The Indie Spirit Award nominations have been announced, and while it's good to see a truly independent, art house movie like I'm Not There lead the pack with 5 nominations (Feature, Director, Supporting Male, Supporting Female and the Robert Altman Award), I'm even happier that Juno received the second most nominations, with 4 for Feature, Director, First Screenplay and Female Lead.

Juno, named for its quirky, intelligent, wholly unique lead character, opens limited next week, and should platform to more theaters as the word and good reviews spread. The film was already a big hit with audiences at this year's Telluride and Toronto film festivals, and could become another Superbad-esque sleeper surprise. It co-stars Superbad's Michael Cera, who's being touted on awards watch sites as a possible candidate for Best Supporting Actor accolades.

The movie itself is even better and smarter than Knocked Up and Superbad, which were great, funny, raunchy and perceptive studio fare from current Hollywood wunderkind filmmaker Judd Apatow.


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Juno's story about a pregnant teen touches on both of those stories' themes, but it's a definite original that's frank about teen sex, isn’t condescending towards any of its characters, and allows audiences to be entertained without insulting their intelligence.

Director Jason Reitman, whose film debut Thank You for Smoking was equally amusing and acerbic, is on a roll here. He's aided by the distinctive dialogue and screenplay of ex-stripper / popular blogger Diablo Cody, and primarily, the performance of Ellen Page in the central role.

Just as Amy Adams is currently breaking out with a star-is-born performance in Enchanted, so is Ellen Page set to turn heads as Juno's impending teen mommy. She's ironic, she's witty, she's unpredictable, and most importantly, she's real. It's a little strange at first to hear her (and other characters) delivering the non-stop witticisms of Cody's dialogue, but a few minutes into it, you really believe Juno talks like this.

There's nary a wrong turn in her performance and the movie. Its budget is small, but its story, direction and the actors are all accessible to general audiences. All of the cast, from Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as prospective adoptive parents, to Cera as the oft befuddled teen papa, to J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney as Juno's caring (and also somewhat befuddled) parents, round out a perfect ensemble.

This is a good time that will be relatable to anyone over the age of 15. It's an indie in spirit, but little Juno has even bigger aspirations.

More on Juno

Watch the Trailer