Š-DR-Portfolio / Yaya Alafia (fin)

29/03/2014 17:25 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-Portfolio / Yaya Alafia p2

29/03/2014 17:23 par tellurikwaves

TRON

Š-DR-Portfolio / Yaya Alafia

29/03/2014 17:07 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT de Lisa Cholodenko (2010) fin

29/03/2014 16:43 par tellurikwaves

Yaya Alafia  : Tanya Da Costa

*

*

*

Š-DR-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT p14

29/03/2014 16:40 par tellurikwaves

Distinctions
Festival de Deauville 1998 : Prix spécial du jury pour High Art
Berlinale 2010 : Teddy du meilleur film pour The Kids Are All Right

Š-DR-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT p13

29/03/2014 16:26 par tellurikwaves

Cholodenko's Funny, Mature Look at a Nuclear Family Has Universal Appeal
9/10
Author: Ed Uyeshima from San Francisco, CA, USA
22 July 2010

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Nora Ephron could take a few cues from Lisa Cholodenko ("Laurel Canyon") on how to write and direct a movie about a recognizable human dilemma and the characters who have to deal with it. Now that I have seen this 2010 dramedy, I feel that this is basically the film that Ephron was trying to make with her 2009 Meryl Streep vehicle, "It's Complicated", a far more conventional comedy that took a long-estranged couple and threw a monkey wrench into their arrangement by introducing a plot device that hadthem reigniting embers they didn't realize still existed between them.

In Cholodenko's film, the situation appears more unique - the long-standing couple, Jules and Nic, islesbian, and the complicating factor is Paul, the common biological father who provided the sperm that produced their two children, Nic's 18-year-old daughter Joni andJules' 15-year-old son Laser.Ironically, however, the treatment here, co-written with Stuart Blumberg, is far more textured and universal here than in Ephron's dependence on tired stereotypes and slapstick.

The superb performances don't hurt either. The multi-layered story feels like a series of illuminations about these five characters. It begins when Joni and Laser decide to track down their sperm donor father without consulting their mothers. Paul turns out to be an easygoing, LA-style restaurateur and organic farmer, and as he begins to insinuate himself into the family's life, the director exposes the confused feelings of a family toward someone who's intractably part of them yet a complete stranger.

Jules is intrigued, while Nic is suspicious and increasingly angry at someone she views as an interloper. At the same time, Cholodenko focuses attention on how Joni and Laser discover themselves sexually in a gay family with much of the comedy comes at the expense of Nic and Jules, who spice up their sex life with gay porn.

Without resorting to stereotypes, the film succeeds in making this family seem quite ordinary with the kids constantly embarrassed by their moms' emotionalism and need for order. Jules and Nic have a marriage that looks like any straight one of twenty years duration. A certain brittleness has crept into Annette Bening's work of late, although the approach works well in her well-etched portrayal of Nic. She has a particularly strong dinner table scene where she is finally seduced by Paul's laid-back charms, sings a woozy rendition of Joni Mitchell's "All I Want", makes a shocking discovery in the bathroom, and then returns to the table in an engulfing haze of silent disappointment.

As Paul, Mark Ruffalo appears to be doing a variation of the ne'er-do-well character he played in "You Can Count on Me" but gives him a shaggy, SoCal veneer of materialistic success.In a turn that reminds me a bit of "Annie Hall"-circa Diane Keaton, Julianne Moore plays the character that experiences the biggest arc in the story - nurturing and self-reflective one minute, spontaneous and regretful the next. For an actress often at home in period roles that require her to express repression, this feels like her most liberating work. As Joni, Mia Wasikowska - superb in Tim Burton's redux of "Alice in Wonderland" earlier this year - has the coltish manner of a young Gwyneth Paltrow and brings lucidity to her maturing character.

Growing up from his cherubic turns in "Little Manhattan" and "The Bridge to Terabithia", Josh Hutcherson appears to be graduating to troubled adolescent roles with ease. Yaya DaCosta is so strikingly beautiful as the girl Paul conveniently keeps at bay that you almost overlook the serene presence she brings to her scenes. Cholodenko has no problem filming graphic lovemaking scenes, and they don't feel gratuitous to the story. It's rare when a filmmanages to be funny, mature and involving as this one does.

