We don’t do ads here, and gosh I wouldn’t think twice at refusing to get these pages drawn into being a tick in mega-corporation PR plan, but plain old-fashioned intrigue got the better of me and I thought it only fair to make a brief comment here in return for attending a free “bloggers” screening of a Fox Searchlight film called “Juno” (which was apparently scripted by a “blogger”) at the Fox office in Soho last night. What they call a “screening room” is in fact a little cinema in their office, how good is that? I couldn’t hang around for the after-party so took-off soon after the curtains went down, but wrote my review on my mobile phone on the tube home:

It was an interesting film. Definitely a “different” story. About an edgy American home-town high-school girl called Juno who is pregnant. The story follows the trials and tribs of her life throughout her pregnancy and preparations for giving the baby to affluent young couple who agree to adopt the baby. Primarily a comedy, the film does quite well at pulling off a highly-stylised humour in a very North American fashion, but also deals effectively with the “serious” emotional bits too. (There are a few Kleenex moments in there). The music plays an important role throughout the film: it’s mostly progressive “folksy”, mostly acoustic-alternative stuff that works well with the screenplay. In fact the music is probably one of the few things about this production that attempts to “iconify” it, the others being the character Juno herself (acted by Ellen Page) and her parents who I thought delivered the most credible performance in a film riddled with in-credible scenarios. (Remember it’s a comedy – for subject matter that would otherwise not be in real life). And as comedies go, I would say that it’s at the better end of the scale. Although I did notice a lot of the audience laughing out loud to jokes when all I could do was muster a smile. But smile I did. Overall prognosis: good film, I would reccommend it. Definitely doesn’t try to be a blockbuster, and probably not “iconic” enough a movie to make you want to watch it over and over again, except for a few really hilarious moments. In short: I probably would recommending adding it to your DVD-by-post rental queue and I would definitely sit down to watch or record it if it was showing on FilmFour at some point in the future.

Other bloggers at the preview who have reported:

Hydragenic
Buzz Attitude
Annie Mole
Ham at London Daily Photo