Pinch us: We must be dreaming. It’s been a long time coming. But today ushers in the best moviegoing weekend of the year so far.
Just like that, Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” with Leonardo DiCaprio as an ace thief whose expertise is breaking into dreams, has become the film to beat for the finest in 2010.
Granted, there’s an aggressive fall Oscar season ahead, but the bar has been raised. A high-minded heist flick, “Inception” is that too-rare species: the original, utterly ambitious blockbuster.
Playing on many fewer screens, but just as worthy, is Lisa Cholodenko’s family dramedy “The Kids Are All Right.” Two teens seek out their sperm-donor dad (Mark Ruffalo). Truths and consequences abound for moms Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening). With beautiful performances, the comedy engages the ongoing expansion of family to ouchy as well as affirming effect.
A great studio pic and a winning indie not enough? Try the lovingly restored 35mm print of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 debut, “Breathless,” written by Francois Truffaut.
Seven years before “Bonnie and Clyde” hit screens, there were Patricia and Michel (Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo). And America’s first wave of indie-film outlaws owe a debt to Godard.
It’s no accident all three films are the work of writer-directors, folk whose love of the story, the characters, is powerfully genuine. Moviegoing seldom gets as gratifying. See one. Heck, see all three.
