Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

20th Century Women

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
8.2
/
10
1
Votes
Alchetron
8.2
1 Ratings
100
90
81
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate This

Rate This


Directed by
  
Mike Mills

Music by
  
Roger Neill

Initial release
  
28 December 2016 (USA)

Box office
  
5.3 million USD

7.6/10
IMDb


Written by
  
Mike Mills

Cinematography
  
Sean Porter

Director
  
Mike Mills

Screenplay
  
Mike Mills

20th Century Women t1gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcQLjANex1XxO1Mez

Produced by
  
Anne Carey Megan Ellison Youree Henley

Starring
  
Annette Bening Elle Fanning Greta Gerwig Lucas Jade Zumann Billy Crudup

Nominations
  
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Cast
  
Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, Lucas Jade Zumann

Similar
  
Annette Bening movies, Adolescence movies, Comedy-dramas

Profiles

20th century women official trailer 1 2016 annette bening movie


20th Century Women is a 2016 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Mike Mills. The film is set in 1970s Southern California and based in-part on Mills' childhood. The film stars Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Lucas Jade Zumann and Billy Crudup.

Contents

The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival as the Centerpiece on October 8, 2016. and was released on December 28, 2016, by A24. The film was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress for Bening, as well as Best Original Screenplay at the 89th Academy Awards.

20th century women official trailer 2 2016 elle fanning movie


Plot

The story is set in 1979, Santa Barbara, California. Dorothea (Annette Bening) seeks the help of Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and Julie (Elle Fanning) to raise her son, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann).

Cast

  • Annette Bening as Dorothea Fields
  • Greta Gerwig as Abigail "Abbie" Porter
  • Elle Fanning as Julie Hamlin
  • Lucas Jade Zumann as Jamie Fields
  • Billy Crudup as William
  • Alia Shawkat as Trish
  • Darrell Britt-Gibson as Julian
  • Thea Gill as Abbie's Mother
  • Laura Wiggins as Lynette Winters
  • Nathalie Love as Cindy
  • Waleed Zuaiter as Charlie
  • Alison Elliott as Julie's Mother
  • Finn Roberts as Tim Drammer
  • Kirk Bovill as Dorothea's Dinner Guest
  • Development

    Mills took inspiration from his mother and sister to create the characters of Dorethea and Abbie, stating : "It felt like I was raised by my mom and sisters, so I was always appealing to women in the punk scene or women in my world. I always leaned to them to figure out my life as a straight white guy. So I wanted to make a movie about that.” While the character of Jamie reflects his own experiences. Mills wrote the character of Julie, by the experiences of one of his friends. Mills also describes the film as a "loveletter" to the women who raised him. Though the film is autobiographical, Mills also notes that it is fictionalized, explaining, "With all these characters, what guides me is the real person. Of course, I’m cinematizing real people, and you can never get them right or show all of their dimensions, but that’s very much what my mom was like." After finishing the script, Mills brought it to Annapurna Pictures who signed onto the film, after liking Mills's previous film Beginners.

    Casting

    In January 2015, it was announced Mike Mills would write and direct the film, while Megan Ellison, Anne Carey, and Youree Henley would produce the film under their Annapurna Pictures and Archer Gray banners respectively. In May 2015, Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning joined the cast of the film, in which Bening would play the single mother, Gerwig to play a young sophisticated photographer, and Fanning to play a provocative friend of the single mother's teenage son. On August 3, 2015, Billy Crudup was cast in a supporting role.

    While preparing for their roles in the film, Bening watched films Mills's mother loved. The two also had extensive talks about Mills's mother. Gerwig prepared for her role, by taking photography lessons learning how to use a camera, listening to records, reading books, and watching films, and also spoke with Mills's sister whom the character is based upon. Fanning was given The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, to prepare.

    Filming

    Principal photography on the film began on September 8, 2015 in Southern California. Production concluded on October 27, 2015. The film was shot over 35 days, filming mainly took place in Los Angeles, while exteriors where shot in Santa Barbara.

    Music

    Roger Neill composed the film's score.

    Release

    In June 2016, A24 acquired U.S distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival as the Centerpiece on October 8, 2016. It also screened at the AFI Fest on November 16, 2016. The film was scheduled for a limited release on December 25, 2016, but was pushed back to December 28.

    Critical response

    20th Century Women received universal acclaim from film critics. It holds a 89% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 119 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "20th Century Women offers Annette Bening a too-rare opportunity to shine in a leading role – and marks another assured step forward for writer-director Mike Mills." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 83 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

    Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a positive review, writing: "The best thing about the movie is Bening’s performance as Dorothea Fields, who’s portrayed as a very particular kind of contradictory free spirit. Divorced and proud, with a lot of heart and soul but even more over-sharing flakiness". David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a positive review, writing: "Mills uses some of the same devices as Beginners to illuminate his characters' cultural formation, notably historic montages of their birth years or backgrounds prior to coming together. And he also glances ahead to their future lives, after the arc of the movie. But the quilting is more seamless here because the eccentricities are so integral to the writing and performances."

    References

    20th Century Women Wikipedia