In depicting a lesbian marriage that's about as traditional as a marriage gets -- right down to the drinking, the squabbling, the cheating and the profoundly embarrassing moments in front of the kids -- [director] Cholodenko has arguably made a more revolutionary and transgressive film than you'd see in a dozen queer-cinema festivals in lower Manhattan or the Castro District.

In making a highly personal film that's deliberately crafted to reach a wide popular audience, Cholodenko may finally bust out of the indie niche that has made her career so far almost a trade secret. (Her two excellent earlier films, "Laurel Canyon" and "High Art," were limited to big-city art-house venues.)

This lesbian-mom filmmaker (Cholodenko and her partner, one-time pop musician Wendy Melvoin, have a young son) has made the gay-marriage comedy that America needs right now. Thankfully, she made it before the farcical Hollywood version that you just know is somewhere in the pipeline.

With the release of "The Kids Are All Right," she's also launched this year's Oscar sweepstakes a few months early. (Foolish as it is to predict these things, I'd be shocked if this didn't garner at least a few nominations.) READ MORE