tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post8498581572982619820..comments2023-05-10T05:55:31.372-07:00Comments on The Feminist Spectator: The Kids are All Right, ReduxJill Dolanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09674110837402216325noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post-71462890728633512932010-08-16T14:26:56.172-07:002010-08-16T14:26:56.172-07:00Glad to be joining the conversation about this mov...Glad to be joining the conversation about this movie (and glad it was made and provoking controversy). In response to Jack's comment above, first, glad to have it as part of this thread, and second, I actually don't think that the film's central theme was "See, lesbian families are just like heterosexual ones." And I disagree that the relationship was inert and full of domestic drudgery. It seems to me that the film caught a relationship in a transitional moment, in which issues of power and desire were worked out over the body of the heterosexual man who enters their lives for a brief moment. The commitment that moves me in the film isn't to a life full of boredom and a lack of passion, but to a life that's built out of and over the inevitable flaws in its fabric. I can see all the criticisms here, and even agree with many of them. But I'm still glad that the film is in wide enough release that we can all argue about it!Jill Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09674110837402216325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post-42855552902823164522010-08-09T19:17:31.387-07:002010-08-09T19:17:31.387-07:00Love how you articulated my perception of this mov...Love how you articulated my perception of this movie. The emotional journeys of the characters rang true. Hi to you and Stacy.Isabellenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post-23378380105417598152010-08-09T15:42:18.582-07:002010-08-09T15:42:18.582-07:00Jill: this is a really great and thoughtful consid...Jill: this is a really great and thoughtful consideration of the film, its impact and what it could reasonably be expected to do. but still, there is just so much accommodation and resignation even in your account of it - you ask whether we should be looking for anything radical in a mainstream film, you propose that a film like this cannot please everyone and you ask us to think about the fact that the film at least gets a message out there about the ordinariness of Lesbian and Gay families and therefore it fights the good fight for more tolerance of non-traditional families. ok. But my objection to the film, on Bullybloggers, and other objections that I have read is that the film goes against its own premise!! If the message is - see we queers, just like you, struggle with this particularly dysfunctional and convoluted family form, and like you heterosexuals, we find ourselves bored and suffocated by domestic drudgery, then the resolution cannot be GRIN AND BEAR IT! If one woman is sexually frustrated in the relationship and deeply satisfied by an affair with a man, then it makes no sense for the outcome to be - but i will stay in my domestic drudgery after all. And finally, if the argument is we can parent, love, fight and inspire both passion and inertia as much or as little as any other familial arrangement, then we needed to see the love, the passion and the good parenting as well as the fighting, the smothering and the inertia...it is not the message that is wrong about this film, it is the logic of the film itself. Finally, if the film had confronted the possibility that one parent might be gender variant, a queer dad rather than a lesbian mom, then this too would have really shaken up the rather hum drum arrangements that Cholodenko puts into play! thanks for your review and for linking to Bullybloggers! JackJackhttp://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post-49689831830073846632010-08-08T07:21:31.563-07:002010-08-08T07:21:31.563-07:00I just thought the movie was a piece of crap. bad ...I just thought the movie was a piece of crap. bad writing, no storyline. they used lesbianism for exploitation, clearly. the only reason I can tell that this movie has received good reviews is due to the successful task Hollywood has achieved at dumbing us down.Lyla Turnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14097910058104912007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post-9149688398120974932010-08-07T20:39:07.944-07:002010-08-07T20:39:07.944-07:00great! the more I read of the criticism, the mor...great! the more I read of the criticism, the more I think a) they didn't see the same movie i did, b) they don't want fully fleshed, fallible representations of lgbt people, they want bumper stickers, c) the hostility to lesbians who parent is over the top, that's the big unspoken prejudice in the room. Finally, have they ever been in a Long Term Relationship? DO they miss the fact that Mark Ruffalo's character is rejected? HollyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com