Juno
The movie I have chosen for this paper is the drama-comedy Juno directed by Jason Reirman. It is a domestic comedy with lawless elements. In the movie. you get to follow Juno MacGuff. a 16-years-old miss. as her life alterations when she finds out that she is pregnant. It’s a realistic movie told from Juno’s point of position. The movie touches several controversial. populist subjects. but manages to make so without being cliche . The most obvious being the adolescent gestation. but other subjects such as the wonder of sex among adolescents. the changeless inquiring of whether abortion is O.K. or non comes along with it. A large portion of the movie takes topographic point in Juno’s place. which is typical for a domestic comedy. The chief secret plan of the film touches themes common to household life.

There is the “modern family” nucleus with stepmothers and half-siblings. the complicity in being a adolescent every bit good as raising one. The more or less ordinary household life is displayed with a batch of wit. The inquiring of stereotypes and biass play a large function in this movie. as do contrasts. Alternatively of the cheerleader acquiring pregnant with the signal caller. as many would anticipate. it is the romp and the geeky smuggler who end up in that state of affairs. As most teens portrayed in movies. Juno has a close girlfriend. The uneven thing in this instance is that it is non a miss considered stranger than Juno herself in footings of norms. it is the cheerleader. In many other of these adolescent movies. normally the cheerleader bugs the “odd girl” . as for illustration in “Mean Girls” . The most outstanding contrast in the movie is the place of the MacGuffs VS. the place of the adoptive parents Mark and Vanessa Loring. The two places are set like two different universes. In the MacGuff house. it seems like it is impossible to hold excessively many lamps. cosmetic Canis familiariss or exposure frames.

The colour graduated table goes in crude brown tones. Meanwhile. the Loring house does non look to of all time be perfect plenty. As Vanessa and Mark are introduced to the narrative. Vanessa is seting the exposure frames in order and set uping the flowers until they are perfect. The dominant colourss in the Loring house are clean bright colourss as ecru and white. The houses become symbols for how different the two households are. The easygoing. mussy MacGuffs. and the edgy. stiff Lorings. For the opening scene of the movie. there is a long shooting of Juno standing in forepart of an armchair. The armchair is traveling to be a symbol throughout the film. The camera cuts to a close up of Junos face and her empty eyes gazing at the chair. presenting a
message of defeat and hopelessness.

She has a monolog where she tells the spectator about the chair. that it was in a chair everything started. where she got pregnant. A “film inside the film” of Junos memories from that minute is shown for the spectator. A Canis familiaris barks and the camera makes a speedy cut back to world. Juno and the chair. She leaves the chair behind and the camera follows her as she goes to the local corner store to acquire a gestation trial. the 3rd for the twenty-four hours. She is dressed in a ruddy goon and bluish denims. the ruddy symbolizes her strong. colourful personality. Red is besides a symbol for life and verve. a colour symbolism really suited for the scene. She takes the gestation trial in the store’s narrow public toilet. which has a subdued subdued lightning. The scene reinforces the feeling of Juno being “painted into a corner” . As she takes the trial. the camera cuts between close-ups of Junos legs as she sits down. the gestation trial and her face. These close-ups make the relationship between Juno and the spectator confidant and one gets to experience understanding for her. It is of import to ground the understanding for Juno in the beginning of the movie since the spectator will acquire to follow her during her journey. Juno leaves the shop and walks place. the camera follows her from buttocks. Darkness has fallen and Juno has put the goon over her caput as a manner to estrange herself from the environing universe. As she walks. a group of cats from her school comes running towards her.

They are out of focal point and tally by her on both sides. making like a tunnel for Juno to walk through. To me the smugglers are a metaphor for the ideas running through Juno’s caput and the hard pent-up state of affairs in which she has ended up. Juno is portrayed as a stubborn. cocky miss who takes her ain manner in life. She has dark hair that she wears in a ponytail and her apparels are far from what typically are considered “girl clothes” . She wears free fitted denims. jerseies. slipovers and goons. Her best friend. Leah. on the other manus is a cheerleader with long blond hair who dresses in skirts and is much of a “girly-girl” . As the Leah is introduced to the audience. the contrasting personalities between the two friends are shown trough the mise-en-scene. When Juno calls Leah to state her about the gestation. the camera cuts between the two misss and their sleeping rooms. Junos room has a shoebox feeling to it. There are exposures of her friends. postings and different pictures all over the walls every bit good as the ceiling. She has picks puting all over her desk and a illumination electric guitar that gives off her involvement for music. The dominating colourss are crude tones of brown. ruddy and orange.

