Elliot Page

In Juno (2007), Page makes a quick answer feel like a way of keeping someone at a distance. Juno MacGuff likes to seem difficult to impress, and Page lets us notice how much work that takes. It is a funny, affecting performance, even when Diablo Cody's dialogue sounds too pleased with itself. We believe in the teenager because Page leaves us room to doubt the confident account she gives of herself.

Hard Candy (2005), with Page as Hayley Stark, brought early attention for an intensity that Juno put to a different use. The career then spread from independent leads to supporting roles in larger films, with Christopher Nolan casting Page as Ariadne in Inception (2010) and Sinon in The Odyssey (2026). Television brought a longer-running part as Viktor Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy (2019–2024). We rate The Odyssey highly, though its middle stretch makes its length felt.

Jason Reitman gives us a closer look at what Page can do in Juno, partly by making the other actors matter. Michael Cera's hesitant Paulie Bleeker offers an alternative to Juno's constant readiness with an answer; Jennifer Garner's Vanessa Loring gives the comedy a necessary seriousness. We were moved by Page's quieter moments, when Juno's uncertainty made her seem too young to have to sound so sure. Page does not ask for sympathy each time that happens, which allows us to feel it without being hurried.

The danger in these bright, self-possessed characters is that cleverness can become the whole performance. Some of Cody's lines push Juno that way, and Page cannot make all of them sound unforced. We would like more roles that allow the awkwardness as much space as the wit. Begin with Juno, but do not judge the acting on the first volley of replies.