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Yes, James Franco is very good in 127 Hours. He’s obviously overshadowed by all of the negative aspects of the film – the lack of subtlety in the filmmaking, the strange, unexplained and unwelcomed superheroness of the character, the boring and surprising stupidness, etc. – but it’s still nice that a good performance in a crappy Oscar bait film is being recognized. If only the film were just as unrecognized.

10. The Kids Are All Right

I usually look forward to the faux-indie comedy of the mid-to-late summer. Little Miss Sunshine is great and (500) Days of Summer is hard to top. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I see the trailer for 2010’s The Kids Are All Right. I try to keep my hopes up: like Mark Ruffalo’s character, I love lesbians, but there’s nothing that’s drawing me to it besides, obviously, having to see it. I especially don’t like the part in the trailer where Julianne Moore kisses Mark Ruffalo, since she is, you know, a lesbian.

Imagine my disappointment, then, when the film is worse than the trailer. The screenplay is all over the place, the acting is unremarkable to downright terrible (see Mia Wasikowska’s horrible drunk acting), it’s incredibly unpleasant, it’s not at all quirky or hip when it thinks it is, and, probably worst of all, it’s a disgrace to its title (The Who should sue, after the Talking Heads win the case with Todd Solondz for the just-about-as-bad-but-at-least-it’s-got-Paul-Reubens Life During Wartime). The film hops around from one fractured scene to the next. The worst example: the film sets up their kid Laser (that’s right..Laser. THEIR KID IS NAMED LASER. THAT IS NOT QUIRKY OR HIP. IT IS STUPID.) as being somewhat troubled, due to a friendship with a bad kid. At one point, his friend wants him to pee on a dog (that’s right…TO PEE ON A DOG. This would NEVER HAPPEN). Laser refuses. And then...that’s the end of this major subplot, about 40 minutes into the movie. As far as I remember, Laser does nothing else (besides have the stupidest name in film history since, like, Keyser Soze [which is a really stupid name once you realize it is]).

That’s not all, though. The film takes a pretty high-horse moral stance with itself. At one point, Julianne Moore, for no reason, fires her nice gardener. It’s supposed to be funny and true. It’s actually hard to watch. These people have a privileged life, invent problems, and we’re supposed to want these problems solved for their sakes. These aren’t characters, created from recesses of a creative mind, exposing the deepest parts of the artist’s mind to expose themselves, ourselves, and the world. They’re upper-middle-class whiny people whose sole purpose is to make the moviegoers feel progressive. They may have secretly voted for Prop 8, but at least they can tell their friends that they saw a gay movie with apparently affable characters (“hey, they live just like me!”).

Also, it’s not funny at all, which comedies should be.

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