20th Century Women (2016)

The new critically acclaimed comedy-drama, from writer/director Mike Mills . It tells the story of a single mother, in 1970s California, who asks her two friends to help her raise her son. The movie stars Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Lucas Jade Zumann and Billy Crudup. It's received mostly rave reviews from critics, and it's also been nominated for several prominent awards. I absolutely loved it.

The film is hilarious at times, and there's several all-time classic scenes in it. The performances are all great (especially Bening and Gerwig) and the characters are all likable . The movie is also extremely touching, and involving. I cared a lot for all of it's main characters; I really wanted them all to succeed, and be happy.


This can be viewed as the story of three women, masked as a coming-of-age story for a teenage boy. Annette Bening stars as Dorothea, a chain-smoking single mother in her mid-50's who seems to have surrendered to her own sadness and loneliness, while simultaneously trying to make sense of a changing world. One of her tenants is Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a photographer and NYC punk scene drop-out, who is now battling cervical cancer. The third female is the seemingly always present Julie (Elle Fanning), a sexually promiscuous and borderline depressive 18 year old who values the platonic friendship she has with Dorothea's 15 year old son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zuman).

Where Mike Mills's script, as charming as it is, lacks some edge and focus, his directing is compelling and full of interesting ideas. Letting all the main characters share the voice-over narration is an effective move, the camera-work is steady and precise.

Despite its flaws, 20th Women is definitely worth seeing, since it ultimately makes up two enjoyable hours with great performances which however hint at the potential of a slightly deeper film this could have been if it had aspired to move a bit beyond the mere homage to a time period.

I think one of the things that worked with the film was its humor. There is a lot of it, and while its not always subtle and funny a good amount of it works to make you chuckle or really laugh. Its not something I was expecting but is definitely something that made the film more memorable. There are some scenes that really, really work and help you really want to live in the frame of the characters. The film really focuses on women at the time and a teenage boy trying to navigate in a sea of women in his life.

7.6/10 - IMDb
89% - Rotten Tomatoes
83% - Metacritic
8/10 - Verdict