2010: The Year in Film: The Kids Are All Right Review

Here is American indie cinema at it's best - a quaint, sweet, funny picture that manages to deliver its message through the lens of believable, well-written characters that feel as authentic as the characters in any novel. Of course, pictures of this scope, that feature so prominently and intimately on the lives of a few characters depend almost entirely on the cast, so it's essential that the cast is up to the challenge. Here, the cast steps up completely, and completely inhabits the characters, making them into believable, flawed, charming people who feel so very real and you find yourself investing in and rooting for after just a short period of time.

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore feature as Nic and Jules, a lesbian married couple who are the moms for a pair of children, Joni and Laser (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) who were each conceived using the same sperm donor. The desire by Laser to meet his biological father leads to the children contacting the donor, an eclectic post-hippie named Paul (Mark Ruffalo). The relationship that develops between Paul, his biological children, and Nic and Jules touches on the complexity and fragility of the core family unit, and the universal humanity of it all. Nic and Jules are lesbians, sure, but they're parents first, and face the same issues as any family with teenagers would, just with an extra wrinkle thrown in. This wrinkle, Paul, finds himself drawn to the new family he never knew he had and never knew he wanted, and upends the lives led by Nic and Jules' family in a number of ways.

This isn't a film that seeks to preach the virtue or non-virtue of gay parenthood or tout a particular viewpoint from its soapbox - this is a film that is about people and family first, on an individual basis. The balance between comedy and drama is nearly perfectly tiptoed, with the sometimes heavy narrative never weighing down the overall feel of the picture, yet the necessary gravitas never leaves either.

Led by a number of pitch-perfect performances from Bening, Moore, and especially Ruffalo, who will probably see a Best Supporting nom for his turn as the alternative new-age Paul, this film rises far above what could have been straight from the headlines schlock and becomes a touching story about a family of individuals, who love, fight, betray, laugh and cry the same as everyone. The relationship between everyone is nuanced, believable and often touching - feeling completely authentic and yet highly entertaining - an often difficult balance to strike.

Come for the performances, stay for the funny, yet touching take on the American family, an infinitely diverse institution.

8.4/10

LeBron, The Mothership, Sports Incest and the end of society.

This post has been a while coming (well, basically a month now), but honestly, it took some stewing, research, and realizations to bring this post from seed to flowering plant of bitterness and disgust that it is. The whole nonsense that was "The Decision" and LeBron's callousness to everyone that wasn't LeBron, and the mainstream sports media's non-response for what were clearly the actions of a self-centered man-child without regard or sophistication basically ruined me as a sports fan, and I know I'm not the only one. That's a sad thing, as sports are supposed to be something that gives people hope, that brings people together, that inspires, distracts and unites, not disgusts and betrays. You aren't supposed to come away from sports feeling like you need to scrub yourself down in a hot shower like you just caught a Tijuana donkey show. What happened to what we were? When kids grew up dreaming of hitting the winning shot for their hometown team and loyalty trumped all? When pride and honor trumped titles, riches and status? When did athletes become corporate raiders and pirates? Sure, there's been a certain element of it ever since the onset of free-agency, but not until "The Decision" did it all become painfully clear, that the entire sports establishment cares nothing for fans or the cities that heap adoration on these young men treated as gods, but rather cares only for the almighty dollar. There's something tragic about that. Sports stars are treated differently from CEOs and politicians. Walk into the bedroom of 99% of boys 5-15 across the country and you'll find jerseys, posters, video games, autographed memorabilia, bedsheets, clothes, hats, etc of their favorite sports stars. Sports stars are beloved in a way no other public figures really are - and to display the kind of callous disregard of what sports mean is to betray an entire worldview and way of life really. No matter how true that worldview ever truly was, the illusion of it fulfilled something meaningful in our present society, where very little has meaning or value, especially for the youngest of us. That is a truly sad thing, friends.

I mean, there aren't a lot of heroes to be had today. Sports is the last bastion of heroes.. and our sports stars are proving to just plain and simply not be up to the challenge. Heroes are loyal. Heroes stand by to the bitter end and fight to the last. Heroes don't quit when the going gets tough. Heroes fight and inspire. Brett Favre? Not a hero. LeBron James? Psh. How many heroes are left? Peyton Manning. Albert Pujols. Tom Brady. Kobe Bryant? Maybe. But heroes don't rape people. That's a pretty short list of heroes, and that's pretty fucking sad. Maybe the saddest thing of all is LeBron is a goofy ass kid who's being used and manipulated by people who purportedly are his friends but are really hooked on to the gravy train. If and when he ever gains the self awareness to realize what he had and where it went, he'll (hopefully and understandably) be furious. Hometown guy takes title-starved town back to glory? They don't write better stories than that. LeBron threw it away, for what? To be perceived as the 2nd guy and join a Svengali figure who may or may not have a red parrot voiced by Gilbert Godfrey in his office? And THIS is the guy who was the center of a Nike ad all but portraying him as Christ? John Wayne would punch LeBron in the face and spit on him while Bron cried for his paid security to come protect him.

