A24 and Annapurna are the most intriguing movie financing/distribution companies out there right now. So my interest in 20th Century Women went up 20% simply because BOTH of these companies worked together on this project by writer/director Mike Mills. What we get is a chill spin on the single mother/son story that is never boring, but stays ultra specific by grounding itself in unique characters. And it reminded me that Annette Bening can really act when given a chance.
Dorothea (Bening) is raising her son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) in 1979 Santa Monica in the house they rent. Worried Jamie might struggle with just herself raising him, Dorothea enlists her tenants – Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and William (Billy Crudup) – and neighbor girl Julie (Elle Fanning) to help Dorothea raise him. However, Dorothea’s laid bad parenting style may not exactly jive with these younger voices, as well as the risk that Jamie will see them more as peers than mentors.
20th Century Women uses its place and setting to deliver a nice bait and switch for this movie. The set up would have us believe that this Progressive California mother would confirm her belief that this radical approach could work for her son, like any number of “a family is a group of people who care about each other, regardless of blood ties” movies. However, 20th Century Women shows us how Dorothea was all the role model Jamie needed. Abbie, William, and Julie have life experiences they can contribute to Jamie, but they have ZERO idea how to take care of and raise a person because they have too much going on themselves to think about someone else. Dorothea quickly realizes maybe they aren’t the best role models, but she earns their trust by listening and helping out Abbie, William and Julie. All the while, she takes the stories about her son through these three to help better parent her child. Essentially, Dorothea is a supermom; very progressive and willing to take other opinions, but knowing how to keep her kid on the right track while helping anyone who needs it in the process.
A great deal of the success of 20th Century Women lies with Annette Bening’s take on Dorothea. I was initially worried that Bening would be playing another bitchy debutant with a stick up her butt. However, Bening takes the commanding presence of those uptight characters she plays but imprints them on a woman filled with warmth and empathetic worry. It is a good choice for Bening, who shows range that I haven’t seen from her in some time. Lucas Jade Zumann plays the quiet 2nd fiddle to the magnetic Bening; he’s fine, and even good when paired away from his movie mom. Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, and Billy Crudup all relish the chance to play these juicy, flawed or damaged characters. Gerwig and Fanning are excellent, and it’s good to see Crudup rise to the occasion (helping a lot is his Almost Famous look).
I don’t think 20th Century Women has any message about how to raise women. It’s just a nice, immersive view of a family in flux. There is one giant question though that you will raise like I did: how can a professional drafter (Bening’s job) live in that killer house? And how do those tenants afford rent with their mediocre jobs? I demand answers, Mike Mills. Also I might have missed the point.