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The kids are all right - Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, Lisa Cholodenko

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

A sexy comedy of errors about a very modern family. The Allgoods are a close family experiencing life's typical ups and downs: 18-year-old daughter Joni (Mia Wasikowska) is heading off to Stanford University and starting to distance herself from her parents; 14-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson) is hanging out with a deadbeat friend who constantly leads him into trouble. The only difference is that this family has two mums. Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) have been together for years, are deeply in love, and had both children through artificial insemination.

This loving but strained home life is thrown into comic disarray when the kids track down their biological donor-Dad, Paul (Mark Ruffalo), and invite him home for dinner. Paul is a bachelor whose sudden longing for a family introduces an interesting sexual dynamic to the not-quite-ordinary equation of the Allgoods. At first Joni is so happy to have a cool, handsome dad like Paul. But soon enough she comes to realise that Paul is fun loving but lacks self-control and when he starts sleeping with one of her mums chaos reigns.

Theatrical propaganda posters

The kids are all right theatrical one sheet image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film comedy of errors family lesbian teens mothers biological father sperm donor California relationship suburb

Persons of interest

Julianne Moore .... Jules
Annette Bening .... Nic
Mark Ruffalo .... Paul
Mia Wasikowska .... Joni
Josh Hutcherson .... Laser
Yaya DaCosta .... Tanya
Kunal Sharma .... Jai
Eddie Hassell .... Clay
Zosia Mamet .... Sasha
Joaquín Garrido .... Luis
Rebecca Lawrence .... Brooke
Lisa Eisner .... Stella
Eric Eisner .... Joel
Lisa Cholodenko .... Screenwriter
Stuart Blumberg .... Screenwriter
Lisa Cholodenko .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

The kids are all right official movie sites:

Australia
International

The kids are all right film production notes
The kids are all right movie trailers:

QuickTime
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Awards and film festivals:

Berlin International Film Festival 2010: Won: Teddy Best Feature Film (Lisa Cholodenko)
Golden Globes, USA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) 2011: Won: Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical (Annette Bening); Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical (Julianne Moore), Best Screenplay - Motion Picture (Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko)

Studios and distributors:

Hopscotch Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

The first thing that I am going to say is that Josh Hutcherson looks exactly like someone who is called Josh. What's more, if this were the 80s, he would be called Corey. That's all I'm going to say about that.

The kids are all right is more of a drama than a comedy of errors, but it still manages to have some humour to it. It's very adult, very early X-generation, very liberal, very California. Very dry, very dusty, very sunny. Very laid-back, very modern. Someone, somewhere, has got to be smoking weed. They just have to. But, like I said, it's more serious than humorous: domestic drama, adults parenting, teenagers coming of age, stable family units coming unstuck, changing dynamics, long-buried jealousies, replayed arguments, pent-up emotions. This being Hollywood, everyone is a little too good-looking to be true but it makes the film easier on the eye. You can look at the lesbians without being shocked. The skateboarding is more shocking than the dykes.

One thing I've noticed about our American friends is that much of their acting is very earnest. It's as if, back in Victorian times, some peripatetic American actor went to London and saw a poster for The importance of being earnest and decided that it was incredibly important but never actually saw the play. He then went back home and taught all his thespian friends how the English do it, entirely missing the point. Perhaps that's why there's such an irony deficiency in the States. The kids are all right is pretty ironic but there's still a lot of earnestness seeping through.

It's all very serious. Interesting. Entertaining. Amusing, even, but very serious.

The comedy of errors movie The kids are all right is directed by Lisa Cholodenko and stars Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo.