The Kids Are All Right Directed by: Lisa Cholodenko Starring: Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo Rating: R Release Date: July 7, 2010
TRAILER SCORE: 10/10
MY THOUGHTS: Every so often, a movie comes along that just grabs you. That’s The Kids Are All Right for me. I’ve always been a fan of Julianne Moore (for fans of Moore, definitely check out A Single Man) so this kind of role, which garnered plenty of attention at film festivals, seems like a nice break from stinkers like Chloe. But all the credit doesn’t belong to Moore. Mark Ruffalo as the slacker sperm donor looks simultaneously hilarious and slightly heartbreaking. Really, it’s not fair for me to point out one cast member, because they all look amazing from this trailer. I think the thing that has me most excited is the subject matter. I took a class in queer cinema so I’ve had to sit through a lot of these melodramatic and cliché coming out stories, but this one looks different. As far as I can tell, no one’s coming out, the lesbians aren’t vindictive man-haters, and it doesn’t look like anyone’s going to kill themselves which always seem to be the ways to end gay-themed movies. This is an honest-to-God portrait of a “modern family”. There’s n stigmatization of their sexuality and instead, it focuses on the story past the initial “shock value”. Sure it has some clichés (the lesbian falling for the man? Did we learn nothing from Gigli?!?) but at its heart, it looks like an enjoyable romp in the vein of the family dramedy.