Just watched...

..."The Kids Are All Right" directed by Lisa Cholodenko (watched in what felt like a futile effort to catch up on the never-ending Netflix queue).


A gentle exploration of the complexity of sexuality, marriage, and relationships, “The Kids Are All Right” is by turns funny, uncomfortable, light, and serious. It is always intelligent, never talking down to the audience or pandering to obvious choices.

Annette Benning plays Nic and Julianne Moore plays Jules, a married gay couple in LA who have each given birth to a child by the same anonymous sperm donor. Now that their daughter is eighteen and their son is fifteen, the kids—without their mothers’ knowledge—contact their birth father, played by Mark Ruffalo. Nic and Jules each have their own reaction to the sudden presence of a stranger in their family. The difficulty is that he is a part of their family, even though he is a stranger. How does one navigate such a situation? Well, there are as many ways of navigating it as there are people to do the navigating. This particular story is engaging, charming, and true to life because of the portrayal of the all shades of gray in the sexual spectrum. There are some bold choices in the plot and I admire openly gay director and writer Lisa Colodenko and her co-creator Stuart Blumberg for presenting such choices. I also really appreciated the fact that there is no neat wrap-up, no pat answers, and no perfect ending tied with a bow for the audience. Life is a journey, relationships are a journey, and how we interact with these things is an on-going process, organic and unfolding. You just have to do it and see…

Recommend? Absolutely.

Benning won a Best Actress Golden Globe for her work (Moore was also nominated for the same award for her work as Jules), and the film won a Golden Globe for Best Picture. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and Cholodenko and Blumberg were nominated for Best Screenplay.

http://filminfocus.com/the_kids_are_all_right/

Just watched...

..."A Single Man" directed by Tom Ford.

Fashion designer Tom Ford (Gucci, YSL, Tom Ford) makes his directorial debut with a beautifully intimate, thoughtful, and profound film adapted from a novel by legendary gay author Christopher Isherwood.

Set in 1962, the film follows our narrator and main character George Falconer for one day. George has recently lost his partner, Jim, of 16 years and George’s grief is palpable and ever present yet we see how he must keep it on the periphery of his mind in order to function. There is also the issue that because his was a same-sex relationship, his loss and therefore grief is not socially sanctioned or recognized. His loss is invisible, silent, just as his grief must be. Indeed, this film and George’s story is one of the best portrayals of the experience of grief I have ever seen; there is no “sentiment” or clichés, only real emotion and the reactions of someone truly in the disorienting, paralyzing process of grieving.

Colin Firth gives a miraculously nuanced and subtle performance as George, perfectly and brilliantly embodying the anxious, quiet process of mourning. And the beautiful and phenomenally talented Julianne Moore, as his best friend Charlotte, is alternately shockingly aged and spectacularly gorgeous (à la Ann-Margaret) in an exquisitely tender yet brittle performance.

The look of the film is exquisite as well. This does not appear to be a film created in the digital age of clarity and high definition. The film stock looks like it came from 1962 and the color is heartbreakingly washed out, like an old Kodak photo of some lost summer. The only time the color becomes saturated is in George’s memories of his life with Jim and when he meets a young man who brings some respite to his grief.

The team responsible for the remarkable period look of television’s Mad Men, set in the same year, did the art direction for this film. All the details are perfectly rendered: cars, desks, buildings, homes, etc. The set for George’s home is the famous Shaffer residence, a mid-century redwood and glass gem built in Glendale by architect John Lautner in 1949. And the period costumes and make-up are spot on as well. Charlotte’s eye make-up in particular is something to behold, as well as the eye make-up of another character, Lois, who is a sort of situational double for Charlotte.

Speaking of which, this is definitely a film about eyes. We are so often right up to the irises of all the characters, looking at the shifting emotions drifting through their eyes and their souls. It is an intimate, pensive technique and Ford uses it beautifully, knowing that his casting of such masterful actors justifies such close-ups.

Recommend? Absolutely yes!!!

http://www.asingleman-movie.com/#/home