Š-DR-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT de Lisa Cholodenko (2010) p12

29/03/2014 16:09 par tellurikwaves

Making heroes out of the wrong characters!
7/10
Author: Hellmant from United States
14 October 2010

'THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

This indie critical darling is one of the best reviewed movies of the year and up until the climax I thought it was a pretty impressive little film. It is a well acted and realistic character study though with the likes of Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hutcherson and 'ALICE IN WONDERLAND's Mia Wasikowska.(ben vouala où j'l'ai vue !) 

It's directed and co-written by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg (who also wrote 'KEEPING THE FAITH' and co-wrote 'THE GIRL NEXT DOOR', which I'm a big fan of both). The acting is all impressive, especially Ruffalo and Bening. Moore is good but she's been much better, maybe it's just the character she's playing here that doesn't give her as much to work with. The directing is adequate and fitting to the material and the screenplay is full of natural and believable characters and dialog. Even the ending, which I didn't like, seems believable it's just that it turns the film into a much less valuable learning lesson.

The film tells the story of Joni (Wasikowska) and Laser (Hutcherson) a brother and sister conceived through artificial insemination by their unhappy mothers Nic (Bening) and Jules (Moore). Joni is Nic's biological daughter and Laser is Jule's biological son and they were both conceived from the same sperm donor Paul (Ruffalo). On her eighteenth birthday, when she's legally able to do so without the consent of her mother, Joni contacts her biological father and she and Laser meet him secretly.

Later their mothers find out about this and before allowing them to see him again demand to meet him as well. Nic, the controlling working mother, is very upset by the sudden involvement of Paul in her children lives but Jules (who has mostly been a stay at home mom) warms to him after he hires her to design and construct his back yard. Paul is a free spirited, fun loving co-op farmer and restaurant owner. This clashes with Nic but the rest of the family enjoys spending time with him and he really learns to love them as well. Complications arise.

I was really fascinated by all of the characters and learned to really like them, all except for maybe Nic who was just a little to controlling and self righteous (but believable). Paul to me was the most relate-able and likable character and the story and growth of all of the characters kind of revolve around him. Without giving away too much the movie ends in conflict and one of the characters is sort of used and abused and left with a lot of unfair judgment placed upon him. It is realistic and believable though it just seems like the movie is making heroes out of the wrong characters and villains out of others, that don't deserve it. This left me very much disappointed in the movie as a whole and that's why I can't overwhelmingly recommend it.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOOi1HDSXyA

Š-DR-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT de Lisa Cholodenko (2010) p11

29/03/2014 16:01 par tellurikwaves

The Kids - and this Movie - Aren't All Right
6/10
Author: flickernatic from United Kingdom
23 November 2010

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This is an entertaining movie worth seeing, at times funny, at times moving, but one that fails, frustratingly, to exploit its potential.

Nic and Jules are a lesbian couple, each with a teenage child fathered by the same anonymous sperm donor, Paul. Their children decide to contact their father and he enters, rather awkwardly, in to the family's lives. Nic and Jules' relationship is loving but passionless - they resort to watching gay porn in bed but even this fails to produce a spark - and before long, Jules and Paul become energetic lovers who meet repeatedly to pursue their affair.

Paul, who has never settled into a relationship, finds that he has fallen in love with Jules. He also discovers that the children he fathered so anonymously now mean everything to him. He wants to find a way to continue the relationship with his 'kids' and Jules. But, despite the positives he has brought to them, ultimately he is rejected by them all. Nic, Jules and the kids resume their previous lives while Paul is left out in the cold.

The dramatic situation created by Paul's arrival, his affair with Jules and its effects on Nic and the 'kids' is potentially very interesting and worth exploring. Unfortunately, the theme is treated at best half-seriously, as if Hollywood can't cope with this topic without making it into a comedy. The inclusion of several explicit sex scenes is also a distraction which adds nothing to the story. Most disappointing of all is the ending; this seemed a cop-out.

Jules is clearly bi-sexual but she suddenly claims that she is all- lesbian; Nic seems barely troubled by Jules's startling lapse; the 'kids' are overly keen to reject Paul; and all this appears to be designed to produce an old-fashioned 'happy ending' in which the lesbian couple and their children return to everyday life as if nothing had happened (what?!) - except Paul, that is, who is told to 'go and find your own family'. Are, then, the 'kids' 'all right'? On the contrary, their parents' antics appear to have left them in a dreadful mess. Maybe we are supposed to take the titleironically.

On the plus side, the acting is generally good, although Mark Ruffalo does too much mumbling and Julianne Moore tends to over-act. The outstanding performance for me was from Mia Wasikowska as the daughter, Joni. But this would have been a far better, more memorable and thought-provoking movie if it had followed through more courageously. I'm sure Jimmy McGovern would have done it a whole lot better!

