Ellen Page and Michael Cera in Juno (Fox Searchlight)

Juno (opening December 14 throughout San Diego) arrives in theaters like a breath of much-needed fresh air amidst the stale, bigger budgeted, and more pretentious awards contenders. Written by a former pole dancer, directed by a man who had his diapers changed on the set of Animal House and concerning an unwanted teen pregnancy, Juno doesn't boast an immediately impressive pedigree. But Juno delivers. Big time! It's one of the years best-written, best-acted and most thoroughly enjoyable films.

Okay I may have exaggerated when I said that director Jason Reitman had his diapers changed on the set of Animal House. But he was on that set when he was a mere eleven days old (dad Ivan Reitman was the producer), so it's possible. And writer Diablo Cody did get bored with her job at an ad agency and tried her hand as a stripper and pole dancer. She recounted those experiences in the book Candy Girl and also began to write about the sex industry on her blog The Pussy Ranch. According to Cody: I have to say that my trajectory was extremely unusual. Heck yeah! And that's probably why she has such a fresh voice. Now Cody and Reitman have teamed up for Juno, a comedy about a pregnant teen and the yuppie couple that wants to adopt her baby.

Who could have predicted that 2007 would turn out to be the year of the baby? Waitress, Knocked Up and now Juno, all deal with women who decide to see their unwanted pregnancies to full term. Hollywood may get bashed for its perceived liberal views on abortion, yet all three films--although allowing the women to consider abortion as an option--decide to have their characters see their pregnancies through. But in each case it's about personal choice rather than the abortion issue.

Frank Langella in Starting Out in the Evening (Roadside Attractions)

Frank Langella is an actor who has never really pursued film stardom. He's done some fine film work and an occasional starring role like Dracula (1979) but for the most part he has been more interested in the stage. Most recently scoring well as Nixon in Peter Morgan's play Frost/Nixon (which is scheduled to be brought to the screen). So it's a pleasant surprise to find him at the center of a new independent film Starting Out in the Evening (opening December 14 at Landmark's La Jolla Village Cinemas).

Langella plays Leonard Schiller, an aging novelist living quietly, almost reclusively in New York City. As a young author he deliver a pair of apparently acclaimed novels. His later works, however, seem to have stirred less interest. And for the past decade or so he has been laboring over a new novel. His daughter Ariel (the ever amazing Lili Taylor) checks in on him regularly and providing companionship. She's about to turn forty and hears her biological clock ticking loudly.

Will Smith in I am Legend (Warner Brothers)

Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I am Legend has already inspired two prominent movies, The Last Man on Earth (1964) with Vincent Price, and The Omega Man (1971) with Charleton Heston. It's also influenced others including Night of the Living Dead and more recently 28 Days Later. Now music video director Francis Lawrence brings a mega-budgeted version of I am Legend (opening December 14 throughout San Diego) to the screen with Will Smith as the last man on earth... sort of.

I am Legend opens with a news report in which a doctor (Emma Thompson) discusses her recently found cure for cancer. An amazing breakthrough for science, yet you wonder why she doesn't seem happier. Maybe it's because the cure involves mutating a virus. Cut to three years later. New York City is desolate and overgrown with vegetation. Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith) appears to be the last man on earth. But he's not exactly alone. There are hordes of infected people (in the book they were essentially vampires) who come out at night to hunt. So Neville spends his days foraging for supplies and his nights holed up in his fortress of an apartment. Neville is also working diligently on finding a cure for what this mutated virus is doing. He also won't give up hope for finding other survivors somewhere in the world.