Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
That ’70s movie
Life in Santa Barbara, 1979, “the time before America lost its individuality”
20th Century Women: 20th Century casting: Billy Crudup, Elle Fanning, Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, and Lucas Jade Zumann.
The characters in Mike Mills’s third feature, 20th Century Women, can’t wait to share their writer-director’s sketchy reminiscences of life in Santa Barbara, 1979. Mills calls it “the time before America lost its individuality,” but you couldn’t prove it by the the joint mother-and-son narration that opens the picture.
Once the fastidiously worded voice-overs commence — did we really need to know the make and model of the car blazing in the supermarket parking lot? — the characters seldom come up for air.
Video:
20th Century Women official trailer
Mills’s debut feature gave reason to sit up and take notice. Hollywood has forever tried to show its moral conscience by cranking out dozens of “just say no” docudramas. You know the old adage that pot leads to harder drugs? Thumbsucker argues that psychotropic drugs lead to pot. It stands bravely alongside Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy as one of the few American films that dares to ask what it is that drives society in the direction of self-medication rather than simply pointing out the collective monkey on our back.
But feature #2, Beginners, the Christopher Plummer/Ewan McGregor “my gay dad” dramedy, squandered too much of its running time deciding whether its narrative focus was the drama of a son coming to terms with his dead dad’s sexuality or a romantic comedy between that son and his new girlfriend. In the end, handling both plot throughlines proved too daunting a task.
20th Century Women lands somewhere between its two predecessors, with equal numbers of flaws (repetition and a reliance on verbs over visual action) and virtues (an at-times mindful discourse handed over by a near-perfect cast) that occasionally cancel each other out.
Dorthea (Annette Bening) was 40 when she gave birth to her son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann). Dad flew the coop early on, and once Jamie came of age, Dorthea was determined to strengthen her 15-year-old son — to give him a firm foothold in life. Knowing that it doesn’t take a man to raise a man, feminist Dorthea’s duly deputized surrogate “daughters” Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and Julie (Elle Fanning) are assigned the role of dual consigliere for the boy.
Lapsed-punker Abbie shows promise as a photographer and, in spite of Dorthea’s objections, tutors her charge in radical feminism. She also falls for William (Billy Crudup), a fellow habitue in the makeshift boarding house who acts as handyman in Dorthea’s never-finished Xanadu.
Julie, meanwhile, is the girl of Jamie’s dreams, but she is rendered off-limits by a strict “no sex with friends” policy. She’ll “do it,” just not with Jamie. That makes it difficult for a guy, particularly when Jamie’s ideal shares his bed. (She has her parents blessing. After all, it is the late-’70s!)
The underrated In Dreams marked a turning point in Annette Bening’s career. It was her first time playing a strong mother figure, and in numerous permutations since, Bening has left in her wake a string of uniquely single-minded performances. This is no exception: Dorthea has earned her spot in Bening’s Pantheon.
The one donut hole in the otherwise exemplary ensemble is Fanning, who, judging by her recent choice of roles in this and Nicolas Winding Refn’s unseemly Neon Demon, clearly longs to grow up fast on screen. That means an absolute rejection of the cookie-cutter kewpie dolls that came before. The moment Julie appears on bicycle, Marlboro strategically dangling, you’ll want to flick the butt from her lips, Father Flanagan style, and send the apple-cheeked urchin to bed without her supper.
Movie
20th Century Women **
Knowing that it doesn’t take a man to raise a man, single mom Annette Bening duly deputizes surrogate “daughters” Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning, assigning them the role of dual <em>consigliere</em> to look after her 15-year-old son (Lucas Jade Zumann). Once the fastidiously worded dual voice-over narration commences, the characters seldom come up for air. Quality-wise, <em>Women</em> lands somewhere between writer-director Mike Mills’s two predecessors, <em>Thumbsucker</em> and <em>Beginners</em>. The equal numbers of flaws (repetition and a reliance on verbs over visual action) and virtues (an at-times mindful discourse handed over by a near-perfect cast) have a tendency of cancelling each other out. Well worth a look if just for the performances, but know going in that director Mills calls upon his cast and script to do most of the heavy lifting. One unhappy exception to that rule: he imposes an occasional switch into <em>Koyaanisqatsi</em> mode to give the illusion of smeary LSD trails. It’s an unnecessary stylish distraction that achieves the (possibly) desired effect of drawing more attention to his sparkling dialogue.
As of today, Fanning does not have what it takes to convincingly pull off the kind of role once befitting a teenage Juliette Lewis. Big sister Dakota had no problem making the leap from the cuddlesome moppet in I Am Sam to the lead singer of The Runaways. Even Hayley Mills eventually grew into more adult roles. There are plenty of Selena Gomez parts to go around. Until the time is right to make the leap to celluloid slutdom, why force it?
The film is well worth a look, if just for the performances; just know going in that director Mills calls upon his cast and script to do most of the heavy lifting. He even imposes an occasional switch into Koyaanisqatsi mode to give the illusion of smeary LSD trails. It’s an unnecessary stylish distraction that achieves the desired effect of drawing more attention to the otherwise sparkling dialogue.
Here's something you might be interested in.
