By Fred Topel | Image property of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Juno
Juno premiered Monday night in Hollywood and director Jason Reitman enjoyed fulfilling a year-long promise to screenwriter Diablo Cody. Taking her to the premiere of his father's production of Disturbia, he told her to anticipate her own premiere at the end of the year.
Reitman and Cody's Juno
"But ours is going to be at the Mann Village," bragged Reitman. "Oh my God, it's so cool. That's my favorite theater in LA. Disturbia was at the Mann Chinese. That's not exactly a tiny joint. I think it's respectable but yeah, this is certainly a highlight of my life. Mann Village, oh my God."
The story of pregnant teen offering her baby up for adoption pulls no punches but takes no sides either. "I actually see the movie as completely apolitical. It has a unique perspective of coming from a writer who grew up in a very kind of Juno MacGuff like house and a director who grew up in a very Loring like house. Because of that, there's kind of an air of nonjudgment around all of the characters. One of the things I loved about it is that it was open minded. Like Thank You For Smoking the novel, it took on an issue that is normally considered tricky and had a very frank attitude about it and just spoke about it openly without being condescending and never really got into the politics. You never really see politics in any of the choices, any of the conversations, any of the moves. That's probably why I liked it."
Perhaps this could become Reitman's specialty. "I don't really have a specialty. The material I'm drawn to, I like stuff that's unusual. I like unusual perspectives on things and I generally get frustrated with political correctness. Movies, books, stories that are afraid to just talk about things, so when I hear the voices, like the voice of Juno, when she calls for an abortion and says, 'I'd like to procure a hasty abortion,' I immediately fall in love with this girl."
Juno opens to theaters on December 5th.
For the trailer, posters and more movie info, go to the Juno
Movie Page.
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