the reviewer missed the point, completely

I agree with you totally. Olive and Gavin may either consciously or subconsciously represent the two sides of capitalist versus enviormentalist (conservatives/liberals) playing to the favor of young and oft-times gullible youth (as Zoe represents) in order to direct a similar ideological mindset which translates into power. Think....MTV's "Rock the Vote" which is terribly biased toward anything toward the "right". This movie certainly sneaks up on you. At first you think it's some hippie anti-capitalist movement but its much much more when Zoe shapes her own "voice".

And Kate Mara is smokin' hot. Which works in everyone's favor.

There were a lot of aspects of the movie that related together. Sexuality is used heavily, because the male psyche and women psyche are supposed by a lot of feminists to represent culture and nature respectively. Why do you think the developer was male and the activist was a lesbian female? People in feminist movements have connections to environmental movements also, and make these types of dichotomies. Thats why The Californians can be seen as a meaningful adaptation of The Bostonians. And this also isn't just a statement about sexuality itself. Can a woman choose to like traditional roles and still be respected by feminists? And on environmentalism, can people be developers and still be respected by environmentalists? So the movie is about modern radical politics and how it divides peoples lives. Its similar to Citizen Ruth by Alexander Payne but more positive. The song she sings at the end is about packaging the revolution as a response to whats being developed. Thank Camile Paglia.

LOL, yeah, it's like the original poster is a frickin' Republican Nixon/Vietnam War supporter straight out of the 70's. It doesn't get much funnier than that!

Problem is, the hippies have already grown up and do own property here in California. That's how we still have undeveloped hills and other areas here in the SF Bay Area and it's actually NICE to live here!

And, there are Republicans like me who are pro-environmentalism without being idiots about it. Strictly speaking, we're outnumbered by liberals, but there are more than enough of us in the middle in all parties to keep the real extremists on both sides at bay (so to speak).

The funny thing is, most of the battles today aren't like in the 60's and 70's where people protest in the streets. The battles like in this movie are fought in state government, propositions, "getting the vote out", etc. I've lived here for 15 years and the only protests in the streets have been against the Iraq war, which isn't isolated to California. (except for the L.A. riots, of course -- LOL)

Anyway, this movie does reinforce negative ideas about California and Californians that people outside this state have about us. From my point of view owning a house and raising a family, that's fine with me -- it'll limit the number of jerks that move in and out of the state looking for heaven because they can't find it where they came from.