It’s been almost fifteen years since Juno skyrocketed to critical darling status and vastly outperformed its expected commercial success. It tells the story of sixteen-year-old Juno’s (Elliot Page) pregnancy. The film is unanimously loved for its writing, directing, and acting. Its often seen as a success story about the power of Diablo Cody’s incredible writing, Jason Reitman’s keenly tuned directing, and Elliot Page’s acting prowess. Yet the music, one of the most carefully crafted aspects of the movie, often flies under the radar in comparison.
The soundtrack is perfectly designed to mimic Juno’s complicated, dynamic, and quirky life. Thin textures, acoustic guitars, simple rhythms, and heartfelt lyrics give us a sense of youthful amateurism – as if Juno’s own band could’ve been responsible for half the songs. But this isn’t all it does, every movie designs its soundtrack to match scenes well, Juno on the other hand uses it to craft a story. As if to fully understand what’s happening on screen, we must understand the subtext in the music playing over it. Throughout the film, characters hold their emotions close to their chest, they don’t let one another in on what they’re feeling, and often it's not clear they even understand how they’re feeling. It's in these situations that the music aids us in understanding what’s happening beyond the words.
As the film begins, and we’re introduced to Juno –we’re presented with someone who’s obviously meant to be a child. Someone who is angsty, speaks in odd slang, and walks around drinking whole cartons of Sunny-D juice. The film shows all of this to us with the song “All I Want Is You” by Barry Louis Polisar. The track is the definition of pure youthful simplicity, weaving together shallow similes to describe a seemingly pure love. It’s so childish, though, that it doesn’t even really seem real, as if in that kind of uncomplicated world to love is easy and so it doesn’t mean much.
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As Juno takes her pregnancy tests and realizes that she is pregnant and this is something she’s going to have to contend with, the soundtrack switches up ever so slightly. While Juno attempts to hang herself with a string of licorice we hear “Tire Swing” by Kimiya Dawson. In fact, at this stage of the movie, we hear multiple Kimiya Dawson songs. Whenever Junois alone it feels like Dawson becomes her inner voice. “Tire Swing”, like all Kimiya Dawson songs, is intentionally youthful. It sounds like a campfire song with a nursery rhyme for lyrics. But the song actually deal with very adult themes. In “Tire Swing”, Kimiya Dawson deals with the crushing aftermath of a breakup. She deals with a relationship that ended not because of a lack of love but a true incompatibility, one that makes you question if your life will ever be fit to let you settle down and if you can ever truly shake off the loneliness of life.
Fundamentally, Dawson’s music represents a sort of longing for simpler times, a longing for youth. Junostill speaks, dresses, and acts like a teenager, but she is forced to reckon with her pregnancy. She’s forced to act in the adult world, uncomfortable and out of place. As she gets a call about a potential abortion, we once again hear a Kimiya Dawson song, this time it's “Reminders of Then”. However, as we enter Juno’s second trimester the music shifts, taking the tone with it.
As Juno begins to show more obvious signs of pregnancy it becomes increasingly difficult for her to hold on to her young naïveté. She has to deal with doctors, a potential adoptive family, the scrutiny of her peers, and the scrutiny of the adults in her life. Another subtle shift in music takes place. No longer are Juno’s internal thoughts presented through Kimiya Dawson songs but instead through Belle & Sebastian. In contrast to Dawson’s music, Belle & Sebastian’s sounds more elaborate. More complex harmonies, somber vocals, and more complex songwriting. Yet, their music is often about young people, and how they have their youth stolen by the world around them. Where Dawson’s songs paint Juno as a child dealing with adult themes, Belle & Sebastian are more about her being forced into adulthood too early. While Junois upset at Paulie (Michael Cera) and is driving to see Mark, Belle & Sebastian’s song “Expectations” plays. “Expectations,” tells the story of a girl who is bullied by her classmates and preyed on by her teachers. These songs underpin the emotionally dramatic and tense scenes of the film and help to set the tone of what’s happening to Juno.
At this point, it’s important to talk about two other characters. Paulie, the biological father of Juno’s child played by Michael Cera, and Mark, the potential adoptive father played by Jason Bateman. They both act as a foil to Juno, representing differing relationships she has with her youth and herself. Mark is an adult. He’s married, and his wife is ready to adopt a child. He’s a former rock musician who sold out and moved to the suburbs. As Mark and Juno sit talking “Superstar” by Sonic Youth comes on, and he says it’s his favorite song. This is the song we’re meant to associate with Mark. A song about a love passed from long ago by a band known for its angsty music (their most well-known song is likely “Teenage Riot”). The soundtrack and Mark’s relationship with it are used to show how he longs for his youth. He longs for the simple life that he no longer has. In this way, he’s almost a leech on Juno’s fading youth as the two develop a pseudo-romantic relationship which only serves to pull Juno further into a murky adult world and away from her teenage life.
Paulie is introduced to the song “Well Respected Man” by The Kinks. Unlike Mark's music which all seems to represent some conflict between two worlds, Paulie’s song is unmistakably simple. Sonically it's very similar to Juno’s music, but thematically there’s not really anything else there. Paulie represents the male counterpart of Juno’s experience. Where she is forced to walk around with the proof of the pregnancy on her, Paulie is able to retreat, without the judgment of the world, something that Juno envies. In many ways, Paulie’s music also places him as a foil to Mark, where Mark’s music longs for a time past, Paulie’s is solidly set in and happy in the now. Where Mark seems to pull Juno further into his own mature world, Paulie has the potential to bring her back to the now.
The story comes to its thematic climax and resolution as Juno falls out with Mark and goes to make up with Paulie. At this point Juno’s music shifts from Belle & Sebastian back to Kimiya Dawson. The film eventually closes with Paulie and Juno singing a cover of a Dawson song together. I said that Dawson’s music represents a longing for simpler times, if that’s the case then what’s the thematic conclusion here? While that’s half true there’s another way to understand Dawson’s music, as opposed to simply being a longing for the simplicity of being a young person, it can also be understood as a choice to hang onto youthfulness. It suggests that there is some way to deal with adult problems through a different lens, one that is through the eyes of a teenager. The film brilliantly uses her music in both of these ways. The song Paulie and Juno sing together offers another shift in tone – no longer does it represent the lost youth Juno longs for, but the maturity that both she and Paulie have evolved into. This maturity is less about abandoning their identities as teens, but more about being able to enjoy and see things simply while interacting with the complicated adult world around them. Their youthful outlook can be a tool to help them take on the world, not something lost to it.
