Why We Are Ridiculously Excited For The Kids Are All Right

Anyone else miss Lisa Cholodenko, director of Laurel Canyon and High Art? It took seven years, but she’s back with a (lesbian plus coming of age) comedy that was a giant success at Sundance.

A list of things this movie appears to involve that we don’t get to see a lot of, which we are happy to see:

1) An affectionate portrait of a blended family that doesn’t make a huge deal out of its nonconventionality, even as it mines it for humor.
2) A nuanced, interesting portrait of a marriage. Salon goes so far as to say it “ranks with the most compelling portraits of an American marriage, regardless of sexuality, in film history.”
3) That marriage is a lesbian marriage. That is also sexual in addition to being domestic! By the way, it doesn’t look like that little kiss will “turn” Julianne Moore, although we’d totally buy her giving it a shot under the circumstances.
4) Those lesbians are of a certain age! And the actresses playing them get complex, funny roles.
6) All this and it looks fun! And funny!

List of better-known quantities we are nonetheless always happy to see:

1) Julianne Moore and Annette Bening’s supreme acting chops.
2) Mark Ruffalo and his hotness