City Reels: Vancouver’s Independent Cinema Guide

The Kids Are All Right

The Kids Are All Right is a mama drama by director Lisa Cholodenko about a long-time lesbian couple’s world that is shaken up after their teenage son and daughter contact their previously anonymous sperm donor dad.

The role of daughter Joni is played by Mia Wasikowska, fresh from her billion-dollar Alice in Wonderland starring role.

“Starring role?” says Mia, “More like dream job of a lifetime. But what’s most exciting to me is that now I can return to smaller movies. The indie stuff that first made me.”

Mia refers to That Evening Sun with Hal Holbrook, which won her an Indie Spirit Award nomination for playing ‘poor white trash.’

“Love Sothern gothic, Southern accents,” the native Australian says. “I can’t wait for the chance to do another.”

We think Mia is stretching the definition a bit by categorizing her upcoming role in Jane Eyre as ‘indie’, but the 20 year old native Australian insists her motives and methods were “pure self-actualization, in the spirit of all indie productions”.

You’ve lost us somewhat there Mia, but we commiserate with her over the rigid costuming she endured on set, “The corsets I wore for the role… They’re as bad as everyone says. They’re TORTURE!”

Mia says she’s excited by the prospects of The Kids Are All Right, “We were so well received at Sundance. I learned so much from Julie and Annette. Everything you see on screen for Kids, it’s all stuff that I can take back into smaller films that will follow for me and excel in them as best I can.”

We’ll be watching.

• Runtime 107 minutes
• Rated 14A for sexually suggestive scenes
• Starring Annette Benning, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Mia Wasikowska
• Opens July 16th at Fifth Avenue Cinemas
• See www.festivalcinemas.ca for showtimes