Over the weekend, I re-watched two movies I had liked the first time around.
Juno was still good; I developed even greater appreciation for the secondary performances. Ellen Page is amazing, of course. But Allison Janney, R.K. Simmons and Michael Cera are all great, too. And you know whose performance I found the most touching? Jennifer Garner's! Who knew??
Michael Clayton was even better the second time -- I picked up on a couple of details I'd missed the first time. One thing I really like about that movie is that it's just the right amount of complexity. That is, it's tough enough to keep up with that it exercises your brain (well, mine anyway) but it's never so complex that you can't actually get it. It's one of those movies that unfolds gradually and makes more sense as it goes along, so seeing it a second time, knowing what's to come, was helpful. And there's a key scene involving horses that seemed like kind of a poetic throwaway the first time I saw it. Now I realized that it's actually quite a nice metaphor for the turning point in Michael Clayton's understanding of the situation.
Then we rented August Rush. My 16-year-old niece had wanted to see it, and she seemed to like it pretty well, so it wasn't a total waste of time and money. We were roaming around the video store trying to decide what to get when a lady who worked there just spontaneously burst out with a recommendation of August Rush, saying it's one of her favorite movies of all time. Put it this way: I wouldn't be taking any more recommendations from her. In fact, I'd probably try to find out her least favorite movies of all time, and then rent those.