Anyone seen "The Kids Are All Right"?

Couldn't find anything. Not as original as High Art, but Lisa Cholodenko gets Annette Bening's best performance, close to Julianne Moore's best, and finally lets me see why so many guys and girls think Mark Ruffalo is so damn hot. I like how conventional situations get twisted by conversations that go on longer than they need to or by asides (Mark Ruffalo is the master of these) and double-takes.

Big points also for concentrating on the college-aged girl and her boring problems in the last ten minutes too.

looks ok but i have been kind of dreading seeing it. people bitch at each other a lot, about their problems, i take it?

The psychobabble to normal English ratio is low, and the jokes are on the characters who use it.

The trailers make this thing look AWFUL, btw. What lured me was the positive press.

been really skeptical of this, even though I mostly like everyone involved

it just seems like the kind of thing Hollywood likes to congratulate itself for making

it just seems like the kind of thing Hollywood likes to congratulate itself for making

When it's this good, I don't mind the self-congratulation.

Reminded me of a seventies Mazursky film.

i'm really glad to hear that it's being received so positively, such great actors

can I repeat how awful the trailers are?

yeah the trailers really cut to the soapiest aspects of this, don't they

this looks like something i would hate

Well, take it from a guy who doesn't usually gush, especially about lesbian movie couples.

i heard it was kind of racist t/f?

Ruffalo fucks a really hot waitress with a huge 'fro.

didn't notice that, how so?
xp

there's one minor character who says silly racist things for about 10 seconds but that's it.

it was good i liked it. i think ppl who thought it was supposed to be some hilarez comedy were a little disappointed though.

Julianne Moore dismisses a Mexican hired hand with real contempt, but the joke's at her expense.

o yeah, that part about her employee was a drag.

The actor playing the little bro gave a nice performance: he starts surly and introspective, then starts to open up.

Neat to see a Colt movie excerpted in a sure-fire Oscar nominee to be.

Julianne Moore dismisses a Mexican hired hand with real contempt, but the joke's at her expense.

― balls and adieu (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, July 30, 2010 3:14 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

my friend cited that, and a lot of bug-eyed reaction shots from the same guy he thought were gross

He ain't doing Stepin Fetchit; it's more like befuddlement. Look, the scene plays.

i didnt see it so i'm just curious how other people responded

The best part is the Success Story video where Entwistle uses his gold records as skeet.

Reminded me of a seventies Mazursky film.

this is the first thing that has made me actively want to see it (as opposed to waiting till dvd or hbo) and if I don't agree I'm-a be so mad at you.

Think Blume in Love or H&T.

Moore's monologue three-quarters in sucks though.

As basically every review has stated, the characters and their relationships are extremely well-drawn. Some annoying soundtrack choices. Not racist.

i liked this quite a lot.

i did too but i got into a stupid fight w/my wife when i said that annette benning's character was superior & condescending in that way physicians can be. another minor quibble: they were too hard on the guy at the end, i mean sure he was an "interloper" into their family but the kids pulled him in & their family wouldn't have existed w/o his ah input.

Probably the best movie I've seen this year.

Between this and that "Pictures of Lily" movie that was going to get made years ago, how many mid-60s song titles by The Who will become film titles?

I am so shallow that the title of this literally put me off.

I will agree that the title is shitty.

decent but middling. it does seem like they cynically set out to make a 'cross-over art house' film.

thought this was good enjoyed it a ton more than I'd expected to the trailers fairly off-putting quite lightly done a lot of characters and situations reflecting aspects of others I really like ruffalo and he was good moore I often like and she was good kind of indifferent about bening and she was good never seen the daughter before and she was really good thought it moved along swiftly and introduced everyone efficiently and neatly and with enough ambiguity throughout and the reality and impact of the affair postponed in a way that kind of made it seem mostly silly and inconsequential at first quite good and actually quite subtly-played soundtrack in terms of songs despite there being a lot of them and even tho it starts with a vampire w/e actually the opening made me think maybe it was going to be a bit rubbish after all but it quite quickly got good liked ruffalo and the waitress with win by david bowie in the b/g and them singing all I want at the dinner table just before things turned seriouser wasn't even cringy and only a couple of v minor eye-rolly lines v pleasantly surprised

did you take a breath?

yes

this was good. great performances.

