The indie film The Kids Are All Right, which is coming out July 9, might be one of the stepping stones toward people becoming more at ease with gay marriage and gay families, says Sean Griffin, associate professor and chair of cinema-tv from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. “The movie might help with the national discussion about gay marriage… it’s less scandalous to see two women acting as family rather than two men because women are seen as naturally more motherly.”
The film, which stars Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as lesbian couple Jules and Nic, would have been considered taboo ten to twenty years ago, but not anymore. “Today [playing a gay person] is seen as a prestige project and not some sort of horrible explotiation film,” Griffin says. “Now, the thought is that playing a gay character will get Academy Award attention. Just look back ten years ago with Boys Don’t Cry with Hillary Swank as a transgendered character and, later, Felicity Huffman as a transsexual character or Penelope Cruz as a bisexual character in [Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona].”
Even though the film addresses gay marriage, the film might not bring about such discussion unlike what happened with Milk and Brokeback Mountain because the film is about two women, not two men. “Women are seen as more nurturing; it’s not an uproar if two women are hugging each other,” says Griffin. “This is not always the case, but that is how women are seen in society.” Due to the stereotype that women are more nurturing, Griffin suggests that it might also lead to some interpreting it as a type of “chick flick”.
Also, according to Griffin, the fact that The Kids Are All Right is being marketed as an indie film, unlike other movies addressing gay life which are shown in mainstream theaters, and that marketing decision might decrease the potential for national discussion. “Brokeback Mountain and Milk were backed by money from studios who were pushing for these films. [The Kids Are All Right] is being seen as an indie film, which will limit who will see the movie and need to talk about it.” Griffin also says that since Brokeback Mountain and Milk were specifically addressing “hot-button issues”, they were the catalyst for much more feverish discussion than The Kids Are All Right might cause.
If you’ve been to the website for the film, you can tell that the film is being marketed towards specific people, which is enforced by its limited distribution. The film’s characters are from California and seemingly part of the upper-middle class, indicators of who the movie’s studio is marketing their film towards. “”This movie will certainly appeal to a gay and lesbian audience, but also to a certain part of the straight community–the upper level, straight community,” says Griffin. “They have the spending money, and they might help the movie get a broader screening.”
The limited screening is also a concern to gay and lesbian people who live in the south. Griffin agrees that its limitation segregates southern gay and lesbians from experiencing the film, but he reiterates that the box office will determine if more of the country gets to see it. “It depends on how much money it makes as to whether the film is released to a broader audience.” Let’s hope that it does.
Griffin is the author of many books on gay and lesbian culture such as America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies, Second edition (co-authored with Harry M. Benshoff), Hetero: Queering Representations of Straightness (ed. Sean Griffin) and Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film in America (co-authored with Harry M. Benshoff).
You can check out The Kids Are All Right on July 9 in select theaters. You can also go to their official website here.
