Juno is not a city in Alaska?

It never ceases to amaze me that filmmakers are able to put a fresh spin on an old concept. Take the old we-had-sex-and-SURPRISE!-I’m-pregnant genre. We’ve seen different takes on this since the old Degrassi days, but when you place the concept in the capable hands of Jason Reitman (son of Ivan) as director, with Diablo Cody manning the screenplay, you’ll find the movie is no demon.

With this new film that defines the word offbeat, Fox Searchlight has shown a talent for quirky dysfunctional family movies (see “Little Miss Sunshine.”) And like Little Miss Sunshine before it, “Juno,” was swept off its feet by a charming young woman. Instead of Abigail Breslin, however, we have quirky Ellen Page, rocking out as someone unexpectedly expecting with the ever-deadpan Michael Cera as her unwitting baby-daddy. Set in an unnamed fictional town (and filmed in British Columbia), the setting lends a graying sadness, buoyed by the soft music of composer Matt Messina.

But to talk about anything in this movie without first mentioning the dialogue, which bubbles and fizzes from character to character, would be a sin. And the characters are the fresh-yet-familiar variety we love in our movies: people we relate to; people we recognize, but never people who bore us, as does Bob in accounting.

I don’t want to say much else about this film other than to say: 1) go see this film; 2) once you get used to it, you will love the quirky dialogue; 3) no one could have delivered the dialogue with better timing and efficacy than soon-to-be-nominated-for-an-oscar Ellen Page (also a Canadian!); and 4) go see this film.