ongoing

Is "Juno" - which attained hip cachet first and then scored big with a boatload of Oscar nominations - "a coming-of-age movie made with idiosyncratic charm and not a single false note," as the New Yorker's David Denby writes. Almost. Maybe, times are different now, but when I was in high school, having a 16-year-old pregnant girl among us would present all sorts of problems for the girl and for her peers. Not everyone would be as kind or blase about it as are the high schoolers in Jason Reitman's film.

 Ellen Page (from the remarkably gritty "Hard Candy"), who plays Juno, is so cool with the pregnancy. And, later with the adoption plans - after her initial dismay that she and her buddy Bleeker, played by "Superbad"'s Michael Cera, got pregnant after a one-time "friends with benefits" kind of thing. She's a wiseass, with brains, smart and tart. Her parents: They're pretty cool, too. (At least she's not using hard drugs! they respond at the big news) The potential adoptive couple: Cool, too ... but a little troubled and that's where the tension lies. Will Mark, the former rocker-now jingle writer Jason Bateman plays, stick it out with his wife, Vanessa, an uptight lady played by Jennifer Garner. You can tell he yearns to break free before he's "trapped" by parenthood; you can tell he and Juno have a bond. ... To give away more plot would be wrong, but we can say "Juno" is a thoroughly amusing movie, where you fall in love with Juno and wish Page the best with her Oscar nod. There's both edge and warmth in this flick, and Reitman, who gave us a great version of Christopher Buckley's satire, "Thank You For Smoking," hits most of the marks here - you just have to suspend a little disbelief - and nothing in this movie feels cliched or pat. I suppose it means something that if ticks off both right-to-lifers and pro-choicers. It's at the Somerville Theatre. Check site below for times.

www.boston.mrmoviestimes.com