20th Century Women
It Takes A Boarding House To Raise A Child
Official Site| Trailer & Mo
R | 118 min

I love the Talking Heads, but I think I forgot how much I truly loved them until I heard their music in Mike Mills‘ 20th Century Women, and then, like what happened to the characters in the movie itself, it felt as if it were the first time I had ever heard the Talking Heads!!  And I was like WOAH!!!  This STUFF ROCKS!!  And my head and body couldn’t help itself, and grooved to the music!!!

And that experience of hearing the Talking Heads for the first time was kinda like seeing this movie for the first time – I was like – WOAH, there’s something to this movie! It warms my heart and touches my soul!  And my head and body are grooving to it – big time!!!

But this movie isn’t about discovering the music of the Talking Heads – it’s about an adolescent boy (Lucas Jade Zumann), without a father figure, who shares a bohemian lifestyle in a Santa Barbara residence with a strong, loving mother (Annette Bening), his schoolgirl crush (Elle Fanning), a super cool photographer gal (Greta Gerwig), and a handlebar-mustached handyman (Billy Crudup)

This boy is on the path to becoming a mini-man, and in turn, he’s starting to drift away from his mother’s grasp.  She feels the distance beginning to widen, and so she enlists the help of the two ladies and handyman to mold him into a modern man.  Guess what happens?  It’s not juss the boy who learns and grows – but EVERYONE involved too!!

It’s actually not as cheesy as it sounds, and in a movie that could have easily gone too cutesy and way too quirky, it stayed the course of being juss a lovely lovely lovely little film  

For some reason, in my brain, it was like watching a 70s version of Six Feet Under, complete with a complete ending juss like Six Feet‘s fantastic/2nd to none complete complete ending!

The movie even made me grow!  I grew a 2nd pair of ears and haven’t stopped streaming the Talking Heads on Amazon since I saw the movie.  How 21st Century Man of me!

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

20th Century is foxy for in limited release 

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Annette Bening

Nicole Kidman

Jennifer Lawrence

Natalie Portman

Michelle Williams

breastestest of luck/lick ladies!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Kids Are All Right
Nuclear Family Unties That Bind
Official Website | Trailers & Mo

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore have never shared a scene before the cameras rolled on The Kids Are Alright, but by the magic and ease (and unease) in which the two exude and put on display, as the dual dueling matriarchs of an otherwise purty conventional family with the usual midlife trappings, one would think that this is their 66th time around the block together.  Of course it would feel that way!  They are two of acting’s best, and they are as graceful as they are beautiful (which has nothing to do with anything, but it muss be said), and we’d want them to be our moms too, and even though a few brief J-Moore boob flashes are about as Mulholland Drive as it gets here, there’s little to be disappointed about in what is one of this summer’s few bright spots (although David Mamet’s daughter, with a bit part, is to acting as Yakov Smirnoff is to funny)

Credit writer/director Lisa Cholodenko (and her co-writer Stuart Blumberg), who’s a natural at making movies about natural women.  For those who have seen her Laurel Canyon or High Art, Kids is more of the same… same tough as nails lady awesomeness!!  But this isn’t only about two carpet munchers (or baggers!), cause there are kids involved! (Mia Wasikowska, who may be the future heir to Bening and Moore, and low-key, but way key Josh Hutcherson) and the gals’ anonymous sperm donor (Mark Ruffalo)!!  When the fam foursome are reunited with man who really has nothing to do with em, cept for providing his jizzy-jazz, all heaven and hell breaks loose, and instead of being a bunch of scripted and predictable hooey, it plays out as organically as the food being served on screen.  For once, the audience is served!  Bon Appétit!!

Yaya, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!: we’re gaga for Yaya DaCosta, and her slammin body (you get to see it in Alright, and it’s more than alright)

[more Esquire pics]

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Kids are more than alright today  in NY/LA/CHI & SF and elsewhere elsewhen

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…