also been designed well, depicting what other teenagers like; Leah’s room being covered with posters of older men trying to signify her level of maturity when it comes to accepting love and Paulie’s looked neat with his mother bumping in several scenes showing how she might be the reason behind his cleanliness, like most teenage boys these days. The costumes used in the film were also different and unique to each character helping to place emphasis on the roles of these characters and their personalities in general. They were so good that the costume designer of the movie was even nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Award in the category of Excellence in Contemporary Costume Design for a Film. (Walker, Jeremy) The couple Mark and Vanessa were dressed to befit each other and in order to show how the husband suited his suburban wife’s needs in terms of looking and being sophisticated. Juno’s clothing was also varied as she made use of flannel shirts and pants in order to depict how she did not care as much about her appearance and had better things to worry about in her life, as opposed to her friend Leah, who wore clothes like an everyday cheerleader. (Hiscock, John) The lighting during the course of the film is a light and well maintained one without any qualms as such, helping to show the warmth emanating from the characters at different points throughout the course of the movie. The various seasons depicted during the movie have also been done in a light manner despite there being a difference between summer and winter. The movie also featured a vast variety of music, mostly ranging from indie music to songs suggested by the main actress Ellen Page herself. Mostly acoustic based songs were used in order to portray the simplicity in the background of the movie. This helped to place more emphasis on the character of Juno whom the music suited perfectly. Most of the music was chosen by the ‘Moldy Peaches’, as well as soundtracks recorded by artist Kimya Dawson, and such music helped to give all kinds of personality and character to the entire film itself. Scores played at perfect intervals and timings helped to show the kind of dilemma that Juno was stuck in, and all the hindrances that were coming her way. This also included the perfect tracks by the Carpenters that were played during her scenes with Mark in order to show how the two might be having a certain something for each other. The movie falls under a genre of romantic comedies as it includes heavy wit, sarcasm as well as a teenage romance blossoming with the men in Juno’s life. The movie also includes a high level of satire throughout the course of Juno’s nine months of pregnancy during the movie. Moreover, a good script and well spoken dialogues help to give weight age to the film’s ‘immature storyline’ and help the characters evolve on the basis of their personal thoughts, emotions and ideals. The film has received a vast amount of criticism from people all over the world, mostly for being based on a teenage girl’s life who takes her unplanned pregnancy very casually. Juno does not seem to panic at any point during the movie because of the mistake that she made and most critics feel that this has resulted in sending out a wrong message to young children out there who might feel that it is okay to engage in sexual intercourse before attaining any knowledge or education about the same. Moreover, a number of critics also said that the film was not able to analyse Juno’s actual feelings properly and portrayed her in a very ‘random’ and haphazard manner, failing to show whether or not she actually learned her lesson from the entire experience that she underwent, and if she was able to gain some amount of maturity and be responsible for the kind of relationship she wanted to be in. All in all, the film was widely acclaimed, and well at that too, by most of the public and audience at large. It had a very vast societal impact as it appealed to the minds of most young people, as well as parents who watched the film with their teenage children and were able to understand them better. The film helped a number of people wake up and realise things about teenage pregnancies and how this can hinder a person’s future in the long run and stagnate them from having a career or a dream to follow. (Celis, Barbara) The film was first premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and received a standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival. It was the recipient of a great load of good news as it received excellent reviews from all over the world. Juno’s Hamburger phones were also sent to the critics in order to entice them to review the film and help it achieve good status with people all over. It did extremely well in the box office and became a hit in a number of countries, the United States of America being on the top of the list. However, there were reports of seventeen teenage girls getting pregnant after watching the movie and thinking that it was fine to go ahead with the same decisions that Juno took. This went on to be called the ‘Juno Effect’ and helped the film become unpopular among a number of parents and social media groups in the US due to glamorizing teenage pregnancies the way it was done in the film. Despite this, a number of NGOs took the movie’s side and proclaimed that the film was merely ‘humanizing’ the entire ordeal of getting pregnant at a teenage age by showing Juno’s decision to not go ahead with an abortion and helping others understand how inhuman the practice can be. References Chris. (2009). Juno: Film Review. Eye For Film. Retrieved 26 June 2011 Sciretta, Peter (2008) Juno is the Most Successful Indie Film in Six Years; DVD Details. Slashfilm.com. Retrieved 26 June 2011 Walker, Jeremy. Juno. Jeremywalker.com. Retrieved 26 June 2011 Hiscock, John. (2008) Diablo Cody. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 June 2011. Celis, Barbara. (2007) Interview: Jason Reitman. Ioncinema.com. Retrieved 26 June 2011. Read More