In her last big acting role before beginning prep on Lady Bird, it would be very easy to believe this was made by Greta Gerwig, or at least written by her. The core story of mother and child and outside artistic influences is like a first run at her directing debut. There’s the same personal care given to each individual scene, the fine-tuned balance of comedy and drama, an old-fashioned formalism that isn’t afraid to occasionally and briefly go deep into left field, and a lot of people dancing to express their emotions. Gerwig has often spoken about wanting more dancing in movies, and this has the most amount of characters dancing I’ve seen outside of a musical. During rehearsals, the cast was encouraged to bring in music they believed their characters listened to. Then, to encourage familiarity among the cast, there would be a dance party where the only rule was that everyone had to dance.
Comparing this film to Gerwig is meant as high praise, but credit goes to Mike Mills. Performances are excellent to where Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig perhaps pull from Annette Bening’s spotlight because they’re going through an equally interesting time. You read the synopsis and see how easily they could have just been female types, three aspects of a complete woman to help the son come of age. It’s never that simplified, and while for awhile the film was succeeding more because of the actors than the situations, the performances are uncommonly strong – perhaps the best I’ve seen from all three woman – and there is a feeling by the end of a complete story.
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