Courtesy of Touchstone Pictures

Though we like writer-director Peter Hedges — he wrote About a Boy, No. 6 on our list of the best single-artist soundtracks! — we did not have high hopes for Dan in Real Life, Hedges's new comedy starring Steve Carrell. The trailer just seemed kind of awful. Happily, though, today's reviews have been mostly positive, with the movie currently sporting a Metacritic score of 65. The true measure of the film's genius, though, has been its successful utilization of comedian Dane Cook in a supporting role as Carrell's brother. Critics hate Cook — Good Luck Chuck sported a Metascore of 19, including lines like "Can we finally just admit that Dane Cook isn't funny?" — so it's fun to watch them grit their teeth and grudgingly admit that in Dan in Real Life, Cook does a pretty good job. Some of the blurbs Cook might want to cut and paste into his resume:

"Astonishingly tolerable!" —A.O. Scott, New York Times