Kids Are All Right

Theatrical Release Date: 2010 07 09 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 025192066863

Studio: Universal Studios

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Nudity, Strong Sexual Content, Profanity, Drug Content, Youth Substance Use]

Summary: The son of a same-sex couple seeks out the sperm donor who made his birth possible in this comedy from writer/director Lisa Cholodenko. The committed parents of two teenage children, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), are about to send their daughter, Joni (Mia Wasikowska), off to college when her younger brother, Laser (Josh Hutcherson), asks for her help in tracking down his biological father. Reluctantly inquiring with the sperm bank, Joni leaves her number so the office can pass it along to Laser's father. Enthusiastic at the thought of meeting his long lost offspring, Paul (Mark Ruffalo) musters the courage to reach out, and the family tree grows a new branch. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Comedy Drama

Awards: Film Presented – Sundance Film Festival Film Presented – Berlin International Film Festival Best Screenplay – Independent Spirit Awards Best Original Screenplay – Writers Guild of America Best Director – Independent Spirit Awards Film Presented – Traverse City Film Festival Best Female Lead – Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Male – Independent Spirit Awards Best Feature – Independent Spirit Awards Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actor – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actor – New York Film Critics Circle Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Actress – New York Film Critics Circle Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Screenplay – Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Actress - Runner-up – National Society of Film Critics Best Picture – London Film Critics Association Film Presented – London Film Festival Best Actress – London Film Critics Association Best Screenplay – London Film Critics Association Best Screenplay – London Film Critics Association Best Actress – Screen Actors Guild Best Picture - Comedy or Musical – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Supporting Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Screenplay – Independent Spirit Awards

Features: The Journey To Forming a Family
The Making of The Kids Are All Right
The Writer's Process
Feature Commentary with Director/Co-Writer Lisa Cholodenko

Kids Are All Right

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 11/16/2010

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DHMA null, DTS Digital Theater Systems, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 107 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,Spanish,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Perry Seibert

Lisa Cholodenko earned her indie cred with three films in six years that each focused on trials and tribulations specific to women. However, she's taken another six years to follow up her last movie, and the wait has been more than worth it. The Kids Are All Right opens with a seemingly happy nontraditional family getting ready to send their oldest daughter off to college. Type-A controlling doctor Nic (Annette Bening) and her free-wheeling wife, Jules (Julianne Moore), have been together for over two decades. With the help of the same sperm donor, they each birthed a child, and raised both in a tight nuclear family. Joni (Mia Wasikowska) is a straight-A student leaving in a few weeks for college, while 15-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson) is drifting toward a slacker's life with the help of his obnoxious best friend. The foursome's surface contentment gets shaken after Joni, at Laser's urging, makes contact with the sperm donor, a free-spirited restaurateur named Paul (Mark Ruffalo). Paul is smitten with the kids, meets "the moms" (as they're referred to by Joni and Laser), and eventually hires Jules to do some landscaping for him. As family dynamics shift due to Paul's influence, Nic begins to resent him, and when lustful cravings flare between Paul and Jules the entire family threatens to splinter. Some films are about plot, but The Kids Are All Right is about the characters. Cholodenko gives each of the five main characters complexity and depth, and her refusal to make any of them an easy villain or hero makes the movie not only her best, but one of the best of the year. Nic and Jules each carry pain and recrimination that will be familiar to anybody in a long-term relationship, and Bening and Moore each subtly let those bad feelings rise to the surface. They are both alternately infuriating and sympathetic. Ruffalo never loses sight of Paul's best instincts -- he is a quick read of other people and he has a strong work ethic -- but those talents go hand in hand with his emotional selfishness. Most of his scenes are with Moore, and it's pretty special when two actors as talented and naturalistic as those two have material that allows them to explore human behavior rather than service a plot -- their characters' attraction to each other is awkward, intense, and thoroughly understandable. The teen characters are just as multifaceted. Joni's first steps toward rebellion are both poignant and infuriating, and Wasikowska has an uncommon knack for simultaneously frustrating us while making us care for her -- for a 20-year-old with such an uncommonly pretty face, she's capable of indicating a great deal of emotion behind those beautiful eyes. Hutcherson turns what could easily be a standard-issue troubled teen into a specific person by making us see Laser's inherent goodness. He might not be sure enough of himself to share his feelings, but we never lose the sense that he'll do the right thing if only somebody shows him he can. It's rare to see an ensemble this strong, and the credit should go to Cholodenko and her co-screenwriter, Stuart Blumberg. They infuse the characters with a real sense of history -- we feel like we've been right there along with Nic and Jules for their entire marriage. And while each of the actors has at least one show-stopping monologue, they're all so talented that these scenes never feel like actors showing off, but rather like real people having been forced to the point where they have to say something. Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right stands alongside Nicole Holofcener's Please Give as two of the best films of the year, and while it's surely a coincidence that both would hit theaters in the months following Kathryn Bigelow's Best Director Oscar win, it's hard to shake the sense that we're in a moment where independent-minded female filmmakers are giving audiences some of the most challenging and truthful films in America. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Carter Burwell  Composer (Music Score) 
J. Todd Harris  Executive Producer 
Jeffrey Levy-Hinte  Producer 
Lisa Cholodenko  Director 
Lisa Cholodenko  Screenwriter 
Stuart Blumberg  Screenwriter 
Gary Gilbert  Producer 
Riva Marker  Executive Producer 
Steven Saxton  Executive Producer 
Daniela Taplin-Lundberg  Producer 
Celine Rattray  Producer 
Christy Scott Cashman  Executive Producer 
Jordan Horowitz  Producer 
Ron Stein  Executive Producer 
Anne O'Shea  Executive Producer 
Andrew Sawyer  Executive Producer 
Neil Katz  Executive Producer 
Philippe Hellmann  Producer 
Annette Bening  Actor 
Julianne Moore  Actor 
Mark Ruffalo  Actor 
Mia Wasikowska  Actor 
Josh Hutcherson  Actor 
Yaya DaCosta  Actor 
Kunal Sharma  Actor 
Eddie Hassell  Actor 
Zosia Mamet  Actor 
Joaquin Garrido  Actor 
Rebecca Lawrence  Actor 
Lisa Eisner  Actor 
Eric Eisner  Actor 
Sasha Spielberg  Actor 
James MacDonald  Actor 
Margo Victor  Actor 

Country: France,USA