Leah’s room on the other manus is dominated by light colourss such as pink. white. yellow and dim blue. She has stuffed animate beings on a shelf and large Windowss with thin. light drapes. Juno decides that the manner to state the baby’s male parent. Bleeker. about the gestation is to put up a life room puting in his pace where she can interrupt the intelligence. When darkness falls. Leah is assisting to travel everything that is needed. They help each other to raise a heavy armchair into the bole of Junos auto. In this scene. the armchair is a symbol for the gestation. something that merely the misss know of so far. It is still a complex. heavy secret kept in the dark. merely like the chair. Reirman uses colour values in a wide manner through the movie. particularly when it comes to the characters apparels. In the burden of the armchair scene. Juno wears a ruddy goon while Leah wears a blue. This highlights the different personalities of the two immature misss even more. As the gestation progresses the colour of Junos apparels alterations from the bright ruddy goon to earthier. duller colourss in green and brown sunglassess.

This colour alteration reinforces Junos state of affairs and the consequence the gestation has on her life. Another illustration of colour value being used is when Vanessa gets to see her boy for the first clip. She is so have oning a xanthous jumper. typifying the joy she feels after eventually going a female parent. A undertaking she feels she has been born to. During a visit to the prospective adoptive parents Juno finds out that Mark is traveling to disassociate Vanessa. sad and frustrated she heads back place. The camera is hiting from the backseat as Juno is driving ; she is placed to the left of the frame and the long. empty route in front of her to the right. This creates a motion from left to compensate. giving the spectator a feeling of optimism and that everything will work out for the best. The camera cuts to a panning shooting as Juno parks the auto by the side of the route. A cut to a low angle is made. demoing a close up of Juno as she cries. The grey place. ceiling and the maneuvering wheel creates a tight frame around Juno.

There is a claustrophobic feeling through the scene. which emphasizes the delicate province Juno finds herself in. Juno decides that if Vanessa is still willing to be a ma. Juno is willing to give her the babe. The bulk of the movie is shot in high key lightning. typical for comedy films. This goes for the scene at the infirmary when the babe is born every bit good. However. in the following scene this will alter. The camera shows a close up of Mr. MacGuff as he pats the caput of his girl who merely gave birth. The lightning has gotten softer. giving the xanthous colour of the walls a warm soothing freshness. There is unagitated and a balance over the scene. giving the feeling that everything is traveling to be okay from now on. The camera so cuts to a shooting from Junos point of position demoing Bleeker standing in the door gap. The walls behind Bleeker are bluish and contrasting to the goldish colourss in Junos infirmary room.

The colourss and the separating walls become a metaphor for the “cold” world Bleeker is merely coming from. and the warm hereafter that he is about to step into with Juno. A world more suited for two 16-year-old childs. where they do non hold to be parents. Juno is a realistic movie anchored in world. there are several mentions to modern civilization to underscore this. Films and “hobbits” are mentioned. but the chief thing is the music. Music is a large portion of Junos life and her personality. It besides becomes a cardinal component when Juno and Mark are jumping. They burn CD’s to each other and discuss music by Sonic Youth. Iggy Pop and Patti Smith among others. To convey that the movie is told from Junos point of position. Reirman uses her voice over as rapid cuts are made of what she is speaking approximately. This technique is used when Juno introduces her household. As she talks about her female parent. who is populating in Arizona. the camera cuts to long shooting of a desert house in the center of a beige field. The tone of Juno’s voice says that the mother’s absence does non trouble oneself her that much. as to the obtuseness of the colourss in the shooting.

The camera so cuts to extreme close-ups of the smilings of her mother’s new household. the hubby and their three “replacement kids” . To demo the spectator that the female parent has been out of the image for a long clip the camera cuts to a close up of legion cactuses in a window. Juno’s voice over is explicating that her female parent sends her one cactus every valentine’s twenty-four hours. In Juno. the mise-en-scene is often used to beef up the message of the movie. By utilizing colour values. lightning keys and symbolism Reirman captures the contrasts of the narrative. I do non cognize if I would name Juno my favourite movie. but it is decidedly one of my favourite “feel-good” movies. No affair what mood I am in. I ever feel much happier and more positive after watching this movie. I love the irony in the movie and I can see much of myself when I was 16 in Juno. I like how the movie takes up such a controversial and forbidden subject with every bit much wit as it does. To me it makes the movie appealing alternatively of feeling as a “moral message to teenagers” .