When I first saw director Mike Mills’ Beginners (2010), an autobiographical story of a young man whose elderly father admits he’s gay, it had a profound effect on me. Mills’ tender approach to his subject, his nonlinear filmmaking, and the way he managed to cram in a wide variety of themes without making the film seem cluttered, were all new cinematic experiences for me. Seven years and hundreds of films later I’m a little wiser to Mills’ slightly unconventional filmmaking. With 20th Century Women, he’s still doing much the same thing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t to great effect.
The film, again autobiographical, is set in 1970s California. It follows young Jamie (Lucas Jade Zuckerman) a boy living with his mother Dorothea (Annette Benning). Lodging is also punkish Abbie (Greta Gerwig), spiritual and optimistic William (Billy Crudup), and Julie (Elle Fanning), who sneaks into Jamie’s house for some platonic cuddling and confessions. This is much to Jamie’s chagrin, whose hormonal teenage urges threaten to affect their friendship.
Though Jamie is at the root of the film, it’s an ensemble piece, one which it’s impossible to discuss without acknowledging the pitch-perfect performances. Gerwig is brilliant here (is she ever not?) as a reactionary punk feminist whose iconoclasm hides deeper anxieties. At 19, Elle Fanning is beyond the point of a rising star, now entrenched as a talented and ethereal screen presence. Her role deals with typical adolescent rebellion and discomfort, but she brings to it a charismatic edge, channelling the allure of screen greats like Brigitte Bardot. It’s Annette Benning who steals the show, though, with a conflicted role of a mother who wants her son to grow up as a free spirit but fears corrupting influences – namely, feminist literature and alternative lifestyles.
As he did in Beginners, Mills slots in montages to reduce exposition, in which characters’ biographies are doled out in quirky phrasings. These scenes feel self-conscious, as if he’s trying to make sure the audience ‘gets’ the characters. The thing is, his dialogue is sophisticated enough and the actors are more than competent at conveying both the film’s messages and their idiosyncrasies.
20th Century Women is a moving and entertaining drama, well worth it to see some of America’s finest acting talent together in one film.
– Tom
Tom Bensley is a freelance writer in Melbourne who reviews anything he attends, watches or reads. It’s a compulsion, really. Follow him @TomAliceBensley.
20th Century Women will be released in cinemas 1 June 2017.
For more information on the American Essentials Film Festival, check out The Plus Ones’ guide.
