Written by: Mike Mills
Starring: Annette Bening, Lucas Jade Zumann, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup
Every now and then I do love to go in to a film that hasn't been shoved down my throat for a couple of months straight. 20th Century Women was a quiet and pleasant experience, and I do recommend it if you appreciate stories about people.
We follow the lives of five people all living in the same house in Santa Barbara in 1979. Jamie (Zumann) is a 15-year old boy who's growing up and finding his place in the world. His mother is Dorothea (Bening), a woman who can't seem to be happy and is worried she's not enough for her son. Dorothea enlists the help of Julie (Fanning), a friend of Jamie's who secretly sneaks in to their house at night to talk with him and sleep beside him, and Abbie (Gerwig), a young lodger who's struggled with cancer is now making connections with the people around her. There's also William (Crudup), another tenant who manages to find a small place in the lives of the rest.
The film works because it gives each of these characters depth and takes the time to make you feel calm in your presence, even as they make mistakes and struggle with their various personal issues, drama in the film doesn't rise in tension before it explodes and cascades like a tsunami; 20th Century Women is more akin to a stream. tensions are smaller, climaxes muted, and the film doesn't dwell on its events until it comes to its end. Some may find this a weakness, but I appreciated that lack of exaggeration in the film's storytelling. The film toed that line between being a realistic depiction of life and a story that takes advantage of its medium, like taking snapshots of a real experience. Each character has their life and their circumstances explored, while the film also takes a look at the nature of feminism, the punk scene, and some of society's attitudes at the time. It's an interesting mix, as each character's actions and attitudes can be attributed to their experience, and it all comes back to how these things influence Jamie, and ultimately how that affects Jamie's relationship with his mother. It's ultimately a coming-of-age story in some ways, but it never forgets the significance of each character.
There was a strange calm that accompanied my experience with this film. I compared it before to a stream, and it's really the most apt way of putting it. The film presents its events realistically, but the music and the tone of the characters are maintained steadily throughout most of the film. There are moments where it gets a little louder, as Jamie explores the punk scene, but it always comes back to a certain serenity. I think this is largely because the film is told in retrospect; everything that happens in the story has already happened, and is told as if it's already happened, so there isn't a reason to worry as the path the story takes is one that's looked back on with a kind of indescribable fondness rather than fret. The characters have their troubles, but this film feels distinctly like a memory, so you're detached knowing you can't do anything about it, and calm knowing that there's a fondness in the remembering of what's happened. Even as you become conscious of strife and even tragedy that will eventually happen to these characters, as it has already happened, there's solace in the fact that these events mean something to someone.
The Verdict: 20th Century Women is a nostalgic human story told with restraint. It avoids dramatic highs and lows, opting instead for a level-headed, if a little misty-eyed look at growth, change and identity in the lives of its five characters. Some may find its lack of drama as a flaw, others may not like the purposely disjointed narrative that creates snapshots of this time in the characters' lives, but I loved how thoughtful it was with the presentation of each character, not letting even the least significant go by the wayside without consideration. This isn't for everyone, it takes things at a pace that may require patience if you can't get invested, but there was an intangible yet definite purity to the story it told; part coming-of-age, part relationship between mother and son.
Rating: 7.5/10
Published June 9th, 2017
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