Respond to these rapid questions in our 20th Century Women quiz and we will tell you which 20th Century Women character you are. Play it now.
Chain-smoking and Birkenstock-wearing are two things that come to mind. 55-year-old Jamie, Dorothea’s 15-year-old son, explains that Dorothea “comes from the Depression,” as if “The Depression” were the planet Jupiter in his mother’s solar system. In her rambling home with an open-door policy, she serves as the matriarch. In order to figure out what is really going on beneath the surface of other people’s conversations, Dorothea has a habit of squinting tightly when they are talking. As her son wriggles away from her piercing gaze, she is horrified. She organizes impromptu dinner parties for her friends (and anyone else she happens to meet over the course of her day). She is a homebody, but she is not a hermit. “They know they’re not good, right?” she wonders when she hears a song by Black Flag, and she’s a little perplexed by the cultural shifts that have occurred since her own youth. She’s a “child of the Great Depression.” She’s a tough cookie. In “20th Century Women,” written and directed by Mike Mills, Annette Bening portrays Dorothea, who gives one of the best performances of the year (and one of Bening’s personal best as well) in one of the best performances of the year.
Mills is an incredibly talented writer. In his second feature film, “Beginners,” in which Christopher Plummer won an Academy Award for his performance as a father who came out of his closet at the age of 75, he demonstrated this ability. Mills’ father was the subject of “Beginners,” and his mother is the subject of “20th Century Women.” Together, the films form a trilogy of love stories, memorials, and eulogies that serve as bookends. Among other things, John Steinbeck wrote East of Eden for his two sons, in order to show them what his childhood had been like, what the Salinas Valley had been like back in the day, and what their ancestors were like, among other things. Personal history is told in the style of an investigative documentary. Mills’ films are of a similar caliber to Mills’ films. They aren’t acts of nostalgia captured on film with a golden gauzy filter on top of it. They are attempting to communicate with you. Akin to her previous film, “Beginners,” Mills employs archival photographs and voiceover to convey the connective tissue as well as the abyss that separates the present from the past. The future is also present in the present. The majority of “20th Century Women” is narrated by Jamie, although all of the other characters contribute to the story as well. You can find out about them by asking them questions about themselves, their backgrounds, and their plans. This method is analogous to sneaking a peek at the final page of a novel.
The film “20th Century Women” takes place in Santa Barbara, California, in the year 1979. On television, Jimmy Carter appears to be exhausted. Teenage girls smoke cigarettes and read Judy Blume’s novel “Forever” cover to cover. Skateboarding and punk music are the latest fashion trends. She gave birth to her son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) when she was 40 years old and has raised him on her own. There are two tenants in Dorothea’s dilapidated fixer-upper house: Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a maroon-haired photographer recovering from cervical cancer, and William (Billy Crudup), a mechanic/potter/carpenter who still speaks in hippie lingo (“energy,” “earth mothers”) and is patient and helpful despite his lack of direction in life. In the film, Jamie’s childhood best friend, Julie (Elle Fanning), is a ragingly depressed and promiscuous young woman who is so depressed at home that she crawls through Jamie’s window at night to sleep (platonically) with him on his mattress on the floor. Jamie, understandably, is in a state of extreme horniness as a result of this situation.
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Dorothea has a panicked feeling that being a single mother will not be “enough” to help Jamie transition into this new phase of his life, and she acts on that feeling. She asks Abbie and Julie to assist Jamie by opening up about their personal lives to him. Abbie and Julie are perplexed as to how this will benefit them, and they are willing to give it a shot despite their reservations. Jamie is introduced to punk music clubs by Abbie, who also provides her with hardcore feminist literature to read throughout the course of the film. After getting into a fight with a boy at school over “clitoral stimulation,” Jamie and Dorothea have one of the most amusing exchanges in the film when Jamie explains what the fight was about to Dorothea. It’s in that scene that Bening delivers one of my favorite line readings of the year: “That’s all right. Jesus. Yeah.”) Jamie is surrounded by women who are eccentric and complicated. Their bodies are erratic and confusing: Abbie’s “incompetent” cervix, Julie’s pregnancy scare, and Dorothea’s aging process, to name a few examples of this. Jamie wants to understand what they’re going through and to be there for them. According to him, “I really want to be a good guy, you know?” he tells his mother. He truly believes it.
20th Century Women Quiz
What makes Dorothea (and every other character in the film) so unique is that they aren’t “quirky” in the annoying, independent film way that so many other characters are. Like people in real life, they are bizarre and one-of-a-kind in their appearance. In film, it is difficult to find work of this caliber. It can’t be manipulated in any way. It’s in Mills’ script, for sure, but it’s also in his casting, which is a bonus. He makes a good cast and then moves out of their way. Everyone takes on the characteristics of their character like a well-worn sweater. By the end of “20th Century Women,” you have a genuine sense of having gotten to know each and every one of the characters. In this film, there are numerous memorable scenes, including one of the most awkward and hilarious seduction scenes I’ve seen in recent memory.
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Sean Porter’s camera moves slowly towards the characters seated around the kitchen table in some scenes, while at other times he pulls it back and the camera moves slowly towards the doorframe in other scenes. It’s subtle, almost imperceptible, but it creates a clear sense that “20th Century Women” is a performance of reminiscence. Jamie appears to be looking into the future through the lens of the camera, thinking, “And then there was that one conversation in the kitchen, which I seem to recall. Who was there this time? What was it that was said again? Oh, that’s right, that’s right… I remember what you were saying now.”
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All of the photos, movie clips, and old newsreel clips serve to aid him, the director, and Jamie, the narrator, in their efforts to recall what happened. A dramatic event occurred in the episode “Beginners.” In contrast, “20th Century Women” does not, save for the mildly contrived request Dorothea makes to Abbie and Julie to allow her son to share their lives with them. In this film, we see a group of people at a specific point in time, including how they lived, what they fought about, what music they listened to, what they ate, and what they cared about. With that approach, nothing is out of the question. Throughout “20th Century Women,” the most enjoyable aspect is that the show allows itself to be a shambles of emotions. It is not a bossy plot, it does not make demands, and it does not impose any requirements on the characters as a result of an over-planned story. The characters are given the opportunity to take a breath. People are strange creatures. People are absolutely stunning. People are irritable and difficult to understand. There is no way to predict what they are going to do next. There is no way of knowing what is going to happen next. That is something to keep in mind, according to the film. It’s important, perhaps the most important thing of all, to recognize this.Also, you must try to play this 20th Century Women quiz.
For more personality quizzes check this: All Saints Quiz.
