{"id":5514,"date":"2017-01-22T11:05:05","date_gmt":"2017-01-22T16:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=5514"},"modified":"2026-09-19T18:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T22:11:20","slug":"20th-century-women-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=5514","title":{"rendered":"20th Century Women-2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

20th Century Women-2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Mike Mills<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Annette Benning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #611<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed January 22, 2017<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Annette Benning shines in her leading role in 20th Century Women (2016), a film directed by Mike Mills, a formidable independent filmmaker whose credits include 2010’s Beginners and 2005’s Thumbsucker.<\/p>\n

In 20th Century Women, Mills serves as director and writer, so the film is his vision.<\/p>\n

All five principal characters are quirky and well-written, though Benning’s is the most nuanced and fascinating.<\/p>\n

The story is set in 1979 Santa Barbara. Despite the image of Santa Barbara as a wealthy, grand town dripping with the rich and powerful (perhaps due to the sweeping 1980s daytime soap opera of the same name), Mills doesn’t present this film that way.<\/p>\n

He presents Santa Barbara as a more artsy town, at least for his characters.<\/p>\n

Benning plays Dorothea Fields, a fifty-five-year-old divorced mother of a fifteen-year-old boy, Jaimie.<\/p>\n

She is a free spirit who allows two runaways to live with her: Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a twenty-five-year-old aspiring photographer with fuchsia-colored hair recovering from cervical cancer, and William (Billy Crudup), a handyman.<\/p>\n

They are joined by Jaimie’s good friend, Julie (Elle Fanning), a depressed neighbor.<\/p>\n

The film explores each character’s trials and tribulations and their interactions in a quirky way, and we fall in love with each of them.<\/p>\n

Dorothea enlists Abbie and Julie’s help to have a positive influence after he nearly dies after a foolish teenage prank.<\/p>\n

Mills gives the period a slice-of-life feel, heavily referencing punk rock and the film’s political climate.<\/p>\n

Bands such as Talking Heads and Black Flag reflect Dorothea’s struggle to learn what young people like, stay youthful, and stay in touch with her charges.<\/p>\n

Dorothea is a chain smoker, and many scenes feature her pondering a situation while taking long drags. I love this aspect of the film as it showcases Benning’s cerebral performance.<\/p>\n

She is a thoughtful woman who wants her son to grow up sane and productive since his father is absent.<\/p>\n

Sex and feminism are significant themes in the film. Abbie loans Jaimie two books by female feminist authors to help him better understand women.<\/p>\n

When he begins to discuss orgasms and a strange conversation about sex and virginity ensues during a dinner party Dorothea is hosting, the graphic detail is a bit too much for Dorothea.<\/p>\n

She is a conflicted character- open-minded and caring; when it comes to her son, she has a more conservative edge while trying to remain open to his new experiences as a teen.<\/p>\n

20th Century Women is strictly a character-driven film with enormous strength.<\/p>\n

Each character is in a different place in life, and I adore how the film gives a conclusion to each character’s life in the years to come.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the film follows the “happily ever after” formula, but that doesn’t bother me. Instead, the film is so well composed that the characters’ lives enrapture me.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the film is slow-moving at times, but that’s because of the richness of the dialogue\u2014nothing is rushed.<\/p>\n

Kudos to the cast. Gerwig and Fanning are incredibly excellent. Fanning’s Julie is a unique character- her mother is a psychiatrist who forces her to attend group sessions that she holds.<\/p>\n

Julie has a step-sister with cerebral palsy, so Julie frequently sleeps at Dorothea’s house as a way to escape her life.<\/p>\n

Sexually active, Julie has a pregnancy scare during the story.<\/p>\n

A coming-of-age film set in an enjoyable time, 20th Century Women (2016) showcases the talents of a stellar cast led by Bening, takes audiences into a wonderful, character-driven world, and explores the lives of its intriguing characters with a clear portrayal of life in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Original Screenplay<\/p>\n

Independent Spirit Award Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Female Lead-Annette Bening, Best Screenplay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20th Century Women-2016 Director Mike Mills Starring Annette Benning Scott’s Review #611 Reviewed January 22, 2017 Grade: A- Annette Benning shines in her leading role in 20th Century Women (2016), a film directed by Mike Mills, a formidable independent filmmaker whose credits include 2010’s Beginners and 2005’s Thumbsucker. In 20th Century Women, Mills serves as … Continue reading 20th Century Women-2016<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[280,49,11649,192,41,215,211],"tags":[1692,5162,2181,2921,6152,6151,12691],"class_list":["post-5514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-movie-reviews","category-comedies","category-coming-of-age","category-dramas","category-indiefilms","category-indie-comedies","category-indie-dramas","tag-annette-bening","tag-billy-crudup","tag-elle-fanning","tag-greta-gerwig","tag-lucas-jade-zumann","tag-mike-mills","tag-waleed-zuaiter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5514"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24555,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5514\/revisions\/24555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}