Film

20th Century Women

Name: 20th Century Women
Genre: Drama
Released: 2016
Cast: Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, Lucas Jade Zumann

Mike Mills' loose, warm memory-piece follows a single mother in 1979 Santa Barbara who recruits two younger women to help raise her teenage son, believing he needs more women in his life than she alone can offer. It's less plot than mood and conversation — funny, tender, structurally playful, narrated from multiple angles. For anyone who likes their coming-of-age stories talky, generous, and unresolved.

TMDb rating

7.3

If you liked this

Lady Bird2017

Greta Gerwig's directorial debut, made not long after she starred here, carries the same mother-daughter friction into a sharper, funnier register. Same warmth, tighter focus.

But More conventional structure and a single point of view — less of the sprawling, essay-like feel this film has.

Beginners2011

Mike Mills' earlier film, also autobiographical, also about parents and children figuring out love and honesty on the fly. You can feel him developing the voice he'd perfect here.

But Rougher and sadder around the edges — grief sits closer to the surface than in 20th Century Women.

The Squid and the Whale2005

Another sharply observed, semi-autobiographical family portrait where kids absorb the fallout of adult choices in real time. Same unsentimental tenderness, same eye for period detail.

But Colder and more cutting — divorce, not raising a son together, and the humor has real teeth.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Decline of Western Civilization1981no page yet

Abbie's punk aesthetic and record collection aren't invented; this film documents the actual scene and sound the movie is lovingly recreating, era and all.

A blistering documentary shot right inside the LA punk scene that Abbie's character is echoing — Black Flag, X, the Germs, filmed live and unglamorous. This is the real thing the movie is quoting.

But No narrative, no comfort — raw performance footage and interviews, abrasive by design.

Frances Ha2013

Gerwig again, this time as star and co-writer, playing a woman not unlike Abbie: broke, funny, figuring out adulthood without a script. Same loose, life-sized rhythm.

But Black-and-white, New York, and entirely about one woman's drift rather than a household of overlapping lives.

Boyhood2014

Another film obsessed with capturing a specific stretch of American growing-up with documentary-level texture and no tidy arcs. Time itself is the plot.

But Twelve years compressed into linear scenes rather than one vivid, layered summer — a very different sense of pacing.

Captain Fantastic2016

A different kind of unconventional household, where a parent's countercultural ideals collide with what a kid actually needs from the world. Funny and moving in similar proportions.

But Broader and more overtly sentimental, with a plot that pushes harder than this film ever does.

Little Women2019

Gerwig directing multiple women across generations wrestling with independence, ambition, and how to live — the same ensemble warmth, just in petticoats.

But Nineteenth-century setting and a much more classical, plotted structure — no free-floating punk energy here.

The Way Back2010no page yet

A quieter, more mainstream cousin: a shy teenage boy finds unexpected mentors outside his own family during one formative summer. Sweet without being saccharine.

But Simpler and more crowd-pleasing — it resolves neatly in ways this film deliberately refuses to.

American Honey2016

For the same late-70s/early-80s wandering-youth feeling but rawer and rowdier — kids figuring themselves out through motion, music, and bad decisions.

But Much longer, grittier, and less structured — closer to a fever dream than a memory piece.

Harold and Maude1971

Same structural idea — a young man's coming-of-age steered not by a parent but by an older woman outside conventional roles — done fifty years earlier, unapologetically weirder.

An odd, tender friendship between a death-obsessed young man and a free-spirited older woman who teaches him how to actually live. Decades earlier, it's already doing the cross-generational mentorship this film revives.

But Blacker comedy, a stranger premise, and a soundtrack (Cat Stevens) that dates it very visibly to its own era.

Persepolis2007

Both are stories of a young person shaped by a chorus of women's voices during a period of upheaval — one cultural, one political — told with the same warmth and dry wit.

An animated memoir of a girl coming of age amid revolution in Iran, raised as much by outspoken women in her life as by her parents. Same feminist coming-of-age spine, wildly different canvas.

But Black-and-white animation and a far higher political stakes — this isn't a gentle Santa Barbara summer.