20th Century Women
Director: Mike Mills
17 August 2023
See
Her: 20th century women by Mike Mills. Technically, this is the story of a teenage boy’s upbringing and all the various influences he gets from the progressive women (and one highly vibrating man) that surround him.
Him: Annette Benning stars as Dorothea, mother of teenage boy Jamie (Lucas Jade Zyman) who needs help becoming a good man, with the guidance of tenant Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and his friend Julie (Elle Fanning), because he doesn’t really have much in common with William (Billy Crudup) the token man of the house.
Think
Her: The film is filled with dialogue that provokes a lot of thinking. I want to rewatch it now focusing on what Annette Benning’s, Greta Gerwig’s and Elle Fanning’s characters thought. Despite Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) being the central character, I think that the movie is about the women around him (as the title suggests). Introduction of Billy Crudup’s character William is a nice complimentary addition. A nice aesthetically pleasing setting was a nice backdrop (a24’s touch) but not too distracting from the many storylines. Complicated plot structure somehow managed to tell all of the character’s storyline’s in a clear comprehensible way, something that Christopher Nolan could learn from Mike Mills.
Him: Set in 1979, Jamie is changing and so are the times. His mum Dorothea doesn’t get it. But she’s trying, and with a little help from her friends she can do no wrong. Except in his eyes. She had Jamie late, at 40, wanted to be a pilot, was the first draftswoman at her company, divorced, wry and sociable, she runs a big rambunctious house and smokes. Abbie is a 25 year old art school graduate who moved home to this quaint American town from New York for uterus cancer treatment. Julie completes the third generation of female characters and perspectives, she and Jamie are childhood best friends, but has no place for him in her burgeoning sexuality despite him being in love with her.
Feel
Her: My favourite parts of the movie was everything about Annette Benning and all of the dialogue. So much food for thought there. All characters are complex but you get involved with them all. I’m feeling a bit jealous of Jamie and wish I had more women like Dorothea and Abbie in my upbringing. I want to be as cool and as progressive as Dorothea when I’m 55, less smoking. Worth mentioning representation of the XX century itself through archival photos - a bit of an obvious and simple but still necessary and genius touch.
Him: “This feels like a Mike Mills film,” I said an hour in, it not having been my choice to watch. I loved Thumbsucker, and enjoyed Beginners and C’mon C’mon. The characters are highly intelligent, articulate and present. The fact that Dorothea is worried about raising her son to be a good person proves that she’s a good mother. The voice over and exposition of what happens to the characters, before and after the duration of the movie makes them feel well developed and relatable. Scenes where Greta Gerwig is imparting lessons like saying ‘menstruation’ at a dinner party feels less poignant to me than when Jamie himself is a father, but struggles to explain to his son the multitudes his own mother contained. Was Mike Mill’s childhood like this? Is there a way of doing it right? Or would he and Noah Baumabach mine their memories of growing up whether their parents were present or absent.