Agreed. Annette Bening's best, I think.

(which I said above, I just noticed; but, fine, her perf looms larger now)

liked the daughter's performance the most she managed some v affecting naturalistic emotion think I remember her face twitching at one point and it kind of got me a bit reminds me a little of when carey mulligan who I disliked just because she was in an education although I didn't see that or anything else she's been in was on the steps with gordon gekko and pulling kind of an ugly face trying to resist crying

Btw, daughter's friend = David Mamet's daughter = Joyce on Mad Men.

yeah that was funny didn't know she was mamet tho!

A digestible situation dramedy. The extreme praise totally baffles me.

I was very glad they didn't need to explain why the boy was named Laser. LA lesbian moms, nuff said.

It's essentially a traditional family drama WITH A TWIST so everyone laps it up.

Porn conversation was great though.

I'm a sucker for well-acted and -written family dramas.

Watched it again and it still passed the misty-eye litmus test. Def in Bening's corner this year (for a change).

What, she's done movies lately? was it her in that Augusten Burroughs flop a couple years back?

...in which she was terrible. I've always been a fan. David Thomson and I agree for once

she was nominated for a Tony in Tina Howe's Coastal Disturbances

I saw her in this (opp Tim Daly), she was very good.

Never seen The Siege or In Dreams.

oh, she was the femme in Open Range! surprisingly good Costner oater.

It's been defended as a minor classic in a couple places over the years. The only scenes I remember are Bening's in the house, actually.

and Diego Luna

Just been to see this, enjoyed it greatly. Thought Moore had it over Bening on points, but both great.

I was very glad they didn't need to explain why the boy was named Laser. LA lesbian moms, nuff said.

You'll have to explain it me, not being a LA lesbian mom. Laser = lezza? Surely not?!

no, just too much tofu and pot.

I'm thinkin about renting this on my iPhone for the plane ride. how much nudity is in it? i don't want to be hiding the fuckin thing for the whole ride

hardly any iirc

i am both happy and sad at this news

lots of Julianne Moore leg hair though

this was lots better than i thought it'd be, i basically agree w/ everything alfred said itt

also that chick from antm is not a v good actress, but stupid hot

we should have a poll over which of these two posts is stupider

A digestible situation dramedy. The extreme praise totally baffles me.

I was very glad they didn't need to explain why the boy was named Laser. LA lesbian moms, nuff said.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, November 25, 2010 10:55 AM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You'll have to explain it me, not being a LA lesbian mom. Laser = lezza? Surely not?!

― specifically, the word talking (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, November 25, 2010 6:37 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

anyway this movie was mad good. Currently at the bottom rung of my Top 5, but I still have to see Inception, True Grit and Mother

you haven't seen Inception yet?

not yet, no

mother is not '10, dont think

wasnt that like 1996

lol albert brooks

Debbie Reynolds is a lock for best actress.

anyway this movie was mad good

isn't this dangerously close to the "indie twee horseshit" you rail against???

didnt seem especially twee 2 me. closer to made-for-tv-movie imo

fair enough

there was def some vampy weekend and deerhoofs in the sdtk tho

pretty good!

HBO is developing a TV show. I hope it doesn't get made.

otm

ew that sounds like an awful idea

c'mon guys, it was a sitcom to start. You know, with that veneer of Importance that the current classic era of TV would demand.

lol morbs doesn't like things

it's good, everyone's good in it. felt in many ways like a more believable, more engaging rehash of laurel canyon. alf otm about dead on arrival 'marriage is hard' monologue, though moore and benning do their damndest to sell the scene

funniest scene was the nogoodnik teen friend attempting to urinate on a stray dog. i would've laughed until i died if he actually did it

haha

The son is soooo cute.