That ’70s movie
Life in Santa Barbara, 1979, “the time before America lost its individuality”
That ’70s movie
Life in Santa Barbara, 1979, “the time before America lost its individuality”
20th Century Women: 20th Century casting: Billy Crudup, Elle Fanning, Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, and Lucas Jade Zumann.
The characters in Mike Mills’s third feature, 20th Century Women, can’t wait to share their writer-director’s sketchy reminiscences of life in Santa Barbara, 1979. Mills calls it “the time before America lost its individuality,” but you couldn’t prove it by the the joint mother-and-son narration that opens the picture.
Once the fastidiously worded voice-overs commence — did we really need to know the make and model of the car blazing in the supermarket parking lot? — the characters seldom come up for air.
Video:
20th Century Women official trailer
Mills’s debut feature gave reason to sit up and take notice. Hollywood has forever tried to show its moral conscience by cranking out dozens of “just say no” docudramas. You know the old adage that pot leads to harder drugs? Thumbsucker argues that psychotropic drugs lead to pot. It stands bravely alongside Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy as one of the few American films that dares to ask what it is that drives society in the direction of self-medication rather than simply pointing out the collective monkey on our back.
But feature #2, Beginners, the Christopher Plummer/Ewan McGregor “my gay dad” dramedy, squandered too much of its running time deciding whether its narrative focus was the drama of a son coming to terms with his dead dad’s sexuality or a romantic comedy between that son and his new girlfriend. In the end, handling both plot throughlines proved too daunting a task.
20th Century Women lands somewhere between its two predecessors, with equal numbers of flaws (repetition and a reliance on verbs over visual action) and virtues (an at-times mindful discourse handed over by a near-perfect cast) that occasionally cancel each other out.
Dorthea (Annette Bening) was 40 when she gave birth to her son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann). Dad flew the coop early on, and once Jamie came of age, Dorthea was determined to strengthen her 15-year-old son — to give him a firm foothold in life. Knowing that it doesn’t take a man to raise a man, feminist Dorthea’s duly deputized surrogate “daughters” Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and Julie (Elle Fanning) are assigned the role of dual consigliere for the boy.
Lapsed-punker Abbie shows promise as a photographer and, in spite of Dorthea’s objections, tutors her charge in radical feminism. She also falls for William (Billy Crudup), a fellow habitue in the makeshift boarding house who acts as handyman in Dorthea’s never-finished Xanadu.
Julie, meanwhile, is the girl of Jamie’s dreams, but she is rendered off-limits by a strict “no sex with friends” policy. She’ll “do it,” just not with Jamie. That makes it difficult for a guy, particularly when Jamie’s ideal shares his bed. (She has her parents blessing. After all, it is the late-’70s!)
The underrated In Dreams marked a turning point in Annette Bening’s career. It was her first time playing a strong mother figure, and in numerous permutations since, Bening has left in her wake a string of uniquely single-minded performances. This is no exception: Dorthea has earned her spot in Bening’s Pantheon.
The one donut hole in the otherwise exemplary ensemble is Fanning, who, judging by her recent choice of roles in this and Nicolas Winding Refn’s unseemly Neon Demon, clearly longs to grow up fast on screen. That means an absolute rejection of the cookie-cutter kewpie dolls that came before. The moment Julie appears on bicycle, Marlboro strategically dangling, you’ll want to flick the butt from her lips, Father Flanagan style, and send the apple-cheeked urchin to bed without her supper.
Movie
20th Century Women **
Knowing that it doesn’t take a man to raise a man, single mom Annette Bening duly deputizes surrogate “daughters” Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning, assigning them the role of dual <em>consigliere</em> to look after her 15-year-old son (Lucas Jade Zumann). Once the fastidiously worded dual voice-over narration commences, the characters seldom come up for air. Quality-wise, <em>Women</em> lands somewhere between writer-director Mike Mills’s two predecessors, <em>Thumbsucker</em> and <em>Beginners</em>. The equal numbers of flaws (repetition and a reliance on verbs over visual action) and virtues (an at-times mindful discourse handed over by a near-perfect cast) have a tendency of cancelling each other out. Well worth a look if just for the performances, but know going in that director Mills calls upon his cast and script to do most of the heavy lifting. One unhappy exception to that rule: he imposes an occasional switch into <em>Koyaanisqatsi</em> mode to give the illusion of smeary LSD trails. It’s an unnecessary stylish distraction that achieves the (possibly) desired effect of drawing more attention to his sparkling dialogue.
As of today, Fanning does not have what it takes to convincingly pull off the kind of role once befitting a teenage Juliette Lewis. Big sister Dakota had no problem making the leap from the cuddlesome moppet in I Am Sam to the lead singer of The Runaways. Even Hayley Mills eventually grew into more adult roles. There are plenty of Selena Gomez parts to go around. Until the time is right to make the leap to celluloid slutdom, why force it?
The film is well worth a look, if just for the performances; just know going in that director Mills calls upon his cast and script to do most of the heavy lifting. He even imposes an occasional switch into Koyaanisqatsi mode to give the illusion of smeary LSD trails. It’s an unnecessary stylish distraction that achieves the desired effect of drawing more attention to the otherwise sparkling dialogue.
Commentsdaviluca
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Nov. 26, 2018