A middle-aged person who’s thoroughly accustomed to their life of relative solitude is called upon, briefly or maybe for an indeterminate period of time, to caretake a child. That’s the animating premise of countless movies, and it is the basic … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2021 — Number One
Gas Food Lodging (Allison Anders, 1992). Here is early nineteen-nineties independent U.S. filmmaking in all its charm and shortcoming. Gas Food Lodging is a small story rendered with intimate emotional detail and acted with wildly varying ability. Simultaneously endearing and … Continue reading Then Playing — Gas Food Lodging; The Tragedy of Macbeth; C’mon C’mon
#14 — 20th Century Women (Mike Mills, 2016) It dismays me to know that 20th Century Women is a period piece, roughly as removed in time from the era it depicts as, say, Steven Spielberg’s 1987 World War II drama, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Fourteen
I remember 1979, and I suspect that contributes mightily to my affection for 20th Century Women, written and directed by Mike Mills. I don’t mean to suggest that the film is some bland exercise in nudging nostalgia, resonating only because of echoes generated by its hollowed-out soul. This story of a young man (Jamie Fields) experiencing pivotal stretch of growing up while under the watchful eye of his mother (Annette Bening, plainly perfect) and feeling his personal shape change due the influence of a handful of other figures (including characters played by Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, and Billy Crudup) is built … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2016 — Number Two
20th Century Women, the third feature from director Mike Mills, raids his own history in compelling fashion. He has employed this creative tactic before. Though Mills earned some praise for his debut, Thumbsucker, it was his sophomore effort, Beginners, that stirred more effusive plaudits on the way to securing an Academy Award for Christopher Plummer. The latter effort was heavily autobiographical, drawn from Mills’s experience with a father who came out of the closet late in life. 20th Century Women turns its attention to the other figure that looms above Mills on the family tree. Set in 1979, the film follows Jamie (Lucas … Continue reading Now Playing: 20th Century Women
New York Stories (Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen, 1989). I remember reading Roger Ebert’s review of this anthology film and thinking he cheated by giving individual star ratings to each of its three segments. After all, no one going to movie theater had the option of just paying for a third of a ticket to see the one part of the film he recommended. Now that I’ve seen it, however, I completely get why he chose to take that approach: one part of the film is significantly better than the others. Woody Allen’s segment is amusing but … Continue reading Allen, Coppola, Cukor, Gunn, Mills, Scorsese, Winterbottom
Coffee for Two 