Brunette Stripped Bare

Officially, I have a new favourite movie. And a confirmed weird crush.

New movie: Juno. Weird crush: Michael Cera.

The crush is wrong, on so many levels. First, Michael Cera is a teenager. A really goofy teenager. When I see still pictures of him, there is no crush. But I really like the characters he plays, those shy, nervous, clueless, dweeby characters who are cooler than you realise. Plus, they always have hearts of gold. Because he always plays these characters, you get the vibe that he playing a large part of himself, most of the time. I think the crush started in the Arrested Development episodes where he became a nervous mess when he was having dirty thoughts about his cousin (the daughter of Portia De Rossi’s character), grew a little more when I watched Superbad, and became bona fide when I watched the awesomeness of Juno.

Juno is one of those movies you watch with an inane grin on your face, enjoying every moment. The only time you stop inanely grinning is to laugh out loud. The story itself doesn’t sound too unusual - a teenage girl (Juno) falls pregnant to her best friend (Paulie, Michael Cera’s character) after a spontaneous ‘make-out’ session and decides to adopt the baby out to the ‘perfect’ couple. What makes it so interesting is the relationships and dynamics of the movie. Especially the subtle ones, like how Paulie’s Mum seems to instinctively know that Juno is going to have a massive influence on her son, and isn’t comfortable with their friendship. This is portrayed in such a realistic way - his Mum isn’t a bitch to her face, it’s all through body language and the way she says things… my favourite scene of the movie is a very pregnant Juno and Paulie’s Mum jostling up the stairs to try and get to his bedroom before the other.

I loved the movie for it’s subtlty and it’s ability to steer clear of the obvious yet still bring such a realism and humour.

Oh, and for it’s Michael Cera.