Juno

Ellen Page is Juno, a 16-year old who gets pregnant by her boyfriend Paul, played by Michael Cera. Juno isn't ready to be a mom so she's going to give up her child for adoption by a couple played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. The movie is about Juno's relationship with Paul, with her dad & stepmom, and with the adoptive couple. In general, this movie works pretty well. I think I liked it more the first time I saw it but it's still pretty good on a second watch. It feels fairly authentic though Juno's dialogue is often really rude and is disaffected youth to the extreme and ends up being grating and annoying frequently. There are a lot of funny moments and the cast is terrific. Page and Cera were basically made for their roles and the supporting folks (Garner, Bateman, JK Simmons, and Allison Janney and a great cameo from Rainn Wilson) are all fantastic. Anyway, this one is pretty good, right at the Tabedoza line - 7/10.

Draft Day

Kevin Costner is the GM of the Cleveland Browns and it's the first day of the NFL draft. Costner is under pressure from his owner to "make a splash". He's under pressure from his coach to "get him players". Jennifer Garner is Ali, the Browns' salary cap guru and also Costner's girlfriend. This movie is something of a mess. The storyline with the Browns and Seahawks throwing around the #1 overall pick is decent but not realistic - typical overdone Hollywood sports movie stuff. The problem comes with the "other" stuff. You've got Garner - a football fanatic and Browns employee - deciding that the day of the NFL draft is the perfect time to inform her GM boyfriend she's pregnant - and then she's miffed that he doesn't respond properly. You've got Costner's mom coming to his office in the middle of the day - dragging along his ex-wife, to boot - to ask him to participate in a memorial for his dad right then. Her husband was a lifelong NFL coach and she knew it was draft day. Both of these things, with the women doing stuff that makes absolutely no sense, drag the movie down big-time. Add in the fact that Costner gets a brand-new intern that day who then claims his "whole life" is on a company laptop that gets destroyed (say what? he's been there less than a day). Topping it all off is that Costner isn't that busy. It's the biggest day of the year and he's not BUSY. Phones in the office aren't ringing. People aren't hustling around. And so on. And yet, even with all that, the movie ends up being pretty entertaining. It's got football, Jennifer Garner, and some decent work from Costner. That's OK for a Sunday afternoon. My wife, presumably the target audience for all the forced "drama" stuff that's added in, came out of the movie wishing for more football in the movie. I agree. Entertaining but not great. 5/10.

Dallas Buyers Club

In a word? Overrated. Matthew McConaughey plays a man infected with HIV/AIDS who puts together a group to import drugs from outside the country in order to treat themselves. Based on a true story. I'm impressed with McConaughey's dedication in losing all a ton of weight for his role but wasn't impressed with his actual acting. Not bad but not great. The movie itself was pretty "eh". Interesting story but not great. And long. Really, really, really, really long. My wife liked it more than I but even she said it felt really long. REALLY long. So, uh, yeah - 6/10.