I'll kick things off with this side from P. 58: You should have gone to China. I heard they give away babies like free iPods. They shoot ‘em out of those T-shirt guns at sports events. To me, Juno uses her extreme verbal wit to do two primary things: (1) Exhibit to the world she is super cool and therefore 'adult'. (2) To entertain and dominate conversations in order to control the moment and preclude any chance of things getting 'serious'.

Needless to say, great dialogue all over the place in 'Juno'. Some personal favorites: Juno: 'You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.' Juno: 'No... I mean for real. 'Cause you're, like, the coolest person I've ever met, and you don't even have to try, you know...' Paulie: 'I try really hard, actually.' Juno: 'I'm just gonna go ahead and nip this thing in the bud. 'Cause you know, they say pregnancy often leads to, you know... an infant.' Mac: 'And this, of course, is Juno.' Mark: 'Like the city in Alaska?' Juno: 'No.' Mark: 'No?'

I'll play the devil's advocate here (to get the conversation really rolling): Does anyone agree with me that there is one soft spot in the dialogue? * JUNO's dialogue is consistently great (p.24) = "They were Mark & Vanessa Loring, and they were beautiful even in black and white". * BREN's dialogue is great (eg. after MAC asks her if she saw it coming): "Oh God yeah. But I was hoping she was expelled or into hard drugs". * MAC's dialogue is great - and certainly NOT your typical father character-speak: (p.31 to Vanessa): "Hello. Thank you for having me and my irresponsible child over to your home". All wonderful. BUT . . . for me at least, the opening had issues. I had difficulty with the ROLLO character: ROLLO: (p. 2) "This is your third test today, mama bear. Your eggo is preggo, no doubt about it!" and ROLLO: (p. 4): "So what's the prognosis, Fertile Myrtle? Minus or plus?" Sounds forced. This is the one character that doesn't work for me dialogue wise. While I saw Juno as a charater in trouble, yet trying her best to be cool and on top of it (hey - she's 16!), I saw Rollo as a weak version of "Jackie Chiles" (from Seinfeld). But Jackie Chiles DID work for me, as it was a spot-on parody of famed lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who was noted for his grandiose vocabulary. Rollo? The vibe he gave off to me was: Brace yourself for 90 minutes of zingers and superficial dialogue. But . . . I loved the movie. So what changed? First, the MAC and BREN characters had great personality and dialogue. They started off as typical, square, out-of-it movie parents. Mais non. These 2 characters are intelligent. Complicated. Well rounded. Great dialogue with both. Loved the heart-to-heart with Juno towards the end. Enjoyed it when Bren "went off" at the ultrasound appt. A little rude? Yes, but she was defending Juno, in my view. Bren could be on my team, anyday. Secondly, and more importantly, the characters Mark & Vanessa Loring "saved the day". Juno was great and believable from page # 1, but Mark & Vanessa started off a little differently: These 2 smug cashmir wearing McMansion people were living "in a cold house" where the front lawn "hadn't come in yet". Mark = immature guy longing for his youth. Vanessa = obsessed yuppie. But the writer has them slowly evolve, and a lot of it is through surprising dialogue. When Juno speaks with Mark, you can feel Juno has 2 conversations going on at the same time: one with "young Mark" (whom she likes), and another with "immature Mark" (whom she doesn't). I mean, Mark is even less prepared to have a child than Juno is. You sense that Juno senses this, too. Good subtext. With Vanessa (especially at the mall), Juno's dialogue is different. She's still projecting cool and witty and "grown-up". But her words also project a real connection. Yes, Vanessa is a bit awkward, but she's scared. Juno is awkward as well. And then, Juno is also scared (not only does she face daily scorn at school, but she still isn't 100% sure that she and Paulie are a couple at that point). But unlike Mark, V + J are both changing to the positive. And their dialogue reflects this. Earlier, Vanessa simply represented the best solution to Juno. But now, Vanessa is becoming family. And at the very end, Juno acknowledges "she's different" when she's describing the Juno-Paulie relationship. And that's okay. And she's very okay with it. Great dialogue. Great well rounded characters. But Rollo gets yellow stickie notes from me. How to correct this? "The Devil's Advocate" might suggest him being a fellow student, a cool senior, learning Juno's secret. Sure - tease her. But do it with high school-speak dialogue. Or change "him" into a "her", who just happens to live next door. That would provide tension and add to Juno's panic level. Good dialogue would come out of that. Or have it be a 20-ish female clerk who also failed her test a year ago. That would provide some dark comedy. She could start suggesting baby names - right there on the opening pages. Just my view :-) John A

With you on this. Diablo Cody's natty, hyper-stylized dialogue is a real problem for many, and the Rollo scene is perhaps the best example of why. In a nutshell, it just feels like someone's trying way too hard in this scene. Every line's a snarky swing for the fences, and it's when you try piling zinger on top of zinger that scenes like this come across as inauthentic because you can feel the writer's hand. I'm a big fan of this script. I'd hesitate to say I'm a big fan of Cody - Jennifer's Body was a dud, haven't seen Young Adult yet, Lamb of God or whatever it's gonna be called reads well - but I definitely admire her as a writer. However, I find it pretty easy to understand dissenting views that pigeonhole her as a netspeak twi-hard. It's because of scenes like this, but because of scenes like this she has an Oscar. So I'm sure it's H2Off a quacker's back, for sheezy.

Vic, After your comment, I decided to give it another try. We're students. So why not? So I pulled up the screenplay online. Reread the opening. Had the exact same reaction concerning the character Rollo and his dialogue. Then I popped the DVD in and watched the film. Verrry interesting. Still wasn't crazy about it. But I wasn't as against the dialogue while viewing / hearing it as I was while reading it. I think the reason may be the acting. While watching it, I immediately said: "That's Dwight Schrute!!" Even though Juno was right there - and she is your classic Protagonist In Trouble - my brain was still saying: "Dwight Schrute's giving Jim Halpern some shit in Scranton, PA - yeah!". I was half looking for Oscar or Kelly or Michael Scott to walk past. You know what I'm saying here? I know that's not correct, but it happened. I read once that Hitchcock didn't spend much time on writing character because he casted actors - Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Jimmy Stewart - that the public already knew, and understood what they brought to the table. Again, not correct, I suppose, but it's there. My eyes see Rainn Wilson, and my brain sees Dwight Schrute (although my wife and I screened "Hugo" last night, and we thought that Sacha Baron Cohen was wonderful playing against type as the police captain in the train station). John A