The Kids Are All Right

Before I jump into this post, I've got to give assloads of credit to the rest of my fellow bloggers. I've been in a bit of a loggin' lull of late, with no posts in the past eight days, but you wouldn't know it just by looking at the copious amounts of posts flying in from everybody else. We can't make the mistake of letting post counts alone signify everything the blog is about, but with 33 posts in 13 days we are very much on track to shatter the previous monthly record of fifty logged items. And even if we don't, it's clear that interest in the project is at an all time high. So, again, rounds of applause for all.

Now, this movie. It was nominated for several Academy Awards a few years ago, including the prestigious "Best Picture." I understand why it received the nominations it received, but I definitely would not call it one of the best movies from 2010. Don't get me wrong - it's a well-made movie on every level I can imagine, from acting to writing to editing and pacing and directing. Its biggest crime is simply being generic. The two sentence plot is as follows: "A lesbian couple raising two teens sees their marriage put to the test when one wife sleeps with their children's sperm donor, a relaxed and carefree man who has recently reentered their lives." Okay, that wasn't even two sentences. My point is that no matter how properly executed this film was, it was doomed to be uninteresting from the start. The family drama doesn't lead to any meaningful repercussions; no one is killed or imprisoned or anything close to that. The biological father isn't a danger to the kids or a nutjob himself, and ultimately the worst thing to happen to anyone at any point in this movie is infidelity. Look, adultery is a shitty thing, but given all the movies out there that manage to include adultery and so many other running plots, I'm just a little surprised by all the acclaim for this one, which didn't take anything - anything - to new heights or depths or places in general. That the main couple consists of two women is about as quirky as the movie gets, and in 2010 that's hardly a quirk at all. The Kids Are All Right was lighthearted and fun enough not to be a total bore, but it'll go down in my memory as a complete "nothing" movie, a pleasant enough little diversion that did absolutely nothing for me.

If anything, I'm just glad for an excuse to check into the blog with a post of my own. Keep up the good work, everybody!