Juno is not only the best film of the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, but it’s also the best movie of the year (so far).
For days I’ve sat in dark screening rooms filled with other movie critics. And let me tell you, for a group of people who should love movies, critics are some of the least responsive movie-watching audiences. Films at Toronto play in 500+ seat theaters, packed with emotionless critics from around the world, and the usual LA crowd (which I’ll refrain from making jokes about because, the cliches are usually unrealistically true, and it’s too easy). My point is this: I’ve seen five movies so far at the festival, and not one peep from the industry/critic crowd. Juno was different. There were laughs on and off throughout every scene, and when the credits hit, there was a good round of applause. [note: the public screening had the biggest, longest, and loudest standing ovation in the history of the Toronto International Film Festival.]
But Juno is not one of those movies that only critics or hardcore film geeks could love, it has a huge mainstream potential. I believe that Juno will be the Little Miss Sunshine of 2007.
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