Review of 20th Century Women (2016) by Peter F — 03 Jan 2017

After making an assured debut in 2011 with Beginners, Mike Mills returns with another picture that's as intelligent as it is enjoyable. 20th Century Women is quite auto-biographical, just like his previous film, mining material from Mills' experience as a teenager in the late 70s, and he presents the film akin to a film essay.

Using an editing style that frequently utilizes photographs and clips from outside of the narrative, Mills makes provocative claims on what a changing time the film's period was, with provocative results.

That said though, it's liable to consider whether this feature really augments the film that much, as Mills' characters alone are enough to make 20th Century Women superb. The trio of female leads (Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, and Annette Bening in consecutive age) are all realized portraits of three very different generations of women, and they're all properly developed to be full-fleshed characters rather than just thematic totem poles.

An enticing leap forward for Mike Mills, and hopefully his next project will reach us in less than five years.