Entertainment
CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Everything seemed so sad sack and dated, says indie director Lisa Cholodenko, remembering the pioneering but compromised lesbian and gay films that coincided with her early-80s adulthood. I came out at the time of Personal Best, Making Love, and Lianna, but I never approached my own life in that marginal way.
The 46-year-old filmmakers The Kids Are All Right, a 2010 Sundance hit now in theaters nationwide, may do more to broaden straight Americas perspective on gays than even Ang Lees 2005 game changer, Brokeback Mountain, in that it equates gayness with upper-middle-class motherhood. Drawn from Cholodenkos own experience as the partner of Wendy Melvoin, a TV composer (Heroes) and former guitarist for Prince, Kids offers an unusually realistic and comic depiction of lesbian family life by Julianne Moore and Annette Bening. Moore plays the free-spirited yet insecure Jules, while Bening plays Nic, her well-meaning but controlling partner. Jules and Nic navigate the same challenges as straight parents, plus additional ones -- like when their children, Joni (Mia Wasikowska of Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland) and Laser (Bridge to Terabithias Josh Hutcherson), track down their biological father (played by Mark Ruffalo). Or when they must explain to their kids why they watch gay male porn.
Stuart [Blumberg, the films cowriter] and I love those films by Hal Ashby and Billy Wilder that had real humanity and truth to them, Cholodenko says of inspirations like Harold and Maude and The Apartment. They could illuminate something about the human experience but were absurd and accentuated, and so they left you in this unstable place where youre kept engaged. Case in point: In one scene Laser is caught watching his mothers porn DVD. Is he gay or just mom-curious?
Cholodenko, whose previous films include High Art and Laurel Canyon, conceived Kids while she and Melvoin searched for an anonymous sperm donor to father their future child. She drafted its plot with Blumberg, a former sperm donor himself.
I learned how absolutely intentional it is to have a kid as a gay couple, Cholodenko says. This kid was wanted. It gave me a mandate to make sure that if Im saying things in the film that might be subversive or risqu, Im not doing it just to be cheeky. Underneath everything there has to be some grain of gravity, so that in 10 years when our kid looks at this movie, hes proud and doesnt feel exploited or embarrassed.
The Kids Are All Right is playing in select theaters nationwide.
Send a letter to the editor about this article.
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
38 Male Celebs Who Did Full Frontal Scenes
November 17 2023 5:18 PM
These are all the celebrities Who came out as LGBTQ+ in 2023
December 31 2023 12:19 PM
29 LGBTQ+ celebs you can follow on OnlyFans
April 18 2024 1:00 PM
26 actors who showed bare ass in movies & TV shows
February 28 2024 1:50 PM
16 times male celebrities had to say they weren't gay
April 17 2024 11:57 AM
21 LGBTQ+ reality dating shows & where to watch them
April 03 2024 4:01 PM
15 Unforgettable Gay Kissing Scenes From TV & Movies
February 14 2024 10:20 AM
14 queens who quit or retired from drag after 'RuPaul's Drag Race'
April 04 2024 12:56 PM
40 steamy celebrity Calvin Klein ads we'll always be thirsty for
January 04 2024 10:54 AM
The 15 Best LGBTQ+ Movies of 2023
December 04 2023 10:32 AM
Watch Now: Advocate Channel
Trending Stories & News
For more news and videos on advocatechannel.com, click here.
Trending Stories & News
For more news and videos on advocatechannel.com, click here.
Latest Stories
Surprise delivery! Designer Simon Jacquemus & hubby are officially daddies
April 22 2024 2:35 PM
These are the queens RUMORED to be competing on 'All Stars 9'
April 22 2024 1:10 PM
April 22, 2024
April 22 2024 12:01 PM
Indulge in luxury and sensuality with The Pride Store’s Taurus gift guide
April 22 2024 11:46 AM
Stop taking pictures of gay men hooking up in bars & shaming them online
April 22 2024 11:39 AM
Why loneliness is the biggest approaching threat to our community
April 22 2024 10:42 AM
Meet Ludmilla, the queer Black Latina singer who conquered Coachella
April 20 2024 9:34 PM
Watch the 'Drag Race' season 16 finalists react to the winning queen's crowning
April 20 2024 3:56 PM
Here's how 'Drag Race' fans can buy Sasha Colby's line of ponytail extensions
April 19 2024 10:23 PM