Let’s go backward for a second. It’s the 1960s, and Susan Sontag writes the essay “Against Interpretation.” She argues that people should experience art through observing its “form” and what we immediately sense from the piece rather than interpreting and assigning meanings to it (Sontag 8-9). Sontag claims that people decide to be limited by their interpretations because they can’t accept art without thinking of a larger, “intelligible” meaning (4-5). Fast forward about 40 years or more. It’s 2007, and a movie regarding teen pregnancy comes out. The movie is called Juno. The main plot is about a teenage girl named Juno who has an unplanned pregnancy with her high school boyfriend and gives up the baby through a closed adoption. The majority of the movie is what she does, how she lives, and the relationships she deals with as she is pregnant. When Juno was released, many people loved the movie, while some people hated it. However, a few from both parties did what Sontag advises against: They tried to assign another meaning to it, overinterpreted it, and essentially “translated” it into what makes sense to them (4). Since Juno decided not to abort the baby, some people thought it was a pro-life movie while others thought it supported teen pregnancy and led to a so-called “pregnancy pact” in Gloucester High School (Brown; Kingsbury). Either way, Sontag would have seen these people as misguided because they clearly prioritized meaning over the various angles and experiences one could get from appreciating the film’s explicit details and how it was uniquely put together. Juno supports Sontag’s argument about experiencing art through what it is explicitly made of instead of its implicit, interpreted meaning, because to enjoy the film, one can focus on the visuals, music, and dialogue without assigning a grand meaning to it.
A defining characteristic of Juno is the visual aspects. The movie caters to the viewer’s visual sense and hooks them in through its playful, indie-hipster look and saturated colors. For example, near the beginning of the film, the observer is met with an elaborate opening sequence that looks scrap-booked together, displaying Juno walking through town while credits play alongside her. The sequence is made up of multiple photographs of Juno that were degraded using a copy machine, colored in, cut out, scanned, and put together using a computer (Pearson). The hand-drawn background of the town, accompanied by long, bold, colored-in 3D credits and an animated Juno in the foreground, is very visual. It doesn’t need an explanation. As Sontag would say, “the sensuous surface” is what is important (9). A viewer can observe the craftsmanship of the layering, photos, lettering, and hand-drawn aesthetics and be visually stimulated without thinking about the meaning behind it. Furthermore, the film’s saturated color palette of bright reds, muted browns, golden yellows, greens, and tinted blues makes it eye candy and eye-catching. The colors can be analyzed, but the viewer doesn’t need to interpret them to feel something from the film. The colors are direct and subliminal, which “frees us from the itch to interpret” (Sontag 8). People could, however, interpret the colors and visuals as symbolism for each character. Juno could be characterized by reds, browns, and greens. Paulie Bleeker, her boyfriend, could be summarized by bright orange, golden yellow, and red. The Lorings, the couple adopting Juno’s baby, could be watered down to tinted blues and clean whites. The possibilities are endless with symbolism, but too much emphasis on symbolism would distract from the story. People can only hold so much in their brains when Juno presents them with so much on the exterior. Sometimes, an art piece’s “sensuous surface” that Sontag describes is enough to captivate the viewer because a unique feeling comes with the film’s captivating look (9). The hand-made aesthetic and fall colors give Juno a homey, cozy feel that feels soothing. When viewers focus on the soothing visuals, the movie becomes comforting to the viewer, even though Juno’s pregnancy can be seen as serious. By evoking a comforting feeling, they subliminally tell the viewer everything is going to be okay when the situation isn’t what Juno planned for. Part of what makes the film enjoyable is the comforting, unserious tone that the eye-catching colors and playful aesthetic set up.
On another note, Juno caters to the viewer’s sense of hearing through various songs that play throughout the scenes. At the beginning of the film, a modified version of “My Rollercoaster” by Kimya Dawson starts playing when Juno rides her bike to school and continues playing as she walks through the hall of her high school. The song is short and consists of Kimya Dawson playing the guitar and do-do-ing softly. It plays in the background and is not heard by the characters. One could interpret the song as background music or assign a larger meaning, saying that it is in tune with how Juno feels about going to school, knowing she is pregnant, but the viewer doesn’t need to think about the song to understand the scene. Juno is getting from point A to point B, and the song is an extra layer for the viewer’s senses. The viewer can hear the music and be further transported into the film. Much later, when the season changes to Spring, a tiny montage of events is shown while “Piazza, New York Catcher” by Belle & Sebastian plays in the background. The song stimulates the viewer’s sense of hearing while adding to the indie-hipster vibe of the film through its sweet, upbeat, and soft tone. The viewer should refrain from over-interpreting it, so they can focus on their present “senses” and experience the film for “what it is” (Sontag 10). Similarly, the song “Anyone Else but You” by The Moldy Peaches is a layer of sound that occupies the viewer without much thought. It plays twice in the film (once played in the background as Juno gives birth and once sung by Juno and her boyfriend Paulie Bleeker at the end). The song could be seen as a theme for Juno and her relationship with Paulie Bleeker, but the viewer doesn’t need to understand the theme. On the surface, the song is an acoustic, endearing, soft duet that is just endearing and enjoyable. As Sontag argues, “In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone” (5). It is okay to refrain from dissecting Juno because the viewer can enjoy it for what is initially understood. When the viewer focuses on what they initially hear from the endearing soundtrack, they can be further engrossed and transported into the cozy, comforting feeling of the film.
