Juno: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack CD

The drolly adorable movie comedy JUNO presses some of the same indie-film buttons as Zach Braff's GARDEN STATE and Wes Anderson's comedies of manners such as RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. Unsurprisingly, it has a similarly fine soundtrack. There are seven new songs here by New York anti-folk singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson, including the jaunty but gently barbed "So Nice, So Smart." The rest of the soundtrack collects impressively deep tracks from a variety of hipster heroes, including Sonic Youth's outstandingly creepy cover of the Carpenters' "Superstar," Cat Power's take on the R&B ballad "Sea of Love," Buddy Holly's "Dearest," and Belle and Sebastian's "Piazza, New York Catcher." The soundtrack ends with the film's two stars, Ellen Page (THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS) and Michael Cera (SUPERBAD), singing a slightly reworked version of one of Dawson's older songs from her days as half of the Moldy Peaches, "Anyone Else But You."

Fox Searchlight Picture's 1st February (UK Film Release Date) coming-of-age comedy JUNO, directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking). The narrative centers on whip-smart Juno (Ellen Page, in a breakthrough role), a teenage girl faced with an unplanned pregnancy from an afternoon with the charmingly unassuming Bleeker (Michael Cera). Juno finds her unborn baby the perfect set of parents in Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), an affluent suburban couple who are eager to adopt. Along with the total support of her parents, (Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons) Juno conquers her problems head-on, displaying a youthful exuberance that is both smart and unexpected. The film was an official selection at this year's Telluride, Toronto, and London film festivals and received the Best Film award at the Rome International Film Festival.Mojo (Publisher) (p.105) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Adam Green and Kimya Dawson's sweetly sassy tunes fit snugly with the sarky world-view of Juno's heroine."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.96) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he cunning, very listenable mix of college pop, indie weirdness and vintage musical eccentricity works and flows extremely well."