Juno

This feel-good comedy about a pregnant teenager was the success story of 2007, a low-budget indie with an offbeat sensibility that was embraced by a youth audience and propelled into a mainstream hit. Ellen Page is impetuous and funny as the smart-mouthed high school goofball who finds herself pregnant after the experimental seduction of her hopelessly smitten best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), then finds an adoptive yuppie couple for her baby in the Penny Saver: tightly wound professional Jennifer Garner and easygoing musician Jason Bateman. J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney co-star as her sardonic but unconditionally supportive pop and stepmom, potential caricatures that the performers fill with warmth and protectiveness behind resigned exasperation, and Olivia Thirlby is a discovery as Juno's spirited best friend. The Oscar-winning screenplay by Diablo Cody ricochets with askew dialogue but under the cleverness is a very human story of growing up, and Page is engaging, energetic and palpably vulnerable under her self-possessed eccentricity. It's a bundle of joy with heart, charm, intelligence and wit to spare.

The commentary by director Jason Reitman and Cody is more colorful than explanatory, offering behind-the-scenes stories and playful observations while lobbing jokes back and forth. These guys are definitely in sync and they pair up again for the optional commentary on the 11 deleted scenes. "I always cut a lot of things out. Not because they're bad, but more because I really believe in tonal continuity," Reitman explains. "I like DVDs that show deleted scenes and I like to see how films come together." Among the deleted highlights: Juno singing about being pregnant at an open-mic night, and an alternate cut of a key third-act sequence. Also features a five-minute gag reel, a gag take with Rainn Wilson, a "Crew Jam" music video with cast and crew goofing for the camera, and 22 minutes of screen tests with Page, Cera, Thirlby and Simmons (all shot against a black backdrop). You can see their characters and performances being formed right there. The two-disc special edition also includes the breezy 13-minute "Honest to Blog! Creating Juno" (a fairly conventional promotional featurette centered by the lively give and take between Reitman and Cody) and short featurettes on the three young leads, the director and the screenwriter, plus a digital copy feature. Also available in Blu-ray format.