Q I have been following the debate about the clever dialogue in "Juno" and there are two things I don't understand: (1) Why do people continue to expect every film they see to be a flawless reflection of reality when no film, not even a documentary, could ever accomplish such a feat? Isn't one of the pleasures of going to the movies is seeing things we don't usually see in the real world? (2) Why aren't more people refreshed that a film has gone against the grain by creating characters more intelligent than real people, as opposed to the Hollywood norm of creating characters who are considerably dumber and more shallow than real people?
Adam Breckenridge, Edmond, Okla.

A. In other words, to quote Professor Higgins, why can't people be more like us? There's a sort of Mediocrity Enforcement Squad that slaps down anything with the effrontery to be different. Just last week, Jim DeRogatis, the usually infallible pop music critic of the Sun-Times, strayed from his beat to attack "Juno," which he "hated, hated, hated" (a melodious phrase) because, among other reasons, it had the wrong music! He wrote:

"Here is a 29-year-old screenwriter (Cody) and a 30-year-old director (Reitman) brainstorming with a nearly 21-year-old actress (Page) and deciding that the intentionally primitive and infantile sounds recorded by a 35-year-old musician (Kimya Dawson) epitomize 'the music that the kids today really listen to.' This sort of contrivance hardly smacks of the honesty and humor the filmmakers brag about, and which many critics have hailed."

Ebert again. DeRogatis is right. The movie should have been written, directed and scored by 16-year-olds. Someone easily could have found the funding for them. But to call Kimya Dawson "primitive and infantile," when he complains that the movie uses the wrong track from Sonic Youth (that most mature of bands) seems like indigestion. True, Kimya Dawson is 35. Sonic Youth's average age is 50.

Jim's real problem is that Juno doesn't like the same music he likes. I know how he feels. If only these damn kids would listen to the critics, they'd like what we like. His other problem is that real teens don't talk like Juno. Real 16-year-old rock critics don't talk like the Patrick Fugit character in "Almost Famous," either. In short: Movie characters don't talk like real people. If they did, they'd drive us nuts.