MovieReviews RATINGS GUIDE
BBBB Masterpiece BBB Very good BB Okay B Poor
No stars: Waste of time THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE
Nicolas Cage is the sorcerer in this film loosely based on Disney’s “Fantasia.” 26
COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY
A beautifully filmed drama about the two titans’ love affair. 27
STONEWALL UPRISING
A documentary about the birth of the modern gay rights movement. 26
PLUS
Family Filmgoer 28 DVDs 32
OPENING NEXT WEEK
Salt stars Angelina Jolie as a CIA officer accused of being a Russian spy. . . . Rachel Weisz is an astronomer who leads a group of disciples to save the Ancient World in Egypt in Agora. ... Countdown to Zero is a history of the atomic bomb. . . . Ramona and Beezus is based on the book series by Beverly Cleary. . . . A wallet lost and found opens the door to romantic adventure for Georges and Marguerite in the French film Wild Grass.
Family matters: We can relate
by Ann Hornaday
“The Kids Are All Right” arrives as the perfect midsummer movie, a comedy about a flawed- but-functional family that, like “Toy Story 3,” captures the drama of growth and separation in all its exhilaration and heartache. Anyone who has burst into tears while choosing a dorm room rug for a departing teenager will recognize the emotional zings and arrows that fly through a story that can turn on a dime between painful and funny. But just about everyone who has been a parent, child or partner will find reso- nance in its bittersweet depiction of the joys and trials of lifelong intimacy. Eighteen-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and her little brother, Laser (Josh Hutcherson), are pretty typical teens growing up in Southern California today: They’re good kids, even if they roll their eyes at their overprotective mother. Actually, make that mothers: Joni and Laser have two moms, one a briskly competent doctor named Nic (Annette Bening), the other a floaty
SUZANNE TENNER
Annette Bening, left, and Julianne Moore play a couple whose kids seek out their biological father in this funny, bittersweet family tale about letting go.
dreamer named Jules (Julianne Moore). Jules and Nic are like many 21st-century par- ents: enlightened, open, prone to hovering (“You’re windshield-wiping again, Mom,” says one of the kids). They’ve clearly formed a close, healthy family, which makes it all the more dis- ruptive when Laser, curious about the anony- mous donor whose sperm helped create him and his sister, persuades Joni to find their bio- logical father. Just another bio-dad melodrama, you say?
Not when the man in question is played by Mark Ruffalo, who draws on every ounce of his consid- erable sex appeal to play Paul, a mellow, some-
what feckless restaurateur who can seduce just about everything he sets his sights on, whether it’s a gorgeous waitress or a field full of fresh or- ganic produce. A bedroom-eyed underachiever, Paul’s the last guy anyone would consider a threat, but when Joni and Laser undertake to find out about him, his presence shakes the fam- ily in ways no one could have expected. Written by Lisa Cholodenko (“High Art,”
“Laurel Canyon”) and Stuart Blumberg, and di- rected by Cholodenko, “The Kids Are All Right” unfolds with a loping, loose-limbed ease that be-
kids continued on 27
25
INCEPTION
A heady thriller of mind games and mystery
by Ann Hornaday “Inception,” the highly anticipated science-
K View movie trailers K Read reviews of all movies in area theaters K Buy tickets
MELISSA MOSELEY
Leonardo DiCaprio is an espionage artist who takes on an unusual assignment in “Inception.”
fiction thriller by writer-director Christopher Nolan, opens with a dramatic shot of huge waves breaking on a shore. And that image sug- gests the best way to watch a film with such a tightly coiled plot, cerebral conceits and formi- dable ambition. Rather than try to game out “In- ception” on first viewing, it’s best to let it wash
over you, and save the head-scratching and in- evitable Talmudic interpretations for later. Chances are, there will be a later: “Inception” is the kind of film that no doubt will drive scores of viewers to theaters for a second go. But the key to success in a movie as purposefully com- plex as this one is that you see it again not be- cause you have to, but because you want to. “In- ception” is that rare film that can be enjoyed on superficial and progressively deeper levels, a feat that uncannily mimics the mind-bending journey its protagonist takes. That would be Dom Cobb (Leonardo Di- Caprio), who makes his living navigating the minds of other people, sharing their dreams and stealing ideas in an elaborate psychological gambit known as “extraction.” Along with his henchman, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and a vaguely sinister sleep-inducing gadget, Cobb has worked mostly with businesses engaged in super-complicated corporate espionage. But
inception continued on 27
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2010
ALSO REVIEWED
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116