http://nymag.com/movies/features/63418/The Sundance Seven
A film festival known for stunning breakout performances produces its latest batch.
By Logan Hill & Bilge Ebiri
Published Jan 31, 2010 (excerpts)
Our [other] favorite twosome,
Annette Bening and
Julianne Moore, play a lesbian couple who finally meet the sperm donor for their two adolescent children (
Mark Ruffalo) in
The Kids Are All Right. Moore, too, got her big break at Sundance in 1995, in the harrowing
Safe. Though she’s no stranger to funny, her career is heavily weighted with repressed, intense women. What a shame. “Her scenes—especially her sex scenes—were supposed to be kind of heightened and out-there,” says director
Lisa Cholodenko, who co-wrote the hilarious, at times jaw-dropping screenplay (the film was picked up by
Focus Features). “I didn’t know how she’d respond once we got on the set. But her readiness was stunning.”
The Kids Are All Right feels invigorating and fresh in other ways, too. “It’s not like an eighties or nineties gay-festival film about politics,” she says. “It’s just a family is a family is a family. I said, ‘Let’s have some fun, weird romp with this new era.’ ”
http://nymag.com/arts/articles/10/02/sundance/index2.htmlJulianne Moore
The Kids Are All RightThe problem with
The Kids Are All Right is determining who will, finally, get the Oscar nomination: Annette Bening, the bitchy half of a lesbian couple, or Moore, who plays her goofy partner. We’ll give Moore the edge, thanks to a spastically hilarious sex scene you won’t soon forget.
Also: Kate Mara!
http://nymag.com/arts/articles/10/02/sundance/index6.htmlKate Mara and Josh Radnor
happythankyoumorepleaseNot only did the star of
How I Met Your Mother make a crowd-pleasing debut as a writer-director, but he showed terrific instinct in casting the underused
Mara (a TV regular and the daughter in
Brokeback Mountain ) as his cabaret-singing Lower East Side love.