Friday

The Kids Are All Right

2010

This dramedy scores a 94% at Rotten Tomatoes, and has been touted as an Oscar contender, but that's really only because it's one of those "flavor of the day" movies, this time about a long-term lesbian couple raising two very normal teenagers who want to meet their sperm donor.

There's nothing wrong with that idea, and there's nothing wrong with the movie. It's pleasant enough to watch and the characters are complex. You just can't quite figure out why anybody would think this film should be an Oscar contender. I guess it has been elevated to that status because it's promoting our thought for the year - that children being raised in non-traditional families are no different from any other kids. That's OK with me, I guess. There's no statistically significant evidence to confirm or refute that hypothesis, so I guess I'll tentatively accept it in the name of tolerance, and because it seems reasonable.

But here's the deal. This film, as I see it, has absolutely nothing at all to do with a lesbian relationship. With only tiny changes in the script, it could just as easily be about a man and a woman who, for one reason or another, require a surrogate father for their children. Indeed, the gay partners are so completely de-gayed by the script that one of them eventually has an affair, it is with a man, her sperm donor. Of course, that's the whole point of the film - that a lesbian couple raising kids in a long-term marriage can behave exactly the same and face the exact same problems as any hetero couple in the same situation. I don't disagree with that point, but my argument is that if the film had been made from the exact same script, except with the doctor character being a male in need of surrogate sperm, nobody would be touting The Kids Are All Right as an Oscar candidate. It would just be another routine character-based dramedy starring good actors, like so many that come and go every year. I don't mean to diss the movie, because it is executed well and I enjoyed it, but I do think that if The Kids Are All Right gets any Oscar nods, it will be because its message is timely, not because that message is delivered in a particularly memorable, complex, or interesting way that will cause us to remember the film years from now.

Julianne Moore HD film clips (samples below)

She may have flashed her crotch in the last samples below

 

Yaya De Costa HD film clip (sample below)

 

  • * Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe).

  • * White asterisk: expanded format.

  • * Blue asterisk: not mine.

  • No asterisk: it probably sucks.

OTHER CRAP:

Catch the deluxe version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles, here.

 

 

"NYPD Blue"

Season 10, episode 16

The greatest nude scene in the history of network television in 1280x720

Charlotte Ross. Samples below.

 

 

Luna Caliente

(2009)

Johnny's comments:

A Spanish film today.

Luna Caliente from director Vicente Aranda, well known for his erotic dramas (Carmen, Amantes, Lolita's Club for starters), adds another to the list. Set in 1970 during the Franco regime, its main character is Juan, an internationally recognised poet working for UNESCO, although he says he's apolitical. Back in town (Burgos) for a brief respite, he meets up with an old doctor friend and has dinner with him, his wife and his 18 year-old daughter, Ramona (newcomer Thaïs Blume). She just happens to be a flirty little minx, or so he thinks.

As he goes to leave, his rented car does not start and the doctor asks him to stay the night. And that's when the trouble starts. Finding it impossible to resist, he goes to where Ramona is sleeping, pulls the covers back to reveal her completely naked. As she rouses and becomes flirty, he sees it as an opportunity, except she rejects him, but he continues, raping her and putting a pillow over her mouth to muffle her screams. When he finishes, she is dead and he panics and leaves quickly, except he encounters the doctor, who is drunk, miserable and wants to go to the local whorehouse. Juan reluctantly drives him back to town, but the doctor wants him to come to the whorehouse and in a struggle, bashes the doctor's head on the dashboard, stunning him to possible brain damage, again panics and stages an accident making it look like the doctor drove off a cliff into water and drowned. Then he goes home, sleeps and wakes up and his hell is just beginning.

That's just the first act of this very intriguing thriller that has a great man who progressively gets worse as the film continues, all because of this 18-year-old girl, who is something else. Just watching the videos below will give you an insight into how devilish she is. Definitely a challenging film with a wry sense of humour and not for those who want likeable characters, because there are none.

I enjoyed watching this man's descent into hell and Thaïs Blume plays a truly evil young woman with a smile all the while and boy is she hard to resist. The usual warnings apply, it does get ugly below... (why am I attracted to these films, I wonder?)

Thais Blume film clips (collages below)

 

 

Pics

the new Kate Dennings pics. Quite a chest!

the new (alleged) Jessica Alba pics

the new Jordana Brewster pics

 

Julie McNiven of Stargate Universe, seen some time ago in the Carlito's Way prequel

Erin Wasson

Natasha Alam

 

Clips

Avalon Barrie in Sappho - 720p

Lyudmila Shiryaeva and Avalon Barrie in Sappho - 720p.

Lyudmila Shiryaeva in Sappho - 720p.

Teresa Weissbach and Isabell Gerschke in Lasko (sample below)

Pauline Etienne and Louise Bourgoin in L'Autre Monde (samples below)

Etienne

Bourgoin

Pilar Castro and Cuca Escribano in Los Aires Dificiles (samples below)

Castro

Escribano

Madelief Blanken in Feuten (samples below)

Katie Cassidy in Live! (sample below)

 

And the big deal film clip of the day:

Kirsten Dunst in All Good Things. (Summary and sample below.)