The Kids Are All Right- Page 2

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 2:09pm

And of course nothing could have been a more calculated Oscar-grab than that Amelia movie of Swank's and that didn't work out. I actually have a hard time picking a favorite between Benning and Moore.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 2:09pm

MILLION DOLLAR BABY was a true story?

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 3:22pm

No.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 3:24pm

I didn't think so. I don't think either of these actresses has a shot at an Oscar this year what with SALT coming out next week.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 3:52pm

The love of my life has an irrational hate for Angelina, so I won't be seeing SALT for a while.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 3:56pm

I have an irrational love for her. When I think about her, I know how straight men feel when looking at a Maxim magazine. It's odd.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 4:00pm

Oh, me too. That's one of the reasons she hates her so much.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 4:11pm

Wow. I don't know why I've always thought it was a true story. I probably misread it somewhere and it just stuck. My mistake!

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 11:48am

Saw it this weekend. Adored it.

I think, in the end, it's Moore's movie. She gives such an idiosyncratic, messy and all-around marvelous performance (the flat speech patterns...the slumped physicality...just wondrous). I feel like I haven't seen her be really great in a long time, and this just re-established my faith in her work.

I almost felt that Benning was more of a supporting character. She's the rock...the one that doesn't really change. Though, I actually didn't really get the brilliance of her performance till I saw an interview with Lisa Cholodenko. The resemblence was uncanny...just genius.

Ruffalo plays that man-boy so very well (though I don't know if he was better here than he was in YOU CAN COUNT ON ME). Add to that seeing him in the buff...good God damn.

The kids were fantastic. The whole thing captured something very real about LA. It was beautifully shot, capturing the constantly shimmering summer sun (reminding me of my summer in LA...after the June gloom, that is). And (spoiler) the line about Russian literature during the emotional climax of the movie nearly made me fall out of my seat. It's that kind of attention to detail, finding the absolute absurd mess in life's tougher moments, that really rang true for me. Just an all-around fantastic work.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 11:58am

That was a great, great line in a really terrific speech. I feel like the movie must have released an abundance of endorphins in my brain because I'm still in a good mood and it's Monday morning.

[Q]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 12:03pm

Just have to throw out Annette's line from POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE:

"I'm only in it for the endolphins."

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 12:21pm

The son is the boy from Little Manhattan. I just loved that movie.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 12:27pm

And just like great art should, that very peculiar, specific speech resonated with me in a profoundly personal way...actually giving voice to and shifting something inside me to bring me a greater understanding of just where I am in some of the relationships in my life. Endolphins or what have you, I've actually felt lighter and freer since seeing that movie! Just magnificent.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 12:46pm

I arrived 5 minutes late, but the rules of the theater state that once it's begun, there is no entry

That does suck for you, but I really would love to see that policy everywhere.

I tend to run hot and cold with Bening, but I thought she not only gave a great performance, but was pretty fearless in how she was photographed. Several times the camera was so close and you could see each and every line on her face, which was almost disconcerting; not because of how she looked, but because it's rare you see a woman on screen over fifty that looks like a woman over fifty. Or whatever. You know what I mean.

EVERYTHING BELOW IS A SPOILER ALERT, SO FAIR WARNING

At first I was a little thrown by the fact that Mark Ruffalo's character's arc just sort of ends, and not really on a high note, but then I realized, duh, it's not about him, it's about the four of them as a family.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 1:02pm

I turned to Le Petit Jew during one of those extreme Annette close-ups and said, 'Has she had ANY work done???' It was utterly refresheing to see a (very attractive) middle-aged woman actually look middle-aged! I think she's taking a page out of the Streep playbook...soon she'll be the only woman to actually look her age and will therefore get all those parts.

I, actually, loved that last scene with Ruffalo. It was in some ways heartbreaking...but it was also just in how he was dispatched. Which just goes to show how skillful he is as an actor. I've loved him ever since I saw him off-Broadway in THIS IS OUR YOUTH. He sends me reeling.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 3:42pm

Terry Gross had a great interview with Lisa Cholodenko last week in which she addresses her desire to cast a woman who looked "real" and what a challenge that is in contemporary Hollywood. It was a great segment.
Fresh Air

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 4:22pm

I work at a movie theater and when I get the chance, I ask the customers what they think about the movies. Most people have raved about KIDS. Only one, a gay man, thought it was crap, but then he said his favorite movie so far was IRON MAN 2.

Here's what I've heard:
A woman said that Benning played the part so well that she called her, "all of my friends".

Another woman said it was one of the best movie experiences she had in a while - the entire theatre laughed together and everyone was caught up in it.

One slightly butch, loud and opinionated woman said that she was pissed off that the straight sex was more graphic than the lesbian sex.

All the men, mostly gay, enjoyed it. The one man above (the one who liked IRON MAN 2) said his favorite part was the Falcon video.

I still haven't seen it. I was thinking of going today or tomorrow.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 4:50pm

I would've sworn it was Colt.

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 7/20/10 at 11:21am

It may have been, but the man I talked to said it was Falcon.

I've yet to see it for myself.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 10:53am

I hated it. It was such a cop out it wasn't even funny. HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 3:01pm

Big fan of Brokeback Mountain, were you?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 3:22pm

I didn't see what was coppouty. I would have thought it would have been a copout if ***SPOILER ALERT***


there had been a reconciliation with Mark Ruffalo's character.

I did kinda raise my eyebrow when ****SPOILER ALERT****


Mark and Julianne got it on, but since it was written and directed by a lesbian I figured it mitigated any notion of heterosexual male fantasy. Plus Julianne's character pretty much laid out that she felt sexuality was fluid.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 3:49pm

*****SPOILER ALERT*******

And eviscerates Rufalo's "Let's just do this" fantasy with an "I'm gay" and a phone toss.

It was kind of perfect. What's funny is how much I loved it even though in the end *****SPOILER ALERT******* it's pretty much a traditional family values ending. With a twist.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 4:35pm

CONTINUING THE SPOILER TREND

The cop-out would have been to have the sad, wayward lesbian find salvation in a man. Instead, the man found salvation in the lesbian...who the rebuffed him. Big time.

I think that's actually the exact opposite of a cop-out.

And though I agree that it was tradional family values-y, I also really appreciated the idea that, well, of COURSE this couple could get past this betrayal of trust. I mean...it was just sex. That seemed rather...forward thinking. Instead of the whole Wating To Exhale thought of 'The man (or butch lez) done your wrong, burn his SH*T DOWN!' kind of thinking so many cheer.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 4:38pm

Yes, that's an excellent point about the forward thinking. No wonder I liked it!

And what's the opposite of a cop-out? A cop-in?