In 1979 Santa Barbara, California, Dorothea Fields is a determined single mother in her mid-50s who is raising her adolescent son, Jamie, at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women – Abbie, a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields' home and Julie, a savvy and provocative teenage neighbour – to help with Jamie's upbringing.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.5/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 4.01/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 83
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Mike Mills
Production
Annapurna Pictures, Archer Gray, Modern People
Cast
Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, Lucas Jade Zumann, Alison Elliott, Thea Gill, Vitaly Andrew LeBeau, Olivia Hone, Waleed Zuaiter, Curran Walters, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Alia Shawkat, Nathalie Love, Cameron Protzman, Victoria Bruno, John Billingsley, Cameron Gellman, Finnegan Seeker Bell, Zoë Nanos
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A warm, observant coming-of-age ensemble about parenting, identity, and the messy education of becoming yourself. It’s emotionally generous, smart about gender and generational change, and more interested in lived-in character detail than tidy plot mechanics.
Best for
Viewers who like intimate character dramas with a literary feel
Fans of 1970s-set stories about family, youth culture, and self-invention
Anyone drawn to thoughtful films about mothers, sons, and surrogate family
People who appreciate dialogue-driven, emotionally precise ensemble pieces
Skip if
You want a tightly plotted story with clear dramatic turns
You prefer high-energy filmmaking over reflective, conversational drama
You’re not in the mood for a film that is more mosaic than narrative engine
Overview
20th Century Women is one of those rare films that feels both deeply personal and quietly expansive. Mike Mills builds a portrait of a family, but also of a specific cultural moment when old rules were dissolving and no one had fully figured out what should replace them. The result is tender, funny, and emotionally alert without ever feeling sentimental in a cheap way.
Worth noting
Annette Bening gives the film its center as a mother trying to love her son without pretending she can fully understand him. Around her, the younger women bring different forms of intelligence, rebellion, and uncertainty, and the movie lets those differences coexist without forcing a single lesson. It’s especially strong in the way it treats adolescence not as a problem to solve, but as a state of becoming.
Bottom line
The film’s structure is loose, almost essayistic, which may not suit viewers who want a conventional arc. But that looseness is part of its charm: it accumulates meaning through gesture, memory, and conversation. If you like character studies that feel lived-in and emotionally exact, this is a standout.
Top Letterboxd reviews
özzy (5★) · 6974 likes
Greta didn't write this so I wasn't sure if I was going to get the full Gerwig experience but as soon as she said she was going to be late on rent I knew I was in the clear
Andre de Nervaux (5★) · 6261 likes
"So what was the fight about?"
"Clitoral stimulation"
Olivia Craighead (5★) · 4817 likes
listen, i’ll say it, it is insane that a man made this movie.
Lucy (4.5★) · 3353 likes
greta gerwig: "menstruation"
me: Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode
davidehrlich (4★) · 3165 likes
If there’s one thing that history teaches us time and time again, it’s that the past makes us feel like experts and the future makes us look like fools — we think we know where we’re going because we know where we’ve been. But it often doesn’t work out like that. At the end of the day, the world is something that you have to experience for yourself, even if it can take a movie like “20th Century Women” to… more If there’s one thing that history teaches us time and time again, it’s that the past makes us feel like experts and the future makes us look like fools — we think we know where we’re going because we know where we’ve been. But it often doesn’t work out like that. At the end of the day, the world is something that you have to experience for yourself, even if it can take a movie like “20th Century Women” to… more