We did it. We went to see that LA movie about the lesbian couple whose late teen children form a relationship with their sperm donor dad and then he ends up having sex with Julianne Moore (as people do) and then everyone learns a little bit of something, the whole time speaking leftover touch-feely verbiage from the early 1990’s with Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson hauling out quirky, brilliant performances under the watchful, tasteful eye of director Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids are All Right.
It is worth seeing if you are in the mood for something kind of smart and adult, a little bit wry, and sexy but not really sexy at all.
Fun thing, too, my friend owns the hunk of an old brick building that stands in as Mark Ruffalo’s restaurant where I have spent many a fun party, so I felt like I was spending time with old friends. Plus it is lovely LA, the part of the U.S. that has a Mediterranean joy to it. Angst against it looks lovely.
The story was something you could see hurling at you like an Impala across a Kansas prairie. And the dialogue was sort of smug, sort of send-up and not particularly satisfying.
But the direction and acting were way up there. You do not get to see this kind of thing almost ever. I also loved Ms. Cholodenko’s 1998 High Art.
2 comments:
Yeah, well I won't be seeing this one...
Don! I don't want to see this movie. It annoys me already that the lady does a dude in it! With that said I can't really form a full opinion. But my best friend Shannon sure did and I would like to share it on here. I think you'll enjoy her rant.
"I don’t know if y’all really want to hear me expand…but if you do, get ready: You’re right, Mom, I was bothered by the Mark Ruffalo-Julianne Moore thing. But it wasn’t just the fact that they showed some gay girl having straight sex (I gue...ss that happens); it was the movie’s total celebration of the power (omnipotence!) of the male organ, in tandem with its total denial of lesbian sexuality, that set me going like a fat gold watch. That this lesbian couple watches gay male porn is neat and funny and great, but when the film later shows Julianne Moore (who is not the gay porn enthusiast, so forget trying to think of the former as a character nuance), in clip after clip (after clip!), getting her acrobatic rocks off with this guy, it begins to feel like you’re watching a very well done gaytostraight.com PSA, designed for women who wear comfortable shoes – despite the movie’s outcome. And when I say “women who wear comfortable shoes,” I am basically adopting the film’s definition of what makes a lesbian, as there is absolutely no representation of shared female sexuality in the film. None! Blech! When I want to see movies about women who just hang out together and raise children, I’ll watch “Sister Act II,” or, if I really want to be titillated, “The Children’s Hour.” I expected something different – better -- from, as you pointed out, Kristen, the director of “High Art.”
On a totally different note, I also think that its representations of bourgeois racism aren’t well done enough to come across as satire, so they just feel crass. Between the phallocentrism and the racism, I was basically sweating with anger. Phshew!"
Shannon Brennon you go girl!
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