20th Century Women
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
Feb. 19, 2017 – 20th Century Women
A meandering, but no less stylish, 1979 drama about child-rearing (this would actually make a good “how to raise your kids” double feature with yesterday’s Captain Fantastic). Oscar-nominated writer/director Mike Mills (Best Original Screenplay) has delivered up some oddball characters, and makes them a family, all without major plot points.
Annette Bening plays Dorothea, a Depression era-born hippie in Santa Barbara trying to raise her son Jamie to be a better man than many of the men in her life. She seems to have the same sure-headedness that Ben in Captain Fantastic had, having strong opinions about what youth should and shouldn’t be subjected to (she congratulates her kid for forging her signature on a school note). She eventually enlists two other women in her Bohemian housing set-up to help raise him – Abbie, a cancer survivor and eclectic phototographer and Julie the neighbor kid who loves to crawl into bed with Jamie and talk…only (this is not helpful to his burgeoning sexuality).
And…that’s about it. Billy Crudup is…around…as the building’s handyman and potential love interest for…anyone else who’s around. Crudup is really charming here, as he always is with a mustache. There’s a lot of charm and wisdom batting around this film, but I could’ve used some plot structure. But I guess it’s only right that a movie that takes place in the 1970s would feel like a film from the ‘70s, when some of our most esoteric movies were made.
Directed by: Mike Mills
Release Date: January 17, 2016
Run Time: 119 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: R
Distributor: A24
