20th Century Women – Review

Director Mike Mills has a knack for adding depth and consequence to seemingly inconsequential moments. 20th CENTURY WOMEN is about those moments – the small conversations in a bedroom with friends or a discussion in the kitchen with your mom that you didn’t know in the moment would leave such an indelible mark on your life. Mills strings together a series of short moments in a way that you get to know really know these characters. These everyday moments reveal quirks and contradiction, creating complexity; or more simply put… real characters.

Set in Santa Barbara, the film follows Dorothea Fields (Annette Bening), a single mother in her mid-50s who is raising her adolescent son, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann). Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women (Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning) to help out her son when she begins to feel that he is slipping away from her.

Each frame is bursting with energy as Mills documents the laughs and the tears in a warm sunny palette. Like the director’s previous work, the visuals and music become an essential part of the story. The film becomes a sort of collage, showing photos throughout from the characters’ past and that of America. While he goes a little bit too heavy at times with an Instagram-like filter in some shots, the film is still a delight to watch.

Dorothea is a force to be reckoned and Annette Bening captures her with a reserved but unexpected gusto, in what will surely become one of Bening’s defining roles in her career. Her chain smoking is the only constant in the film, otherwise you never quite know how she will react in any given scene – except that more than likely her assertive and sometimes brash tone will make you chuckle. Although always captivating on screen, Gerwig mainly plays to her strengths, portraying an artsy free spirit who doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life either.

There’s a scene late on around a dinner table that is one of the funniest and most genuine “honest to a fault” moments of 2016. Each character is explored as a normal discussion veers to what most would consider “improper” dinner conversation. While the emotional beats throughout the film don’t land as heavily as they did in Mills’ previous film BEGINNERS, the characters might be richer, each one layered with suppressed guilt and regret.

Although it may appear like we do, in life, we don’t have all the answers. Most of life is about figuring things out in the moment. 20th CENTURY WOMEN is a funny and poignant celebration of those people. The kind of people who are still searching, and Mills is here to say that that’s ok.

Overall score: 4 out of 5

20th Century Women opens in St. Louis on January 21st