Š-DR-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT de Lisa Cholodenko (2010) p10

29/03/2014 15:55 par tellurikwaves

Josh Hutcherson  : Laser  

Š-DR-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT p9

29/03/2014 15:26 par tellurikwaves

One real moment is all it takes to make a film worth something, The Kids Are All Right brings it.
8/10
Author: brielle_jalexa9 from United States
4 January 2011

OK, so here is what is going on with The Kids Are All Right. When I think of Lesbian couples the image of the family portrayed by the stars of this movie comes to mind.

I live in Kentucky so I don't ever really come into contact with any established lesbian couples, but I remember watching this video in a Sociology class about proposition 8 that featured all of these Kentucky based gay couples whose wholesomeness and nuclear family awesomeness were supposed to convince me that gay people should be allowed to adopt kids. For the record it didn't need to because I'm completely for gay people doing anything they want, but if I was ignorant then I might have beenconvinced.

I mean, the couples were perfect, upstanding members of the community, their kids were involved in sports and clubs and they all just screamed 'It's Okay to beGay and Have Kids!'.What I most remember is that the families kind of all had this lingering desperation in their smiles, like were trying harder to be happy than most people because they were aware that other people would be judging them based on their ability to be happy under the scrutiny of social judgment. The family in the movie, Nic (Annette Benning),Jules (Julianne Moore), Lazer(Josh Hutcherson), and Joni (Mia Wasilowska), kind of all have that same desperation lingering around them.

The film basically centersaround what happens when the tension brought on by that added responsibility is broken by the intrusion of an outsider.That intruder is Mark Ruffalo. I think the evolution of his character is one of the most interesting parts of the film. When we first meet Mark, he's just so cool. Everybody wants to be like him. Relaxed, carefree, seemingly very open and with an uncanny ability to understand and relate to people. He grows vegetables, doesn't hurt the environment and has sex with YaYa from America's Next Top Model. He seems like the opposite of Nic the uptight,control freak,who's very traditional and leads a very traditional life despite or in spite of her gay lifestyle.

So you think, 'oh, this movie is going to be about an outsider coming into a family and repairing the relationships within it'. Nic will loosen up and the kids will be able to open up to people because someone finally understands them. But unfortunately film hasn't been that neat and tidy since the 1930s. In this film, certain things come into play that switches our perspective and we come to identify more with Nic's character than we really expected. But we share sympathy with every character. At the end, we actually have the most sympathy for Mark, I would say.

This switch was unexpected and I think it makes the film special and more worthy than just a farce about a Lesbian couple and a straight guy. The best films are ones in which our expectations are inverted, I think. A film should be like a beautiful unopened flower. The bud is beautiful and then it opens, changes and becomes even more beautiful because of those changes. I know that sounds all preachy and lame but if you can't be preachy and lame on the internet than where can you?

My favorite parts of the film were where I saw flashes of my own relationships portrayed in situations presented by the characters. The conflict between Nic and Jules, where they love each other, accept each other, but clearly don't always like each other, injects the film with humor while at the same time serving as a painful reminder of how hard it is to settle down. That struggle to just continue to like the people you love is portrayed so poignantly in the little digs Nic pokes at Jules every now and again.

The frustration they both feel is palpable. And If you have an overbearing mother like I do, than you know how it looks and feels to be shut down by your mom like Laser and Joni are by theirs. After every unintentionally overbearing comment, I was like 'wow, that was a real moment.' I have to say that I was a little disappointed with Laser's character. I feel like his character was so rich in the beginning, but really died away to almost nothing by the end. Just a few archetypal little brother comments thrown in to remind us that he's still there. I feel this way because we spent a lot of time with his character in the beginning, understanding that he's a fifteen year old boy. He's moody.

And he's searching for something to define him outside of his mothers. That's undoubtedly why he is initially so passionate about finding his biological father. But though his relationship with Mark is pivotal, it is not really explored as deeply as is Mark's relationship with Joni. Basically his character was traveling to a destination that it just didn't reach. But this could be intentional. Teenagers are supposed to be mysterious and confusing so maybe it's true to his character to leave him unexplored. However, it did disappoint me. I don't know how this movie is going to do during awards season. I assume it will do well, but more because of the trendy subject manner than due to it's merit as a film. I don't know, the film society just votes that way sometimes. But it moved me and that's worth an award to me.