As fans of the criminally underrated Laurel Canyon can attest, writer-director Lisa Cholodenko knows well of actors, bohemian life and quiet human moments. And she delivers another rich, warm and involving dramedy with The Kids Are All Right, the story of two teenage children (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) who, without the advance consent of their lesbian mothers (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore), set out to find their sperm donor father (Mark
Ruffalo). When they succeed, what ensues is a series of small conflicts
and adjustments that have unforeseen repercussions.

Working with
collaborator Stuart Bloomberg (Keeping the Faith), Cholodenko delivers a
film that doesn’t condescend or strike a single false note, and whose
structure and detail work together in lockstep. There’s a warmth and
perfectly to-scale reactivity to all of the actors’ interactions, and
each character is imbued with a sense of silent yearning and searching — illustrating the uncomfortable truth that so many more slanted, typical
coming-of-age movies avoid: that the path of adolescence doesn’t
generally end with a flash of self-actualization and cast-in-stone
answers, only loose realizations of what lies ahead in adulthood. For this reason, among many others, The
Kids Are All Right is the best American independent film of the year
thus far. (Focus, R, 104 minutes)