Alan Vega is dead, and there's an orgy at the aunt's house

Ceasar 2022-04-21 09:02:53

Santa Barbara in 1979 was sunny, and the peaceful seaside town was not unlike today. Under the shadows, the dark tide of punk rock and the spirit of anarchism it advocates penetrated into the daily life of teenagers in all aspects. The second wave of feminists began to throw away bras and high heels, and the behavior pattern of first rebellion and then deconstruction became belief. Just as the first shot of "Women of the Twentieth Century" showed it - in broad daylight, a sudden fire engulfed the heroine Dorothy's Ford car, only burning without explanation.

This is the family car left by the ex-husband to Dorothy and son Jamie, and director Mike Mills uses the most concise way to hint at the complete absence of the father role in the film and the fate of all male characters as foils. Mills said it was a love letter to his mother, just as he dedicated "The Beginner" to his father in 2010.

Dorothy, a powder-free modernist who always wears a pair of Birkenstock slippers, was born during the Great Depression and developed the habit of lighting a Salem cigarette at every awkward moment. No one is better at interpreting the embarrassment and cuteness of a 55-year-old single mother than Benin. Her slightly frowning brows, her thoughtful expression, and each burst of open laughter were so disordered and natural. In the face of changes in social and cultural trends and Jamie's "fading", she tried to endure, listen, try to understand and reserve her views. On the one hand, she seeks the help of Abby and Julie, the young women who live at home, not only to bring Jamie closer, but also to integrate herself into the lives of young people (punk bands, underground parties); On the one hand, she empathized with the "crisis of confidence" in the country in Carter's speech, expressed dissatisfaction with the extreme feminist ideas Abby had instilled in Jamie, and knew that the punk movement would end sooner than people thought. "They know they don't sound good, don't they?" Dorothy asked Abby by chance, "yes, but your music explodes when your passion for creating art goes far beyond your skills. A near-primitive energy..."

Greta Gerwig's Abby can be seen as a parallel universe of Frances Ha. Originally pursuing her artistic dream in New York, she was suddenly diagnosed with cervical cancer and had to move back to California to recuperate. Unexplained illness and unfulfilled artistic dreams make her vulnerable and irritable and caring. Because of David Bowie's "The Visitor", she dyed her hair blood red; because of Susan Sontag, she carefully recorded every person and object around her with a camera; because of her own experience, she told Jamie " No matter how you envision your future life, it will never go in the direction you envision..."

Life itself is unpredictable, and that's what makes Twentieth Century Woman's fragmented narrative most fascinating. Under the schedule of the push-pull camera, we dance with the characters to the random rhythm of Suicide and Buzzcokcks, one moment is the present and the other is the future. And the whole movie is a complete memory. Even if the narrative at the end more or less reveals the fate of the characters, Dorothy and these lovely women remain a mystery to us. They are eccentric, stubborn, and live by their own philosophy, which seemed avant-garde in the last century but seems just right today.

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Extended Reading
  • Lavada 2022-04-24 07:01:17

    In the era of 1979, the special family members built by the mother for the growth of single-parent teenagers, three unique women in different eras, the director's personal experience, and various external means to identify the era code. Everything points to the temporality of the film, but it is precisely this point that the film is not finished enough. Not directly related to incoherent narratives, de-drama, and constant shifting perspectives, just the lack of a time-related narrative pressure.

  • Eriberto 2022-03-24 09:02:49

    How special and fascinating is the inner monologue.

20th Century Women quotes

  • Dorothea: That was my husband's Ford Galaxy. We drove Jamie home from the hospital in that car.

    Jamie: My mom was forty when she had me. Everyone told her she was too old to be a mother.

    Dorothea: I put my hand through the little window, and he'd squeeze my finger, and I'd tell him life was very big... and unknown.

    Jamie: And she told me that there were animals, and sky, and cities...

    Dorothea: ...music, movies. He'd fall in love, have his own children, have passions, have meaning, have his mom and dad.

    Jamie: When they got divorced, my father moved back east and left the car with us. He calls on birthdays and Christmas. Last time I felt close to him was on my birthday in 1974. He bought me mirrored sunglasses. I saw the president fall down the stairs and I threw up on the carpet.

    Dorothea: Since then it's just been us.

  • Dorothea: Actually, it was, it was built in 1905, and the same family had it forever, but they lost all their money during the war, and then there was a fire and... You should've been here for that. Anyway, so, it was just a mess. They let it fall apart. Then a bohemian inherited it in the '60s, then a bunch of free spirits moved in, and they lost it to the bank.