Juno is quite excellent. In addition to being a charming, funny and meaningful film, it also boasts some impressive credits. It’s directed by Jason Reitman whose last film was Thank You For Smoking, the title character is performed by Ellen Page who previously tackled paedophilia in Hard Candy and lastly, Michael Cera plays the ‘father’ of said teen pregnancy with Jason Bateman playing a prospective adoptive parent. The last time Bateman and Cera worked together was as father and son on Arrested Development. Not only does this allow for interesting discussion on the comparisons between all these previous works and Juno, but it makes this film that little bit more awesome.

Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know this, because Juno is fantastic either way. Juno (the film) tells the story of Juno (the character) who is sixteen, pregnant and having to deal with everything that goes with being in such a predicament. This includes her parents, the boy she had sex with and the decision of what to do with the baby. But Juno isn’t really a film about the issue of teen pregnancy, but more about the characters and their relationships with one another. This works just fine, because it takes potentially iffy subject matter and turns it into a brilliantly funny and endearing film.

Speaking of endearing, Juno is one of the most instantly likable characters in recent memory. Mixing oddball and sassy, Juno’s character is both performed and written magnificently. Non-sequitur just doesn’t begin to describe Diablo Cody’s writing style when some completely unexpected lines pop out during the many hilarious dialogue exchanges. Juno is the source of most of the humour of the film, but thankfully, the humour never mocks teen pregnancy. Juno (the character) is aloof, but sensitive. She’s mature, but still enjoys being young. Jason Reitman handles the issue with even greater care and precision than he did the issue of smoking in Thank You For Smoking.

The vast majority of the film is an enjoyable, hilarious experience. But it cleverly uses your own mirth to suck you into the moments of complete seriousness and Juno ends up being as heartfelt as it is funny. As mentioned, it’s all about the relationships between characters and there’s some wonderful dynamics going on between the excellent cast of flawed, human characters. There’s a sense that everyone in this movie are real, genuine people. Indeed, the whole film has copious amounts of detail. In one scene Vanessa (Jenifer Garner) is wearing an Alice In Chains T-shirt while she paints. It’s not hard to imagine that this shirt was a gift from Mark, but that being his musical tastes and not his, the shirt is just used for wearing while painting. Every minute of screen time is used to say something important about these people.

Juno is something you really should sit down and experience for yourself. I guarantee* you will laugh and remember these characters for a long time to come. Add to the mix a quirky soundtrack and a gorgeous colour palette and you’ve got one delicious film.

*Guarantee may or may not be hyperbole.