Paste Magazine June/July 2010 : Page 95
LOOKING FOR ERIC THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT LOOKING FOR ERIC OUT NOW DIRECTOR: Ken Loach WRITER: Paul Laverty CINEMATOGRAPHER: Barry Ackroyd STARRING: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, Stephanie Bishop, Gerard Kearns, Stefan Gumbs STUDIO: IFC Films Lost and found Ken Loach’s films are charac-terized by gritty realism, but everyone needs an occasional break from that sort of thing. His latest, Looking for Eric, maintains elements of social and stylistic vérité, but takes them in a goofy direction by focusing on middle-aged soccer fanatic Eric Bishop as he attempts to rekindle a romance with the woman he left decades ago. In what could be called a mild psychot-ic breakdown, a hallucination of his hero—soccer superstar Eric Cantona—materializes to help Bishop reassemble his life. The movie’s third act takes a sharp u-turn into darkness, though that barely interferes with the overarch-ing humanist vibe. Regardless of the strange tonal shift, Looking for Eric is mostly a feel-good comedy that main-tains a mature intelligence, despite a gimmicky plot. It may not be what fans of Loach’s oeuvre were hoping for, but that shouldn’t be held against a film with so many delights, both large and small. SEAN GANDERT 7.1 THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT RELEASE DATE: JULY 9 DIRECTOR: Lisa Cholodenko WRITER: Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg CINEMATOGRAPHER: Igor Jadue-Lillo STARRING: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hutcherson STUDIO: Mandalay Vi-sions/Focus Features …and so are the lesbian parents, and the surrogate father “Family” is a fairly fluid notion these days, but Hollywood has been awfully slow to catch up to the zeitgeist: From the Griswolds to the Tenebaums, the all-American nuclear clan has been a steady mom-dad-sister-brother affair, at least on film. But The Kids Are All Right, the latest from writer/direc-tor Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon), shows that the white-picket-fence fantasy doesn’t have to be so heteronormative. Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (An-nette Bening), are a married couple raising a pair of bright, engaging teens (Joni, played by Mia Wasikowska, and Laser, played by Josh Hutcherson) in an enviable little cottage in an idyllic California enclave. Both Jules and Nic carried a child, via artificial insemination from the same donor—the irascible, willfully uncommitted Paul (Mark Ruffalo). On Joni’s 18th birthday, after Laser convinces her to track Paul down, they slowly incorporate him into the family. There are a few narrative hiccups (Paul, an organic farmer and restaurant owner, needs to hire Jules to help landscape his messy backyard?), and in the wrong hands, the story could have become overwrought or distractingly didactic. But for Cholodenko, the politics are almost incidental. Funny and warm, The Kids Are All Right focuses, instead, on what really defines family: love and forgiveness. AMANDA PETRUSICH 7.8 DIRECTOR: Ken Loach WRITER: Paul Laverty CINEMATOGRAPHER: Barry Ackroyd STARRING: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, Stephanie Bishop, Gerard Kearns, Stefan Gumbs STUDIO: IFC !Looking for Eric photo courtesy of IFC Films
