20th Century Women, written and directed Mike Mills

20^th Century Women, written and directed Mike Mills

20^th Century Women is an eccentric, often loveable, provocative, outlandish, outré comedy drama.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and two Golden Globes:

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

There are moments when Jamie aka Lucas Jade Zumann and his mother, Dorothea Fields aka Annette Bening, appear to live in paradise.

At other times, the family looks more like a dysfunctional team.

There are some very vexing, at least for some viewers, this one for instance, moments that may be or may not be justified.

Take the menstruation moment:

The character Abigail “Abbie” Porter portrayed by the feted and Oscar nominated for this year’s extraordinary Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig, has some peculiar, exasperating attitudes, one of which annoys people at the table…

She is a feminist and the point she is making during diner is that men have to respect and know women better

Hence the menstruation theme

And not just a theme, but a repetition and invitation that all those in attendance get the message.

Furthermore, they all have to repeat:

Menstruation

It is an odd sense of humor, or this viewer does not really get the new direction that jokes are moving to.

Julie is another personage who communicates with the hero, Jamie and tells him her experiences, from losing her virginity at fourteen to the challenge of having sex in a car, after some serious drinking and being shocked by her sex partner ejaculating inside her, while the protagonist suffers.

He is infatuated with Julie, who explains that they are too close to be physically intimate and make love.

Jamie wonders if he is a feminist, while his mother is worried that menstruating Abigail is pushing hard-core feminist books.

However, her son is among the few men, if not yet one technically, that are interested in women seriously

Meaning their orgasm…

Abigail thinks that men are not interested in this and probably most other aspects of female life…

There are many amusing scenes in this film, one of which has Billy Crudup aka William meditating on the bed.

He talks about some pure images, which make sense when meditating, noble thoughts and fresh air…

And Dorothea lights a cigarette…

These where days when people smoked all the time, but it still feels rather odd, maybe for the perspective of 2018.

By the way, since we are talking about 2018, which is the year when #Metoo might take off in the stratosphere…

Abbie asks William if he wants to have sex with her…with different words

He says yes.

However, this raises a comical question- maybe.

How will we see such scenes in the future?

I mean, after having established that men cannot simply ask women if they want to have intimate relations, what is next?

Women can ask that?

Or is it harassment?

Does it work both ways?

20^th Century Women are different from 21^st Century Feminist activists and we can ask Catherine Deneuve about that.