Finally, Juno has lots of strange, funny, maybe some could even call it quirky, cringey dialogue, which makes the film unique and entertaining. For instance, a key part that allows the plot to continue is Juno deciding not to get an abortion, partly because of a comical conversation she has with her classmate Su-Chin outside of Women Now. The whole conversation is funny and awkward in a weird way since Juno runs into her classmate, Su-Chin, protesting against abortion when she is planning to get an abortion. On top of the whole ironic situation, a majority of the conversation isn’t even about abortion. Juno starts talking to Su-Chin as if she ran into her at school. She asks, “…did you write that paper for Worth’s class yet?” and Su-Chin admits “[she’s] having trouble concentrating,” so Juno suggests taking Adderall (Juno 00:16:53-00:17:04). But when Su-Chin refuses, Juno says, “It’s a wise idea” and proceeds to tell her a story about a crazy girl who took too many “behavior meds at once” (Juno 00:17:04-00:17:30). In this dialogue, the topic of abortion is only pointed directly at Juno near the end of the conversation when Su-Chin mentions to Juno that “…[her baby]…has fingernails” (Juno 00:17:37). That statement, mixed with the strange interactions she has at Women Now, freaks Juno out into not getting an abortion. The scene in itself could be interpreted as a pro-life scene and characterize Juno as a pro-life film, but as Sontag suggests, “The task of interpretation is virtually one of translation. The interpreter says, Look, don’t you see that X is really—or, really means—A? That Y is really B? That Z is really C?” (3). Juno’s choice not to get an abortion and the dialogue between her and Su-Chin don’t have to be interpreted into a larger theme of pro-life or pro-choice or abortion. In reality, if the viewer thinks the dialogue is only about such serious topics, the scene can only be viewed in one way and isn’t that funny. In general, the dialogue’s lighthearted and playful nature is distinctive because topics such as abortion and teen pregnancy are often serious topics in the real world. By contrasting serious, implicit topics like teen pregnancy, the humor in the dialogue keeps the film enjoyable while moving the story forward.
Art is an experience that caters to our senses. When the viewer gets caught up in interpreting every single detail, their senses are limited, and so is their experience. For Juno, overinterpretation waters down the creative, funny details that make up the film and limits how the viewer can see and enjoy it. The film’s beauty lies in its directness and explicit meanings. The viewer does not need to worry about what one color, song, scene, or piece of dialogue implies. Take Juno for “how it is…[and]…what it is, rather than…what it means” (Sontag 10). If we view Juno through Sontag’s lens, we can see that it is a colorful, comforting comedy that happens to work around serious, implicit topics, like abortion and teen pregnancy. But what makes Juno a successful, comforting comedy is its combination of stunning visuals, playful aesthetics, soothing music, and comical dialogue. Therefore, to experience Juno fully, we must appreciate and understand its combinations of forms first.
Works Cited
Brown, Evan Nicole. “Diablo Cody Meditates on ‘Juno’ and Its Critics 15 Years Later: ‘I Am Emphatically Pro-Choice.’” The Hollywood Reporter, 15 July 2022, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/juno-movie-15-years-later-diablo-cody-roe-1235178240/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.
Juno. Directed by Jason Reitman, Mandate Pictures, Mr. Mudd, & Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2007. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.
Kingsbury, Kathleen. “Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High.” Time Magazine, 18 June 2008, https://time.com/archive/6685214/pregnancy-boom-at-gloucester-high/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.
Pearson, Ryan. “Where’d the credits go?” asap, Associated Press, 13 Sept. 2007, https://web.archive.org/web/20071012000411/http://asap.ap.org/stories/1726717.s. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.
Sontag, Susan. “Against Interpretation.” Against Interpretation, Picador, 1966, pp. 1-10.
Side Note: I couldn’t find out how to italicize Juno in the title.