When someone does something so callous and truly contrary to the established values of a society that he immediately goes from widely beloved to widely loathed by the public that cares about such things, the role of the media in such a circumstance should be to call it down the middle and roast that guy on a spit. This is what would happen to any other figure in any other field that had such an epic fall from grace. See: Edwards, John, Cruise, Tom for examples. The problem is that the sports media has become so centralized in one entity, which has in turn become populated by insiders and people trying to get back into the business and thus unwilling or unable to piss off important people in the sports on which they report that the media has become unreliable and an ineffective source of information. ESPN has spent the last 15 years destroying all other sports media, to such an extent that it has no real competition as a source of sports information. This would in and of itself not be a problem, the problem is that "the mothership" has spent the last 5 or 6 years hiring players that have JUST retired, coaches that have JUST been fired, and GMs who are still looking to get back into the game. Since Sean Salisbury and Harold Reynolds were both fired, the quality of reporting on ESPN has been in a steady downward spiral. Bill Simmons is probably the most honest voice left on ESPN, and that guy thinks comparing sports figures to "Teen Wolf" is valuable and worthwhile. How worthwhile would CNN's reporting on politics be if everyone reporting was just out of congress, and wouldn't mind getting back in? How much apology, sympathy and downright jerking off would be on CNN and how little actual critical reporting?

You simply cannot staff your entire organization with nothing but insiders with limited journalistic credentials and expect your reporting to be worthwhile. That's just a fact, and it should be common sense. In addition, when your organization invests heavily in the rights to air contests featuring the individuals you're supposed to be criticizing (check out ESPN's contracts with the NBA, NFL, College FB and MLB if you don't believe me), said organization cannot be trusted to accurately report on and perform the necessary function of media for the individuals and leagues in question. The LeBron thing finally pulled back the curtain on the whole bloated, pathetic charade that is ESPN, and the wizard back there is a pisspoor journalist. The response on the ESPN family of networks and reporters could not have been more out of step with public sentiment. Add that to the fact that the Bristol, Connecticut based organization would have you believe that the sports world runs exclusively in the Boston-DC corridor and no athlete or team outside of a major market has any value, and ESPN is basically a Hearst-esque yellow journalism haven that promotes what it wants to promote and protects its investments rather than actually criticizing, reporting and questioning.

That is, and should be, unforgivable. The American public should demand more. I certainly do. I will watch actual games broadcast on ESPN, but there will be no more Sportscenter, no more PTI, no more Around the Horn, no more NFL Live, Baseball Tonight, etc. I refuse to be part of the problem. This changes today - I demand more from something I spend so much time caring about. We need to hold our athletes and our networks accountable. As the consumer, power ultimately lies with all of us. We all know that LeBron's action was what a spoiled child would do, and the way he did his hometown was what someone who keeps heads in a freezer in his basement would do, and the way ESPN handled it was equivalent to Fox News' apologies for Iraq and MSNBC's coddling of Obama. Fortunately, no one takes Fox News or MSNBC seriously (at least no one with an IQ over 90), so why would anyone take ESPN seriously? We can only hope and pray that "The Decision" sounded the death knell for asshole athletes and bloated joke networks alike. My fingers are certainly crossed. Who's tuning into the Dan Patrick show with me tomorrow? Yahoo sports it is.

2010: The Year in Film: Cyrus Review

See, it's not all mainstream blockbusters and CGI effects-fests over here, we've got room for the little guys too. Our next entry to the list is a quaint, funny yet sweet indie flick, focusing, like so much of indie cinema does, on the American family in its various incarnations. This movie is really small in scope, and there's something sweet and endearing about that. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Yes? The entire action involves 5 named characters and occurs in about 6 locations I can recall. This state of affairs puts a lot of pressure on the writers and cast, as without everyone on their A-game, this kind of movie can fall flat on it's face. Luckily for me, audiences, and this movie, this skilled cast is more than up to the challenge. I've been a John C. Reilly fan since his turn as "Happy" Jack Mulraney, the crooked constable in "Gangs of New York", I think he's really come into his own as an actor who can pull off both ass-clownery (see Talladega Nights, Walk Hard), and something a bit more serious. Marissa Tomei has come a long way since she was the widely proclaimed "worst ever" actress to win an oscar, absolutely killing it in 2008's "The Wrestler". Jonah Hill, well, I earnestly believe he's the funniest actor to come out of the whole "Judd Apatow" school of films, and I'll argue that with anyone who'd like to. Indie movie darling Catherine Keener (she's in 95% of the indie movies I've seen over the past 5 years, true story) has more than proven her ability to do drama with that touch of comedy. So what we have here is the solid base for an enjoyable little movie.

John, (John C Reilly) finds himself in an existential funk, unable to move on 7 years after divorcing his ex-wife (Catherine Keener), with whom he remains close. His ex and her new fiancee goad John into getting out of the house and meeting people, which he finally agrees to after some prodding. After going to a party, he hits it off with a seemingly perfect woman, Molly (Tomei). After a brief dating period, he and Molly become more and more serious, but something gets in the way - Molly's coddled, maladjusted 21 year old son, Cyrus. Molly and Cyrus' relationship borders on the absurd, and Jonah Hill relishes living it up as the bizarre, often ridiculous, but also tragic man-child who really is just afraid of losing his mother. A rivalry develops between Cyrus and John, with results that alternate between hilarious and tragic. There are no heroes here, no villains, just people.. all flawed in kind.

This is a movie that on the strength of its cast, rises to be more than what the sum of its parts would appear to be. Funny yet sweet, smart yet simple, it's a little piece of Americana, that, like most art, says so much more about who we are as people than any "study" or essay ever could. I thoroughly enjoyed this little flick - and I think most of you will too.

7.5/10.