THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT *****

Dir: Lisa Cholodenko. Starring: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo
This was the ‘little film that could' at this year's Oscars and, having missed it at cinemas, I was intrigued to see whether it was the real bizzo or just a cause celebre for fashionable Hollywood liberals.
However, things are clearly on the right track from the start as the film introduces its central family with great efficiency, setting up the characters and relationships with quick deft strokes. What is initially jarring is how openly flawed everyone is, not the fact that in a vaguely groundbreaking way the parents are a lesbian couple (groundbreaking only in that the presentation is so matter of fact).
Complications arrive when the daughter turns 18 and she and her brother contact their sperm donor, unreconstructed male Mark Ruffalo, who rather throws a spanner in the works. It is probably his character that veers closest to cliché, but Ruffalo's pitch-perfect performance easily sells it. Bening and Moore are equally fantastic, giving their relationship an absolutely convincing lived-in feel. The kids, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson, are also – as the title suggests – definitely all right, all the characters complex and fully-formed.
If a warm-hearted unflinching human drama with a beautifully-written screenplay and
great cast sounds your thing, don't hesitate. Classy stuff.

In Red Hill (****) Aussie actor Ryan Kwanten (Sookie's less than bright brother in True Blood) returns home, specifically to be a police constable in the titular rural town, only to find on his first day that Red Hill is under siege from an escaped murderer bent on settling old scores by extracting bloody revenge. And, as the body count rises dark secrets are revealed. Not new territory to be sure, but this tight tough modern day western has a fine eye for detail, convincing performances and enough originality to hold its own. Though ultimately predictable it tells its story well.

Second sequels are often iffy propositions and Little Fockers (*) proves no exception. It's also a film that is bulletproof to reviews: if you liked the previous ones you'll probably watch this whatever I say, if only out of curiosity. But you'll probably regret it. This is rotten, desperate stuff, shoehorning in every character from the previous films and repeating long-tired gags where the law of diminishing returns is in clear evidence. The humorous tone only very occasionally rises above the ‘hilarity' of the film's title, proving there's only so long you can milk a cat.

The clear reference point for Morning Glory (***) is Broadcast News, where the underlying focus was the pull between ‘serious' news and populist presentation. But this is a much fluffier affair. Rachel McAdams is the keen new producer of a failing morning TV show. Through dubious plot mechanisms she tries to resuscitate it by hiring respected serious old (and virtually unemployed) hard news anchor Harrison Ford, thus upsetting current host Diane Keaton. And hilarity, if only in sporadic bursts, occurs. Ford is a terrific grump and he sparkles in exchanges with Keaton, while McAdams is simply radiant, perky and likeable enough to forgive the obvious clichés and manipulations.

Salvage (***) is a solid low-budget English effort set in a working-class Liverpool estate where terrified residents find themselves at the centre of a military quarantine. A serial killer on the loose? Al Qaeda? Something to do with a mysterious container washed up on the beach? Or are the authorities the real threat? Similar in theme to George Romero's The Crazies, there is little here aside from the location that is new, but the tension is palpable and the film short enough not to cause frustration from its obviously limited resources.