20th Century Women review: Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning deliver three of the best performances of the year thus far in this excellent drama from writer, director Mike Mills.
20th Century Women review, Paul Heath, 2017.
20th Century Women review
Every once in a while a film comes along out of nowhere and grabs you with its relatable themes, character studies and outstanding acting. I’ve just seen 20th Century Women, which is absolutely one of those films.
The film isn’t really about the story, but a world and a time and the people that occupy it. It is 1979 Santa Barbara, a city on the central Californian coast, mostly known for its Spanish heritage and fine wines, but in 20th Century Women it’s all about Dorothea Fields (Annette Bening), a fifty-something divorcee with a teenage son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), two needy lodgers and a forty-a-day cigarette habit. Dorothea is struggling with raising her son at a very difficult time in his life, so asks the twenty-something boarder and punk-rock enthusiast Abbie (Greta Gerwig), and mature teenage and frequent house visitor Julie (Elle Fanning) to help her out.
20th Century Women review
The film is a semi-autobiographical tale from writer/ director Mike Mills (Beginners) and charts the various relationships over the course of a period of time, sometimes flashing back and forth to aid the narrative. As well as the aforementioned characters, there’s also Billy Crudup‘s needing lodger William, who exchanges renovating the crumbling house for room and board. He himself has varying interactions with the three women at the centre of the story, and apart from young Jamie, is the only other major male character in the film.
The story is essentially about love and freedom at a difficult time in a country on the cust of change, both culturally, politically and personally. Jamie is himself a 15-year-old at a pivotal time without male influence, and Dorothea ensures that he has the right people around him to make him into a good person. Lucas Jade Zumann plays Jamie, very much the pivotal character in the film too, and he plays he part wonderfully in one of his first major roles. Bening as Dorothea is under-played to sheer perfection – a strong female character for such a strong actress who has been off our screens for far to long. She is given the opportunity to shine in this and she absolutely does – so worthy of her awards nods thus far. Gerwig is exceptional as the troubled punk rocker Abbie, a revolutionist who takes to the kind-hearted Jamie following a personal interest, and then there’s Elle Fanning in perhaps a performance that puts her work in last year’s The Neon Demon in the shade. For me, she was the stand-out in the film as Julie; a shifting, nuanced and sincerely emotional performance.
20th Century Women review
I can perhaps understand that some will struggle with the lack of huge story arc in 20th Century Women, but its tone, extremely well-written and structured script, creative direction and wonderful editing – many cultural references from the day are in at handle-barred in at various points – make this one of the great early movie-going experiences of 2017. A drama that is funny, nostalgic, heart-warming and re-affirming – one that I cannot wait to revisit again.
20th Century Women review by Paul Heath, February 2017.
20th Century Women is released in UK cinemas on Friday 10th February 2017.
