It's not every day that one gets to see a film that's charming, sweet, intelligent and also happens to be written by an erstwhile stripper/phone sex operator (who, incidentally, owns a cat named Douchepacker). I had that pleasure at the Toronto Film Festival, however, when I took in Juno, penned with surprising astuteness by first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody (the aforementioned former stripper), directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking), and starring Ellen Page (Hard Candy), Michael Cera (Superbad), Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner.

In the film, 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Page) discovers that she's all knocked up after just one foray into sex with her best bud Paulie Bleeker (Cera), a sweet but clueless orange-Tic-Tac-addicted track star who seems perfectly content to let Juno have an abortion. She doesn't. Instead, she decides to keep the child and let a "perfect" young yuppie couple (Bateman and Garner), who can't have kids of their own, adopt her baby-to-be. The result is a hilarious, endearing and moving picture that explores family and friendship, loyalty and loss, and what it truly means to love someone, all while expertly avoiding turning into a gooey, steaming pile of melodrama.

I sat down with Jason Bateman and Ellen Page to talk about the film, and -- while the full interview won't be posted until the December release date nears -- I thought I'd give you a small yet delicious (some might say orange-Tic-Tac-like) taste of what I learned ...

• Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers topped the indie box office take this weekend, with Wong Kar Wai's 2046 coming in a very respectable second. Broken Flowers took in over $780K its opening weekend - not a bad take, considering that Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, only took in $3 mil total. Looks like long-time indie fave Jarmusch might be on his way to his biggest commercial success to date.
• Beverly Kills, a film about an aging drag queen out for revenge (a screen shot from the film is at right), which has been making the festival circuit, has scored distribution from TLA Releasing. The film won the best men's feature award at the Fort Worth Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. TLA will release the film in mid-2006.
• The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, a documentary about the murder of a black man in Mississippi in 1955, has been acquired by ThinkFilm US. The two men tried in the case were acquitted by an all-white jury. The film's New York premiere will take place at the United Nations through the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, with attendees including Mos Def and Al Sharpton.
• Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off September 8, has announced the addition of 29 international documentaries to the festival lineup, including the world premieres of Sydney Pollack's Sketches of Frank Gehry, Lian Lunson's Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man, and The Heart of the Game, a film about a girl's basketball team which finds success under a maverick coach.

• Gay Sex in the '70s, a documentary about the "unbridled passion and exploration" of the gay sex movement in the 12-year-period from 1969 to the first reported case of AIDS in 1981, has secured distribution in theaters, on home video/DVD and cable television. The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and has been featured at several LGBT festivals this year.
• Winter Soldier, a film made by a collective of filmmakers, documenting the testimony of more than 125 vets - including John Kerry - will be the premiere film for Dennis Doros and Amy Heller's new distribution company, Milliarium Film. The new distribution company, which plans to distribute at least two films a year, will focus on films with "strong political and social content. Doros and Heller also helm Milestone Film and Video, which will continue operations.