We saw "The Kids Are All Right" today

[ruggerson]

Run, don't walk, to see this.

Best movie of the last three years.

[saltpoint]

1. It's a great film.

The two leads are outstanding and everybody else is mighty good, too.

Laser's friend, especially early in the film, was making me really nervous. Then the scene in the alleyway with the lost dog...

I wanted to think Jules re-hired the Hispanic gardener.

[ruggerson]

2. I've never been a huge Annette Bening fan

but she rocked it.

The entire movie is like a perfect novella.

[saltpoint]

3. Agree. Top-drawer script. The thing just

crackled.

You're right -- Bening did just fine as Nic.

I loved the truck and the Volvo parked side by side in the drive way!

[LostinVA]

4. PM me if anything happens to the dog

I can't stand to watch when animals get hurt or killed.

[saltpoint]

8. The dog escapes unscathed from the callous and

cruel judgment of one of the characters.

I won't spoil the film's overall plot by telling you that the scene in question involves two friends who are walking down an alleyway when a dog approaches them.

One friend's impulse is to play a demeaning trick on the dog in a crude and uncalled-for gesture while his friend simultaneously says, "There's that dog -- I bet he's lost" (paraphrased but close) -- and bends down to give the dog welcome. So that his friend cannot carry out the cruelty, the welcoming friend shoos the dog away so it will not have to endure the humiliation.

The scene was one of many that the screenwriter, Lisa Cholodenko, totally got right. She uses the approach of the lost dog to characterize the personalities of the two friends (and likely to reveal to the audience why their friendship is not likely to survive).

[FreeState]

5. I have not seen it yet... but a question

from most of the feminist reviews of that I've read they seem to be upset with one of the women having sex at some point with a man as well as showing the women watching gay male porn. Most feminist see this as a pattern or not showing the true scope of women who love women, theres always the bisexual or male fantasy at play. Did the movie discuss this at all or was it just thrown in (the porn)? How about the sex between he man and woman? How was that handled?

(Im planning on seeing it soon... but interested in the gay male take on this too)

[ruggerson]

7. yes, they address it

in a humorous way. It struck me as being a bit off, but it works within the structural and emotional boundaries of the story. If some lesbians think it is politically off base, I can completely respect that, but the lesbian couple we went with thought it was hilarious.

[Smarmie Doofus]

6. It's OK.... a bit of a letdown.

Not sure why exactly. The dialog didn't exactly crackle and I think the idea was to establish how *average* the family was. I don't like to think of GLBT families as "average"... and in my experience they usually aren't .

Another example: the boy ( Laser) recoils violently when he picks up that the moms *might* be intimating that he's in a gay relationship with his wacko friend. ( He's not.) I'd like to think that the homo-panic meter might be set just a little lower than average in a kid that was raised by two out, brainy Lesbians.

I don't get the male porn thing either; someone please explain.

The sexuality of one of the moms is put into question by a relationship she has with a man. The last Hollywood treatment of main character Lesbians... mid nineties, can't remember the name... the same thing happened. Aren't there any Lesbians who are really Lesbians? Apparently Hollywood is not so sure. Or maybe it's just a way to spread out the demographic appeal and widen the $$$ net. Probably a combo of the two.

Those are the negatives. There's good stuff too. I love Annette Benning in the "second" dinner scene... the Joni Mitchell dinner... if you will.

As always... there is a dearth of good American movies in the summer ( Like there's a plethora the rest of the year. Tee-hee). With all it's limitations, it's the best thing in the theaters this week.