Two Shades of the Same Color
Vanessa is preparing the baby's room for when she and Mark bring the child home, and she asks Mark what color he likes. They stare at two swatches on the wall, both comically similar shades of yellow. While Vanessa has strong opinions about which color she likes better, Mark is stumped and doesn't seem to care. The image of the soon-to-be parents staring at the swatches with two vastly different perspectives represents their divergent attitudes towards becoming new parents. The image illuminates the ways they are not on the same page.
Sink or Swim
After Juno leaves Mark and Vanessa's home, after finding out Mark is leaving Vanessa, we see her van parked on the side of the road. In front of the van is a boat that has been abandoned. There's a train on the left and a small creek on the right, and she sits in the van crying. Visually we are able to see that she has the choice to continue on in her misery, to allow her parents' divorce and mother's abandonment to leave her stranded in life, or she can get back on the road and keep moving. Reitman captures all of that in his composition of the shot. In the imagery we can see that Juno feels alone and without support in the world, but that she has a choice to take care of herself.
Tic-Tacs
After talking to her dad about the nature of true love, Juno realizes that she's in love with Bleeker and wants to reunite with him and apologize for being mean to him. She and Leah put 100 containers of orange Tic-Tacs—his only "vice"—in his mailbox. The next morning, when Bleeker sees chalk writing on his front walk advising him to check his mailbox, he opens it and all of the containers come pouring out. It is a playful image, but it also represents Juno's vulnerability, the fact that she is reaching out and trying to make amends.
Against the Crowd
Twice, Reitman composes a shot of Juno walking through the hallway at school. Each time Juno is the only one moving in the opposite direction of the flow of people. The first time is early on, before anyone knows Juno is pregnant. In this shot they all ignore her. The next time we see this image, every student moves away from her as she is now pregnant and showing. It's as if she is parting the Red Sea, and the camera is positioned behind her. This evocative shot shows that Juno goes against the grain, all the more so now because she is pregnant. The image perfectly captures the harsh judgement that she faces.
