20th Century Women: Annette Bening on 70s So-Cal Culture

[complextv contentid=“N4NDZ3NzE6xWFNMXw4TyVcUTgOfe3sw7” sitename=“collider” playerid=“26aa5f02d93f4c05a4546f6d5ecb59b7” adsetid=“67a3ff9d3a842ae818bb9de1badc5b0” width=“600” height=“360” keywords=""]-Annette BeningÂappears so infrequently on screen that it always feels like a cinematic occasion when she does. In her most recent films, Bening has often given a towering performance that’s far better than the actual movie. WithÂ20th Century Womenshe has a film that’s every bit as good as she is and also doesn’t task her with carrying all that goodness. Writer-directorÂMike MillsÂ(Beginners) gifts many interesting cinematic asides and Bening is flanked byÂGreta Gerwig, Elle FanningÂandÂBilly Crudupin detailed and appealing roles and the result is a collage coming-of-age film with a very adult awareness of the mother figure from an older perspective.20th Century WomenÂhas a simple story that’s done rather profoundly. Essentially, it’s a single mother, Dorothea (Bening), in 1979 Santa Barbara, who asks two young women (Gerwig and Fanning) to help her raise her teen boy (Lucas Jade Zuman) as a good man. Dorothea was a child of the Great Depression when people received more help from their neighbors, but she’s also a modern women who works in advertising, can fly a plane, is equal landlord and friend to non-familial tenants and is assumed to be a lesbian by her co-worker—due to her singledom.[caption id=“attachment_584185” align=“alignright” width=“360”]Image via A24[/caption]The central conceit is that a man becomes good through the interesting influences in his environment and it doesn’t matter if it comes from another man. As such,Â20th Century WomenÂis a film of many cultural touchstones: punk music,ÂJimmy CarterÂspeeches,ÂOur Bodies, Our Selves, etc. I recently got the chance to speak with Bening (who gives a measured and composed turn as Dorothea) about her own personal cultural touchstones growing up in Southern California at the same time that the film is set. We also discussed laughing exercises and the very specific story of motherhood that Mills created.Check out our interview above and also my print interview withMillsabout his punk aesthetics and the necessity for DIY artistic spaces. We’re also giving away tickets toÂ20th Century WomenÂfor multiple US cities, screening this week. Find out if yours is onthe list and RSVP; it’s a highlyrecommendedfilm.20th Century WomenÂexpands January 13.

With 20th Century Women, acclaimed filmmaker Mike Mills (the Academy Award®- winning Beginners) brings us a richly multilayered, funny, heart-stirring celebration of the complexities of women, family, time, and the connections we search for our whole lives. Set in Santa Barbara, the film follows Dorothea Fields (Annette Bening), a determined single mother in her mid-50s who is raising her adolescent son, Jamie (newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann, in a breakout performance) at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women in Jamie’s upbringing — via Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields’ home, and Julie (Elle Fanning), a savvy and provocative teenage neighbor. 20th Century Women is a poignant love letter to the people who raise us – and the times that form us – as this makeshift family forges fragile connections that will mystify and inspire them through their lives.