20th Century Women

A film by Mike Mills. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Mike Mills 20TH CENTURY WOMEN is a warm-hear­ted trip to late 70s sun­ny California. The film has a whiff of wistful­ness , per­haps becau­se Mills made the film as a homage to the bel­oved, uncon­ven­tio­nal women in his life, or may­be becau­se the 70s was a time when peo­p­le real­ly attempt­ed to crea­te indi­vi­du­al life plans. The lumi­nous cen­ter of the film is Annette Bening, who plays sin­gle mom Dorothea Fields with a lot of charm and ver­ve. Growing up in the 30s, Dorothea had her son late, when she was over 40, and she cares for him in a libe­ral way. In flash­backs we see the crea­ti­ve excu­se let­ters that she wri­tes for her son Jamie for school. She lives with Jamie, play­ed by Lucas Jade Zumann as a very lova­ble and someone intro­ver­ted teen­ager, and her ten­ant Abbie, a depres­sed punk pho­to­grapher play­ed by Greta Gerwig, in a shab­by gem of a house. Other qua­si room­ma­tes are car­pen­ter William (Billy Crudup), a sexy hip­pie who helps with the reno­vat­ing, and neigh­bor girl Julie (Elle Fanning), Jamie’s best fri­end – a sta­tus that’s hard for Jamie to swallow.

In the begin­ning of the film Dorothea deci­des that Jamie needs other attach­ment figu­res along with her so he can suc­cessful­ly go through puber­ty and asks Abbie for help. She takes the boy to con­certs and gives him femi­nist books. 20TH CENTURY WOMEN shows the coll­ec­ti­ve attempt to mas­ter Jamie’s puber­ty in a time of poli­ti­cal uphe­aval in a fun­ny, nost­al­gic, and lova­ble way. Mills has a good a grasp on the various gene­ra­ti­ons as well as on the slight­ly over­whel­med 20th cen­tu­ry boy in the midd­le.   (Hendrike Bake)

20th Century Women
USA 2016, 118 Min.
Regie: Mike Mills
Drehbuch: Mike Mills
Kamera: Sean Porter
Musik: Roger Neill
Darsteller: Billy Crudup, Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig

20th Century Women | Official Trailer HDA24

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