Just watched this -- not-bad premise, not-bad script, but I thought the performances were pretty awful!

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnj1jmGol21qayvng.gif

the two kids are exemplary. w/mia i think that's kinda self evident - she's just so expressive, internal made external - but w/the boy it's that awesome achievement of conveying that blunt, awkward, inexpressiveness of teenage boys.

Soto otm, Hutcherson is a babe and this movie is nothing without Bening's weary edges and Moore's pared-down Annie Hall-isms (to me this is the trickiest and least valued role in the whole thing, but she comes off as the most human) and Ruffalo's Ruffaloness. The writing itself gets way too pat too often, but as a Los Angeleno I appreciate how well-sketched it is, and Bening's line about heirloom tomatoes is maybe the best thing.

Wasikowska's face is really great in that one party scene, and I like how Hutcherson portrays his sudden disillusionment w/ the men in this movie, from being stoked to meet bio-dad to feeling weirded out by Ruffalo, and his want of male bonding like that btwn the awful friend and his dad that becomes disgust when he realizes his friend is a dick.

When I rewatched it the scene that struck me most was the one in which Bening tries hard -- grindingly, grudgingly hard -- to get on with Ruffalo. We see her emphatic politeness, the too-pat-by-half alignments (Oh my god! You love Joni Mitchell TOO?!?), the guzzling of wine. It reminds me of how American Beauty treated similar moments as satire (at which Bening excels) but here they're not intended to show her up as a fake; she's a late middle aged woman terrified that she might lose the quiet life she's built. It's quite poignant.

Had this on the shelf for a long time, finally watched it. Probably enjoyed it as much as I can enjoy something soap opera-ish (or close, anyway--Broadcast News is soap opera-ish). Moore's really good. Having seen Laurel Canyon a few months ago, which took what I thought was a real "Whoah" detour, I figured Ruffalo was going to zero in on the daughter. Really liked the score as they drove the daughter to college. Like someone else above, I thought the film was too hard on Ruffalo at the end.

First line of Lisa Cholodenko's Wikipedia bio: "Lisa Cholodenko (born June 5, 1964) is a dogmatic American film and television writer/director, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."

Huh? Does that have something to do with Lars von Trier? "Dogmatic" is not a neutral term.

And, "She also has two gay dogs, Rocket and Magnus."

I noticed that too.

Not that it really affects my overall view of the film, but the more I thought about it, it's really too hard on Ruffalo at the end. He's not an interloper--the kids sought him out, and at every turn he tried to do the right thing. (Even his one big lapse of judgement was spontaneous and heartfelt.) This seems so obvious to me, I don't even think Cholodenko means for him to be the villain. There isn't one, which is good.

how I remember ruff after moore left after he kissed her was kind of laughing to himself in the kitchen like that was funny and inconsequential and a bit naughty and it means nothing to me but an ego-boosting momentary reciprocation and now I'll get back to the rest of my day e.g. not something heartfelt at all but then I saw this a while ago

He is laughing after Moore leaves the first time, but I took it that he was laughing at the sheer improbability of what happened--in terms of Moore's sexuality, but also because of the nature of his connection to Moore. The second time they're both laughing, I think for the same reasons. He really falls for her, though, to the point that he waves away a gorgeous woman half Moore's age. And later, when Moore phone's him after she's found out, he keeps saying "Let's do this." (Based on having seen Laurel Canyon, I found "this" pleasingly ambiguous--was he suggesting some kind of open three-way marriage? I'm not even sure he knew what he meant.)

The only fault I find with him is his obvious failure to think through the calamitous effect his actions will have, especially on the two kids. But it seemed like a very human failure.

I dunno. I remember feeling pretty happy they kicked him to the curb, but it was a cake-and-eat-it-too thing. They rejected him even after he "helped" the family exorcise their demons.

People will see that differently, and I think that's to the film's credit.