Jason Reitman's Juno is the latest in a series of "indie" films whose independence I sincerely doubt. Fox Searchlight, supposedly 20th Century Fox's distribution wing for independent films, seems to have actually put money into the production of the film. It is a distinction which may seem trivial, but then again there's not much in the world of movie criticism which doesn't seem trivial under a closer inspection.

It is also a distinction which ends up not affecting the quality of the film. Last year's "indie" darling, Little Miss Sunshine, was charming enough but left me cold. I was going into Juno expecting the same kind of thing: a funny but unremarkable, dry comedy about family life in the '00s. I was surprised to find a film that, if not one of incredible intellectual or emotional depth, was at least among the most entertaining and amusing I've seen in a while. 

Juno is centered around a character of the same name, a 16 year-old outcast Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) whose decision to sleep with her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) has rendered her undeniably pregnant. The film opens as Juno is "drinking her weight" in Sunny Delight in order to take a third pregnancy test and confirm what the other two have told her.

The film becomes engaging right away, with Juno's exchange with the clerk (Rainn Wilson) of the  convenience store where Juno buys and takes the pregnancy test. They trade barbs as Juno tries hopelessly to prove she is not pregnant. When Juno starts shaking the test she has taken, the clerk observes in slightly over-written dialogue that "that ain't no Etch-A-Sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, Homeskillet."

Their fast-paced, witty exchange is typical of the film, and even threatens to be a weakness -- real life just isn't that witty or that perfectly constructed. Saving the film from its own tendencies, though, is Ellen Page, whose omnipresence denies Michael Cera the screen time I had hoped for him but gives us something even better in exchange. Page, whom I vaguely remember from her role as (my second-favorite X-Men character) Kitty Pryde in X-Men 3 -- a film I detested -- is truly a great actress. To carry a film like Juno requires a lot from her, and she is perfect all the way through.

The story is told completely from Juno's perspective; Ellen Page is not only in every scene, but very nearly every shot of the film. She also provides a voice-over narration which involves us the world of Juno MacGuff and determines what we see. Juno's thoughts and actions, for the most part, control what is onscreen, giving the film an enjoyably subjective slant on reality. 

Juno decides not to have an abortion, ostensibly not because of moral qualms, but because the clinic "smells like a dentist's office"  and the people inside weird her out. Instead, she chooses to give the child up for adoption, choosing to give the child a couple who placed an ad in the Penny Saver (next to the exotic birds ads), Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). On the way out of the clinic, Juno is thanked on behalf of God by the clinic's lone protestor and the film's obligatory Asian stereotype, Su-Chin (Valerie Tian), who is standing outside chanting "Babies want to be borned!"

Juno's confession to her father and stepmother that she is pregnant is just one instance of the film's refreshing reluctance to revisit much-trodden dramatic and comedic ground. Their reaction is at once not typical but believable, avoiding easy dramatic material. The film does this in several other places, and it dares to avoid any moment when Juno realizes that being a mother is a wonderful, beautiful, emotional experience. She is a 16 year-old, fiercely independent girl who never feels like the baby is hers, even after its birth. By the end, Juno's character has been developed without having had to conform; she has come of age without being forced into any false notion of what it means to be a woman and a mother. 

I don't mean to say that the film is the most original film ever made. It does use several devices we've seen before. A few motifs, including the crude illustration and animation and the cut-away snippets of background information, smack of Wes Anderson; the subject matter is somewhat reminiscent of the inferior Saved; and the soundtrack seems to be a deliberate attempt to make a soundtrack attractive to a certain crowd rather than to suit the story well.

It's probably not a good sign that, based on earlier songs, I was wondering when The Moldy Peaches' "Anyone Else But You" would make an appearance, only to be utterly unsurprised when it showed up at the end of the film. If you could travel back in time to 2006 and steal a mix CD from your local baristas, you'd probably have the Juno soundtrack. And it's good, but when the second consecutive Belle & Sebastian song starts, you can tell someone was trying too hard when compiling the soundtrack to this film.

As for the DVD, it offers the crop of Special Features we've come to expect from our movie discs: deleted scenes, bloopers, screen tests, commentary, etc. I'm coming to advocate the position that most DVDs should just skip most of this. The deleted scenes and the commentary are the only bits truly relevant to the film itself, and the funny Gag Reel is pretty rare. Packing DVDs with irrelevant Special Features is largely an excuse to increase the prices of DVDs, though Juno's one-disc, standard special features-only release shouldn't be too much of a strain on your wallet.