Lesbian Pop Culture Reviews

The Whole 9 Yards: Year in Review

We associate the number nine with extremes: highs (cloud nine), lows (the ninth Psalm, predicting the coming of the Antichrist), good luck and bad. Considering the spectrum of events we lived through in 2010-2011—from the greatest victories to the worst tragedies—the number nine seems a particularly apt symbol for the past twelve months’ happenings. On the plus side, DADT was repealed; on the minus side, a near-apocalyptic disaster devastated Japan. Last year, we opened our Annual Year in Review with the crisis in Haiti, which proves again that life is fragile.

16. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT BUT THE SWAN…NOT QUITE

In July, Focus Features released The Kids Are All Right, a movie about lesbian moms written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko (a real-life lesbian). Kids won big at the Golden Globes. Just at the moment it seemed likely that a truthful lesbian tragicomedy would achieve worldwide acclaim at the Oscars, Black Swan stole the limelight. The film’s stars, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, had previously giggled to the press that the film’s homoerotic scenes were simply a marketing ploy—and that’s apparently how Academy voters like their lesbians. To add insult to injury, the aggressively pregnant Portman walked away with the Best Actress statue.

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