ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

proud_luddite In Santa Barbara, California during the late 1970s, Dorothea Fields (Annette Bening) is an unconventional single mother in her fifties raising a pre-teenage son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) in a household that seems to contain a makeshift family which includes two single tenants (Great Gerwig and Billy Crudup) and a girl next door (Elle Fanning) who is two years older than Jamie.It's rather easy for the viewer to feel comfort around the folks in this commune-like home especially with Bening playing the head of the house. She exudes charm, warmth, and humour - especially in a scene when she is trying to understand the appeal of modern (at the time) punk rock music. The characters also bring us down memory lane when feminism was in its early stages. We see both the fascinating side of this movement and some of the absurd side.The decision to show what happened to each character's future at the end might not have been necessary with the exception of Dorothea's. The fate of the other characters seemed ordinary and conventional considering the unique experiences they shared in the 70s. However, this might be the point. Perhaps, this was a way of expressing grief for a period (the 1970s in this case though it could also be appended with the 1960s) when self-exploration and self-expression were much more attainable than in the decades that followed with mega-greed and less economic freedom for the average person."20th Century Women" could have been cut by twenty minutes or so but it was a nostalgia journey well worth traveling.

Kirpianuscus The status of "too personal" could be its basic virtue. and its sin. because it represents a chronicle. about "80 decade, about family life in large sense, about sexual education and motherhood. and, sure, about freedom. in same measure, it is a film with precise target. remembering independent films, near to every day details too much, it is the film who could be an experience, usuful in profound sense, or just waste of time. but, out of that too easy definitions, it is an admirable work. for script, performances - the kind of film in which each actor seems be the only wise choice for his character - but, first, for Annette Bening who does a magnificent job as middle age mother, in war against her past, insecure about future, without courage to become herself, appentice of her son, discovering the essence of life next her friends. a great film. really !

christianpowell-993-688655 It took the incredible skill and talent of an amazing cast (especially Annette Bening) to keep this otherwise disastrously weak script from entirely falling apart. The film attempts to do a character study, but fails to commit to any one character enough to be well understood or relatable. Invoking next to no emotion from the viewer, I have left the film feeling neither sad or elated, as if I have spent the last 2 hours doing nothing. Perhaps I am being unfair...as an otherwise non- critical viewer, I have strong emotions about leaving a film without something. Was that the mission?!5/10 stars, all 5 for a cast that worked with nothing and still managed to come up with something.

denkar7 I loved this film. As a woman whose mom was born in 1927, I understand so much of the confusion between decades and lives lived. I loved writer/director Mike Mills execution throughout, but mostly I loved the casting and acting of every piece of this wonderful ensemble. Because I'm older, I especially appreciated Bening and Crudup. Crudup's William so reminded me of my cousin Elliot -- sensitive, 'artsy', but still manly and trying to chill and figure things out. So perfect! And Bening...I just love her more every time I see her. How she embodies each role she plays and exudes this new personality for us to see...wonderful stuff!However, the younger generation also embodied wonderful performances -- Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, and Lucas Jade Zumann were exquisite!Probably not a guy's film, but just what I needed to see today. Thanks, cast and crew!