The film feels brilliantly both of another time and of our own.

| Feb 17, 2021

Mills is clearly fond of all these characters, and is happy to dwell on their moments of happiness and sadness, all of which provide knowledge and worldly wisdom to the teenage boy whose life they will so profoundly affect.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 2, 2017

It's a nice film with some great moments but Mills' touch is too tentative to make all that talk buzz and hum as resonantly as it should.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 31, 2017

We finally have a good film that explores what it looks like to raise a male feminist, particularly during this crucial era. More importantly, we finally have a film that actually cares to do so (shout out to writer/director Mike Mills).

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 22, 2017

There are louder films jostling for attention out there. This one is the secret treasure of the season, though - crafted with tender precision, and built to last.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 12, 2017

There's a certain arch self-awareness in the screenwriting that won't appeal to everyone, but I loved the film for its scrapbook structure, its warmth and candour.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 12, 2017

Too often, one yearns for the simple organising principles of three-act structure and boring linear storytelling.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 10, 2017

A story about the lives of women, the challenges of parenthood, the value of art and a recent past that now seems unreachable.

| Feb 10, 2017

While all the cast are sublime, this is Bening's film. She is incredible. It is a performance of the utmost nuance.

| Feb 9, 2017

Exasperatingly supercilious and smug - unfocused, self-consciously cute, nostalgic and empathetic, but never properly funny. It feels like someone else's long therapy session.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 9, 2017

20th Century Women, deeply charming though it is, takes its cues from Dorothea's parenting. It may seem all loosey-goosey but there's a dictatorial streak underneath, as there is in so much US filmmaking, indie or otherwise.

| Feb 9, 2017

Eras and generations mingle productively in this film. It's a social-historical mural that exists in flexitime, where America the Beautiful is an eternal and unassailable dream.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2017

You won't see any other film this year that tries as hard to get under the skin of its characters as Mike Mills' 20th Century Women. That's both its glory and what makes it sometimes such a trial.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 8, 2017

An insightful and, on occasion, laugh-out-loud piece of filmmaking. Artfully shot and structured, while its warmth and wit shine as brightly as the Californian sun.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 7, 2017

Mills' perspective on formative relationships is absorbing, and he seems like a great guy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 7, 2017

Mills's world is certainly not devoid of pain, but it's leached of bitterness, leached of conflict, leached of aggression, leached of hostility; the pain and the trauma are leached of consequence.

| Jan 23, 2017

Brilliantly acted, lovingly shot by Sean Porter and seamlessly edited by Leslie Jones, Mills shows that the near virtuoso brilliance of Beginners was hardly a fluke.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 20, 2017

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.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 20, 2017

There's that old expression-may you live in interesting times. Mills' addendum to that is: And may you be raised by interesting women.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 20, 2017

It's a credit to Mills that he makes it feel like he's making the Earth move even when he's just capturing a snapshot in time.

| Original Score: B | Jan 20, 2017