Knocked Up: A bundle of joy

During the past decade, writer-director Judd Apatow has assembled a sort of repertory company of his own actors, who reappear in projects such as the TV shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared and the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Now, Seth Rogen, who played wise-cracking supporting players in Freaks and Virgin, steps into the lead role in Apatow's latest film, Knocked Up -- which is, by the way, the funniest movie I've seen in a long time.

Rogen plays Ben, a guy in his early 20s living with his buddies whose main interests are smoking a lot of weed and launching a Web site about movie nude scenes. At a club, he meets Alison (Katherine Heigl of Grey's Anatomy), and despite his social haplessness beyond his circle of stoner dudes, they end up in a one-night stand and, wouldn't you know it, a few weeks later the stick turns pink. Unlike in a lot of films, in Knocked Up everyone pretty much Does the Right Thing -- Alison tells Ben about the baby and lets him be a part of the pregnancy; Ben agrees ("I'm on board") and stays by Alison side, at least most of the time. In other words, Ben got lucky -- but so did Alison in that Ben actually turns out to be a decent guy.

Along the way, there are laughs -- a lot of them. Many of the jokes are of the gross-out variety, and and a lot of the resulting laughs are the I-can't-believe-I'm-laughing-at-this kind. But the film and its characters are so irresistibly likable that you can't help yourself. They may be childish, but their hearts are in the right place. A lot of the best lines belong to the supporting cast -- Jason Segel, Martin Starr, Jay Baruchel and Jonah Hill as Ben's friends; Leslie Mann (Apatow's wife, who, one suspects, had a lot to do with this being more than just a guy movie) as Alison's sister, Debbie; and the pitch-perfect Paul Rudd as Debbie's husband, Pete. Apatow alumni James Franco (Freaks) and Steve Carell (Virgin) have cameos as themselves.

If the film has a weakness, it's Alison, although this is no fault of Heigl's. Alison is essentially the film's straight man, and we never really gain much insight into why she makes the choices she does. And if she has any friends other than her sister, we never meet them.

But this is a comedy, after all, and as a comedy it's a smashing success. Comedies don't do so well at the Oscars, but last year Little Miss Sunshine snagged best original screenplay. Knocked Up -- written as well as directed by Apatow -- just might crash the party this year.

Waitress: A colorful slice of life

For a few months after the Oscars, there just wasn't much out there at the ol' cineplex. That changed when Waitress came along. Initially released just in New York and L.A., it got good buzz and quickly got a national release later in May. It's got a great cast: Keri Russell, who we liked in the late '90s TV series "Felicity"; Nathan Fillion ("Firefly"); Jeremy Sisto ("Six Feet Under"); and Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm").

The premise isn't a shockingly original one. Russell plays Jenna, a waitress at a Southern diner married to an abusive nightmare of a husband (Sisto). She finds out she's pregnant -- news that she receives with horror because it means she's tied to her husband forever. In desperation, she launches into an affair with the town's hunky OB/GYN, Dr. Pomatter (Fillion, whose wide-eyed earnestness successfully defuses the inherent ick factor here).

What elevates the film beyond Lifetime chick-flick status are the sharp script and stylized (I'm trying not to say "quirky") direction of Adrienne Shelly, who also appears in the film as one of Jenna's fellow waitresses. Jenna's specialty is pies, and each pie she makes (which we see in sped-up video as if through Jenna's imagination) sheds light on her emotional state (I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie). There's also an irresistible sequence where Russell walks through her day in a starry-eyed, lovestruck reverie, set to the tune of "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake. It's a great scene, and one that makes subversive use of Russell's cutie-pie image. Andy Griffith also appears in a small but important role.

The end of the film has some added emotional resonance because of the knowledge that Shelly, in real life, was murdered in New York City shortly after completing the film. It leaves you wondering what might have been, but it also leaves you grateful that we have this heartfelt diamond in the rough to remember her by.