The Kids Are All Right
Focus Features | Release Date: July 9, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
86
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
This warm, funny, sexy, smart movie erases the boundaries between specialized ''gay content'' and universal ''family content'' with such sneaky authority. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Witty, urbane and thoroughly entertaining. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The self-satire of The Kids Are All Right is so knowing, so rich, so hilarious, so damn healthy that it blows all thoughts of degeneracy out of your head. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Though The Kids Are All Right sometimes smacks of political correctness, Cholodenko succeeds brilliantly in making her little clan seem completely run-of-the-mill. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
"All right" doesn't begin to describe it. The Kids Are All Right is wonderful. Here is a film that respects and enjoys all of its characters, the give-and-take and recklessness and wisdom of any functioning family unit, conventional or un-. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Every scene has its highlights, from amusing observations about sex to poignant truths about parenting and partnerships. But what you'll remember most is the exquisitely lovely final scene, in which Cholodenko reminds us that all we need is a single moment of perfection -in a family, or even in a film - to believe that somehow, things will always be all right. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Like her (Cholodenko) other movies, this one has vivid characters and strong performances and flows like a slice of life set in an appealing, interesting world. But this one also has a good story and, if you're paying attention, a distinct point of view. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
It is outrageously funny without ever exaggerating for comic effect, and heartbreaking with only minimal melodramatic embellishment. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A thrillingly funny and casually profound film. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Movies like The Kids Are All Right -- beautifully written, impeccably played, funny and randy and true -- don't come along very often. Read full review
100
SlateDana Stevens
The movie we've been waiting for all year: a comedy that doesn't take cheap shots, a drama that doesn't manipulate, a movie of ideas that doesn't preach. It's a rich, layered, juicy film, with quiet revelations punctuated by big laughs. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin Wilson
The Kids Are All Right probably could have used a few more scenes to come to an even more satisfying conclusion. But it's a terrific film anyway. Read full review
95
MovielineStephanie Zacharek
More universal than it is alternative, except in one sense: There's nothing else on the contemporary movie landscape like it. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Cholodenko's casually observant style perfectly matches the cast's thoughtful work, though the film ultimately proves more successful at creating messy situations than trying to resolve them. Read full review
90
NPRElla Taylor
It's a classic Hollywood domestic comedy with a mischievous twist. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
The Kids Are All Right ranks with the most compelling portraits of an American marriage, regardless of sexuality, in film history. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
The Kids are All Right, a grin-cracking great portrait of a modern American family in minor and then major crises. Read full review
88
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
That humor is a the delicious underpinning to whatever melodrama happens as these five connect and clash. And that humor is what reassures us, even at its darkest moments, that no matter how things work out for the adults, these kids are going to be all right. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Cholodenko, whose previous features include the pretentious "High Art" and the sudsy "Laurel Canyon," pitches The Kids Are All Right at right level - there's enough light comedy to leaven the melodrama and keep it from becoming overbearing. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Moore and Bening are superb actors here, evoking a marriage of more than 20 years, and all of its shadings and secrets, idealism and compromise. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Here are five gifted actors at the top of their games as five characters in search of what makes a family. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The actors are to die for. Bening and Moore nail every nuance of a relationship going adrift. And Ruffalo is dynamite as a man keeping himself at a distance. Kids makes its own special magic. It's irresistible Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
This gem features five topnotch, multidimensional performances in one of this summer's most engaging films. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Positioned somewhere between sitcom and piercing human drama, The Kids Are All Right, is both overtly familiar and cutting edge. Read full review
80
EmpireAnna SmithOct 25, 2010
A witty, warm exploration of family life that's conventional and unconventional in equal measure. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicKerry Lengel
Mark Ruffalo, in just the right amount of stubble, grease and leather, plays Paul, about as cool an instant dad as a SoCal kid named Laser could hope for. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
I spent The Kids are All Right wondering whether director Lisa Cholodenko was affectionate toward her self-absorbed characters or gently mocking them. In the end, I thought she was both and liked the film more. Read full review
75
ObserverRex Reed
Some people might blindly and inaccurately accuse this movie of attacking family values, but it has exactly the opposite effect. Touching and funny in their upheaval, the people in The Kids Are All Right open the door to a brand new examination of family values that leaves you charged and cheering. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
A thoroughly and unmistakably modern film so rooted in the now that it's bound to be remembered as a cinematic landmark. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Ruefully funny, beautifully acted comedy of manners. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
What makes Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right remarkable also makes it a tad humdrum, which may be the filmmaker's point. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Arrives as the perfect midsummer movie, a comedy about a flawed-but-functional family that, like "Toy Story 3," captures the drama of growth and separation in all its exhilaration and heartache. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJustin Lowe
This love letter to gay-marriage supporters is respectably entertaining filmmaking, it's just not exceptional. Read full review
70
VarietyRob Nelson
Sparked by wonderfully lived-in performances from Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right is alright, if not up to the level of writer-director Lisa Cholodenko's earlier pair of new bohemian dramas, "High Art" and "Laurel Canyon." Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Serious comedy, powered by an enthusiastic cast and full of good-natured innuendo, Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right gives adolescent coming-of-age and the battle of the sexes a unique twist. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineRay Greene
The soul of the movie is Mia Wasikowska, a radiant young actress who captures with quiet precision the quandary of a bookish "good girl" suddenly roused to wider personal and experiential possibilities, and to their potential cost. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith Uhlich
Never quite shakes its sitcom-ish setup. The director alternates incident-laden storytelling with penetrating character moments that her terrific cast acts to the fullest. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Cholodenko casts much better than she writes. Yet, alas, even a talented veteran like Moore can't sell a hoary line like, "Sometimes you hurt the ones you love the most." Maybe if she'd set it to music – nope, sorry, that's already been done. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
There are not only glancing moments but whole sequences in this movie when the agony of social embarrassment makes you want to haul the characters to their feet and slap them in the chops. Read full review
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