It is possible not to be charmed by Juno McDuff. The motor-mouthed 16-year-old martyr and the new movie that bears her name both take aim at some sacred cows of American culture: Teen sex, abortionists, suburban class warfare. To her credit, the actress playing this rebel dork is talented enough to make her character’s contradictions almost make sense. As played by Ellen Page, the defiantly pregnant Juno is a headstrong mix of know-it-all arrogance and hedonistic pride. She’s the type of kid you could see having sex for fun, regardless of the emotional consequences. But, for a film that claims to worship at the altar of ’70s punk — specifically Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and the Runaways — Juno sure as hell doesn’t rock. Reitman chooses instead to borrow more than a few tricks from the Wes Anderson Academy of Twee: hand-illustrated title cards marking off the four seasons, jokey cutaway scenes, and a wall-to-wall soundtrack of acoustic guitar with deliberately off-key vocals. (You’d think he’d avoid going so far as to include tracks by Anderson faves like the Kinks and the Velvet Underground, but perhaps imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.) All of which runs contrary to what Juno herself would drop onto her turntable: “When you’re used to listening to the raw power of Iggy and the Stooges, everything else just sounds kind of precious by comparison,” she says. If you’re accustomed to smart, truly acerbic teen flicks like Ghost World, Election, Rushmore or even Clueless, you could say the same thing about Juno.
