Annette Bening gets assistance in raising her son in first trailer for awards dramedy, '20th Century Women'

Image from The Film Experience

By Darian Scalamoni

            Beginners is a film that I absolutely adore and have ever since I saw it for the first time. The dramedy starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Melanie Laurent was quite possibly the best movie of 2010 and even won Plummer an Oscar for his performance. The director though, Mike Mills did a brilliant job overall and ever since the released of that film, I had wondered what he’d do next. Well, the first trailer for 20^th Century Women was released today and it seems like he has another hit on his hands.

            20^th Century Women takes place in 1979 Santa Barbara and follows a single mother, played by Annette Bening who gets the help of two younger women to aid her in raising her son. The two interesting personalities she chooses are a free-spirited punk artist named Abbie, played by the wonderful, Greta Gerwig and a provocative teenage neighbor, played by Elle Fanning. With the tagline for the movie being, “a love letter to the people who raise us-and the times that form us”, it’s very evident this movie will be involved within its time period as the trailer opens with a speech from the then-president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. It looks like, similar to Plummer in Beginners, Mills looks to direct Bening into serious contention for awards season as well, seen here in the preview.

            It looks to be a fun, character dramedy and I got the same feels from this trailer that I did with his last narrative feature. In addition to Bening, Gerwig and Fanning, the movie also stars Billy Crudup, Alia Shawkat and Lucas Jade Zumann. Check out the first trailer below! 20^th Century Women opens in theaters on December 25^th.