Things are not necessarily quite as happy as they might seem for this very different kind of dysfunctional family
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Lisa Cholodenko, 2010)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, December 1, free with museum admission, 7:00
Series runs November 29 – December 1
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.filminfocus.com
When half-siblings Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) decide to track down their anonymous sperm-donor father, their two moms, Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening), are justifiably concerned with how that might affect their close-knit family. And when the donor ends up being a motorcycle-riding, free-spirited hottie (Mark Ruffalo) who would like to become part of the kids’ lives, it doesn’t take long for some major dysfunction to set in. The third feature-length narrative written or cowritten and directed by Lisa Cholodenko, following 1998’s High Art and 2002’s Laurel Canyon (she directed 2004’s Cavedweller but did not write it), The Kids Are All Right is another intimate drama that explores deeply personal relationships with grace and intelligence — along with a little lesbianism. Bening is strong as the man of the house, overly determined to control and protect her family; Moore is beguiling as the other mother, wanting to develop her own business as a landscape architect; and Wasikowka, who was so outstanding in the HBO series In Treatment, impresses again as the prodigal daughter preparing to go to college. Ruffalo, however, is too flat, and the film takes several missteps, including a final scene that is sadly predictable, detracting from an otherwise fresh and original story. The Kids Are All Right is screening at the Museum of the Moving Image on December 1 at 7:00 as part of the weekend series “Julianne Moore,” which pays tribute to the award-winning actress known for taking on challenging roles, showing six of her films, including the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski, Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and Todd Haynes’s Safe and Far from Heaven.
Beginning with air force pilot Joe Kittinger’s 102,800-foot jump from a helium balloon in 1960, experimental filmmaker Peter Mettler takes viewers on a wildly varying, cosmic, occasionally psychedelic, and always thought-provoking journey through the nature, perception, and very existence of time in his latest stunning documentary, The End of Time. The third in a trilogy following 1996’s Picture of Light and 2002’s Gambling, Gods and LSD, his latest film explores the concept of time by visiting with nuclear physicists working on the CERN particle accelerator in Switzerland, which is trying to re-create the conditions that led to the Big Bang; meeting with Jack Thompson, the only person left living on a section of Hawaii’s Big Island that has been covered in lava from a nearby active volcano; traveling through the decimation of Detroit, speaking with squatter Andrew Kemp and popular techno DJ Richie Hawtin; making a pilgrimage to Bodhgaya in India, where the Buddha found enlightenment; and saving a personal surprise for the extremely apt conclusion. “For me, the meaning of time is that we are,” CERN physicist George Mikenberg says, getting right to the point. Incorporating archival footage with original material, Mettler, who served as writer, director, editor, photographer, and sound designer, has created a unique visual language in The End of Time, reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, which also examined time and space, albeit in a futuristic, fictional way; Mettler, on the other hand, deals exclusively with the here and now, the present. He treats his film as if it were a carefully conceived architectural structure built out of sound, image, and spoken word, incorporating gorgeous shots of nature — particularly the sun, the moon, clouds, and vast landscapes of mountains, forests, and waters — alongside modern technology (including dazzling animation) and humanity’s thirst for knowledge, resulting in a mesmerizing, poetic cinematic experience that is wholly unpredictable and endlessly satisfying even when it confounds. Mettler even takes care in the film’s opening and closing titles, imbuing every moment with an element of, well, time.
The first half of Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective is as dreadfully boring as Detective Cristi’s (Dragos Bucur) assignment, tailing a student, Victor (Radu Costin), who enjoys a joint with two of his friends every day after school. While Cristi wants to nail the kid’s supplier, the cop’s boss has him on a tight deadline, insisting he arrest Victor if the investigation continues to go nowhere, but Cristi strongly disagrees with putting the teenager away for up to seven years for a crime he believes will soon be abolished by the government. However, the film picks up considerably as Cristi seeks help from various contacts, getting caught up in red tape and public servants who would really rather not be bothered. And when he get called in by the chief (Vlad Ivanov from 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) and gets a long lecture in linguistics, well, you won’t be able to control yourself from laughing out loud. Porumboiu keeps the pace very slow and very steady, but hang in there, because the end is a riot. Police, Adjective, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, screened at the New York Film Festival and at MoMA as part of the “Contenders, 2009,” series, and was Romania’s official entry for the Foreign Language Film Academy Award, is being shown December 2 at 3:00 at the Francesca Beale Theater as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema 2013,” which runs November 29 to December 3 and consists of works dating from 1962 to 2013 by such directors as Calin Peter Netzer, Nae Caranfil, Tom Wilson, Adrian Sitaru, Laura Capatana-Juller, Dan Pita, and Mircea Veroiul. Also on the schedule are the rest of Porumboiu’s films, including 12:08 East of Bucharest, the shorts trio Liviu’s Dream, A Trip to the City, and Gone with the Wine, and his latest, the closing-night selection When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, which is being presented December 3 at 6:00 and will be followed by a Q&A with the director.
Douglas Sirk and Thomas Mann would be proud. In Todd Haynes’s wonderfully retro Far from Heaven, Oscar-nominated Julianne Moore is amazing as 1950s housewife Cathy Whitaker, who thinks she has the perfect idyllic suburban life — until she discovers that her husband (Dennis Quaid) has a secret that dare not speak its name. Mr. & Mrs. Magnatech they are not after all. When she starts getting all chummy with the black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), people start talking, of course. Part Imitation of Life, part Death in Venice, and oh-so-original, Haynes’s awesome achievement will have you believing you’re watching a film made in the 1950s, propelled by Elmer Bernstein’s excellent music, Edward Lachman’s remarkable photography, and Mark Friedberg’s terrific production design. Far from Heaven is screening at the Museum of the Moving Image on November 30 at 4:00 as part of the weekend series “Julianne Moore,” which pays tribute to the award-winning actress known for taking on challenging roles by showing six of her films, including the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski, Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, Haynes’s Safe, and Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right.