Of all the various life themes most filmmakers choose to convey on the screen, it’s perhaps the idea of change which is the hardest to show. Very few films have the ability to capture such a grand, yet subtle part of life and illustrate it so eloquently in all its complications. However, Mike Mills has proven this more than possible with the stunning 20th Century Women, which focuses on change, both in its characters and the world they find themselves in. This is a film about change, about transition, about people asking themselves: who have I been up until now, and who will I become in the future? All of this, in a way, makes 20th Century Women one of the hardest films of the year to categorize. The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globes recently, yet only contains a handful of laughs. At the same time, the movie’s free-flowing sense of whimsy makes it feel too light for a drama. Much like life, 20th Century Women is a film that greatly, and wonderfully, defies categorization.
20th Century Women centers around Dorothea (Annette Bening), a single mom bringing up her young teen son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) in 1979 Santa Barbara. As the changing of times seems to be coinciding with changes in her son which go beyond her comprehension, Dorothea asks the people closest in her life, including her boarder Abbie (Greta Gerwig), neighbor girl Julie (Elle Fanning), and live-in handyman William (Billy Crudup) to help her guide her son (and by extension, herself) into adulthood.
Proving that such a theme is not restricted to the young, 20th Century Women proves itself to be a coming of age story in which all of the five main characters come of age. Yes, much of the story looks at Jamie’s growing pains, which includes his fascination with the punk scene and his secret love for Julie, but he is not the only one to be seen growing up. We see the wise beyond her years Julie as she struggles to exist in a world and an age for which she has little use due to its stifling nature, William’s longing to be useful to a woman for more than just the physical, and Abbie’s internal struggle with how a ‘50s medical procedure performed on her pregnant mother left Abbie with cancer and questioning about where she fits in the world. Finally, there’s the middle-aged Dorothea, who is discovering that she is at a crossroads in life. With her son becoming a man and the decade coming to a close, she must ask herself what kind of a woman she will become as her third act is about to begin. Who is she? What does she want? What does she like? What does she need? Mills sets these questions, which all of his characters ask themselves, in a time when the world itself was coming of age with the hippie era coming to a close and consumerism on the horizon.
As one would expect with a film tackling such deep terrain, the script for 20th Century Women is superb and contains some of the year’s best dialogue. Some lines mix hilarity and wisdom, such as when Dorothea tells Jamie, “Look, wondering if you’re happy is a great shortcut to just being depressed.” Others, including the time when Dorothea describes the difference in the way she and Abbie see Jamie, “You get to see him out there in the world…as a person. I never will,” overflow with such telling and profound beauty. This is less a film about plot and more about moments. Indeed, it’s a collection of the film’s many well-executed moments which say so much and about character and life that continue to linger even now. Such instances include Abbie presenting Dorothea with a collection of Polaroid photos of her possessions which she has taken as a way to signify her existence during that time and place. Equally memorable is Julie being forced to attend a teen therapy group which is run by her own mother and William’s moment of sad self-assessment. However, no moment matches the power and beauty of watching Dorothea dancing to Black Flag as she gloriously lets herself go free.
I don’t think that there is a cast this year which has performed so harmoniously together as this one. Each of the central actors in 20th Century Women have given their characters such life and poetry to the extent that the film will serve as a definite career highlight and milestone for each of them for years to come. This is particularly true for Bening, who can already claim to have one of the best screen careers of most of her contemporaries, yet has found another complex and fascinating character portrait to inhabit, which she does so beautifully.
There is one aspect of the film that is such a integral part of what makes 20th Century Women such an intoxicating piece of cinema: location. Set in the richness of sun-drenched Santa Barbara with its winding, mountainous roads and serene ocean views, Mills has secured the perfect backdrop to let his characters explore the various life impasses they find themselves at. I’m unclear as to the reason why Mills chose Southern California to tell his story. But it doesn’t matter. No other place, whether it be New York, Chicago, or Colorado could have provided this specific kind of setting to tell the story of a group of complex and interesting individuals pondering the issues of life which prove both timely and timeless all at once.
