Juno

Like the fictional teenagers of Dawson’s Creek, there are moments when the intelligent words spewing forth from the eponymous Juno are implausibly articulate but hey, who goes to the cinema to see real life? And really, that’s my only complaint. Of course, I’m never truly objective where Allison Janney is concerned and actually, Juno also stars two cast members from the tragically short-lived series, Arrested Development, so perhaps I was always going to love it. Yet although the cast was fantastic, what I particularly enjoyed was the script’s gradual evolution that gently altered my first impressions. When it comes to the pathetically simplistic nature of modern day cinema, a multilayered character is a rarity, let alone one that actually evolves over the course of ninety minutes – but on this occasion, I was proved wrong and it felt good.

One of those atypical film experiences by which it’s hard not to be touched, Juno deals with teenage pregnancy with humour and understated confidence. I’d recommend it to everyone apart from my father, for whom ‘understated’ is a terrible insult when it comes to movies, and who would rather extract his own liver than watch something that is even obliquely about babies.