JUNO

Paulie Bleeker: I still have your underwear.
Juno MacGuff: I still have your virginity.
Paulie Bleeker: Would you shut up?

(Fox Searchlight)
Runtime: 90 min

I cannot blame you to hiss like a perturbed snake or frown upon reading the term teen pregnancy which spells trouble for most, but in this feel-good movie about youth irresponsibilty, gets smart and witty at the same time just like Knocked Up with the cleverness of Little Miss Sunshine. It also shows that coming-of-age/teen romantic comedy genre shouldn’t have to be dark and cynical.

Ellen Page plays Juno MacGuff, a smart mouth 16 year old teenager who “experimented” on having sex with her goofy boyfriend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). As the result Juno went pregnant. At first she was scared to death, even think to abort her baby. Not until one of her friend said that “baby has fingernails too”, Juno abort her hasty plan. After revealing the truth to her stunningly supportive father Bren (Allison Janney) and step mother Mac (J.K. Simmons), she goes to try to find a good Mommy and Daddy for her unborn child.

Juno finds the perfect couple to adopt, the rich music composer Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner), who live in an expensive house just like as if it was sprung up from any IKEA catalogue.

After the deal is sealed, Juno, who keeps Paulie at a distance, makes periodic visits to the house to show the family ultrasound photos and such. As Mark and Juno grew closer (thank to slasher gore film and music taste), Mark decided to divorce Vanessa, thus jeopardizing Vanessa’s chance of having a baby. Will there be a happy ending? What happened to Paulie then? The result is a heart warming resolution which hinted that sex education is very important for teenagers.

With vocabulary bending dialogue, we should thank Diablo Cody who wrote this story and earn herself a golden statue called Oscar this year. It is certain that Diablo is very familiar with the way teens speak English nowadays with funny catchphrase and smart dialogue. It won’t make you laugh hard but it will make you smile and sometimes sneer and it is charming without being saccharine. It's funny without being rude or dishonest. It's smart without being smart-assed and it is touching without the corny music and dialogue.

HALLAM FOE

Runtime: 95 Min

I never thought that Yamakasi-like ability could really come in handy for a peeping tom. But Hallam Foe proves us that if a weird story abot voyeuristic teen that echoes in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window could run pararell with some romantic oedipal love story helped by his Yamakasi ability.

Hallam Foe (Jamie Bell) is a 17 year old teen who is very paranoid. He thinks his step mother; Verity (Claire Forlani) has conspired to kill his mother. Meanwhile his father Julius Foe (Ciaran Hinds) cannot understand him at all.

Following the death of his mother, Hallam has retreated into his own semi-fantasy world by spying on people around him through a treehouse he built which also a secret shrine for her mother.

When his sister (Lucy Holt) leaves for Australia, Hallam feels isolated, and an “intimate” push-up with his step mother changes everything. Then Hallam set to Edinburgh for a new life, only to find that the sity is a perfetc nest for his voyeuristic orgasm and a once in a lifetime chance to meet Kate (Sophia Myles) who eerily, resembles his late mother. What comes next is a more voyeuristic oedipal quest of a 17 year old boy.

With tight editing, this is not a crowd pleaser but certainly gives us another example of Jamie Bell’s fine acting since Billy Elliot. The spoken English is a little bit difficult to comprehend since thick Scottish accent spreaded here and there.