The year of the lesbian movie coalesces in the triumphant The Kids Are All Right, co-writer/director Lisa Cholodenko's unfussy look at an average family that just happens to have two moms instead of one. How many movies cover all the bases and hit one home run after another as this one does? Kids—which stars Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo—can boast great, nuanced writing, directing and acting. Not to mention that it's beautifully, though simply shot and edited, makes judicious use of source music and underscoring, and best—is tremendously entertaining as it expertly walks the fine line between drama and comedy with breathtaking precision.
Bening and Moore play long-term couple Nic and Jules, a doctor and earth-mother type who used a sperm donor to have their two teenage children, 17-year-old Joni ( Alice in Wonderland's Mia Wasikowska ) and 15-year-old Laser ( Journey to the Center of the Earth's Josh Hutcherson ) . As the movie opens it's the summer before Joni heads off to college. Laser is curious about his biological dad and soon both he and Joni have had a tentative meeting with Paul ( Ruffalo ) , a straight, unattached restaurant owner who is the essence of cool and sexiness. "We are so not telling moms," Joni asserts about the meeting but soon the truth comes out and though everything seems to go well when Paul meets Jules and Nic, complications quickly ensue.
Paul has come into their lives at a vulnerable time for all of them, himself included. The relationship between Joni and Nic has already been entering rocky shoals before Paul's arrival and this new dimension he adds to their lives ultimately challenges and reinforces for all the characters what it means to be a family.
Out filmmaker Cholodenko ( whose previous features include High Art and Laurel Canyon ) has worked on and off on her script for five years with writing partner Stuart Blumberg, and it shows. The writing is sharp and observant, with scenes that are beautifully shaped—the economy and richness in the picnic table scene when Paul comes for his first visit; the glorious monologue that leads to heartbreak when Jules sings the Joni Mitchell song at a later dinner; and the myriad bedroom-set scenes between Nic and Jules. The cliché "it's all in the details" was never truer than in this lyrical script.
And the acting matches up with the words. These are beautifully nuanced performances helped enormously by Cholodenko and Blumberg's script ( how these actors must have jumped for joy when they read it ) and Cholodenko's astute direction, which gives each of the principles multiple moments to shine. There's no stinting on emotion, and when the fireworks ( both dramatic and comedic ) come they seem to evolve organically. ( The California settings are also hugely appealing. ) You don't question for a second that Moore and Bening are a couple; that Wasikowska and Hutcherson are their kids; and that Ruffalo is in the midst of an enormous emotional change.
The Kids Are All Right is one of those small cinematic miracles that movie audiences—especially seen-it-all-before film critics like myself—hope and pray for. That it makes a powerful social argument in favor of LGBT families without breaking a sweat in the process is a wonderful bonus.
Briefly noted: Noomi Rapace returns as Lisbeth Salander, the kick-ass, bisexual, goth computer hacker aka the girl with the dragon tattoo in The Girl Who Played With Fire, part two of the red-hot Swedish trilogy. In round two, yet another sexual crime thriller, Lisbeth's on the run when she's set up as a murderer. Her tortured childhood provides clues to a mysterious prostitution ring and in this edition, which again features Mikael Nyqvist as the journalist in league with Lisbeth. We also meet her equally tough, kickboxing girlfriend, and the film features a very hot lesbian love scene between the two ladies. Subtitled.
La Mission, writer-director Peter Bratt's vibrant sophomore effort, which stars his brother, Latino heartthrob Benjamin Bratt, attempts to explore a subject rare in movies: It's a gay coming-out story that focuses on the parent rather than the child. Bratt stars as Che Rivera, a single father who has done jail time and now works as a bus driver, raising his teenage son Jes ( Jeremy Ray Valdez in his screen debut ) in the heavily Latino populated Mission district of San Francisco. With his macho swagger, dark glasses, tattoo-covered torso and goatee, we know he's meant to be a tough guy.
Che takes enormous pride in Jes, a high school senior who he's determined is going to avoid his mistakes. But when dad finds a batch of Polaroids of Jes and his boyfriend, Max ( who he's been meeting on the down low ) , taken at a gay club, everything changes. "You're dead to me," he rails at him, kicking him out. Though family and some friends support Jes it's also clear the community isn't exactly ready to embrace the Gay Agenda and we know, having seen this scenario in many after school "problem" specials and other gay indie movies, that a confrontation between the homophobes and Jes is inevitable which will lead, naturally, to dad's mental transformation.
What we don't see is the inner transformation take place. That's the conundrum for a character like Che—a character whose inner emotional journey is rarely expressed verbally. Rather, we're given scenes with Che displaying a lot of angry, self-destructive behavior. Though Bratt the writer could have taken a short cut he stays true to Che's character and relies on his brother Benjamin's acting abilities to pull off a man in deep emotional turmoil without the aid of a verbal exploration and Benjamin, who brings dignity and depth to a character this side of stereotypical manages it with a minimum of fuss.
Aside from being a "problem" character drama La Mission is also a love letter to the district and as such is seen through rose-colored glasses ( it's where both Bratt brothers grew up and where the film was shot ) . Other than those nasty thugs with their noxious gangsta rap and guns the area seems to be populated with wholesome, friendly "brown people" who honor tradition and community, look out for each other, and bask in the glow of each other's company. Without the gay plotline, the film could have been shot 30 years ago.
Even with these quibbles, though, La Mission is an entertaining, sincere effort livened by the magnetic performance of Bratt. Fans of other Latino-themed gay dramas, Shelter and Quinceanera, which explore similar thematic terrain, will especially enjoy the film.
Film notes:
—Openly gay French writer-director André Téchiné's 2008 film The Witnesses—a compelling character drama set in Paris at the outset of the AIDS epidemic that focuses on a beautiful young man whose battle with the disease affects the lives of all the other characters—is playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, on July 9, 11 and 15.
—On July 10 the Siskel is also hosting a rare screening of Truffaut's 1966 flawed but fascinating science fiction opus Fahrenheit 451, starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie ( and featuring Bernard Herrmann's tremendous score ) . Author Ray Bradbury who wrote the classic novel the film was based on will interact live via Skype with the audience—providing proof that at least one of Bradbury's technological fancies has become a reality! Information on both The Witnesses and Fahrenheit 451 at www.siskelfilmcenter.com
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Readers can leave feedback at the latter Web site.
