A24's Misunderstood Masterpiece | Video Essay
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video essay we discuss and analyse A24’s misunderstood masterpiece, 20th Century Women. And how director Mike Mills uses the fundamentals of story structure to explore complex themes such as manhood, femininity and paternal relationships.
#20thCenturyWomen #StoryStructure #VideoEssay #A24
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I love rewatching the movie with a new lense as time goes by and I grow up. Whether it be a small detail about William copying what he learned about Dorothea’s old husband, writing stocks with his left hand and scratching Dorothea’s back with his right, after Dorothea told him she loved that about her husband. How the movie focuses on the generational gap between Dorothea and Jamie, through music, and culture along with the montage of photos and videos along with the narration. Jimmy Carter’s speech defining American Culture. How Abby, Julie, William, serves as a conversation between them. The movie serves as a conversation in understanding eachother through the gap. I really like how the movie focuses on the difference of culture. How Dorothea listened to Louis Armstrong on a boom box while Jamie was at an early hardcore punk show. How the end of their stories contradicted every belief they held at the start. Focusing on the theme of how life is never how we expect it to turn out. Abby stays in Santa Barbara, after spending so much time trying to get out, and settles down despite being told she could not, Julie leaving and not speaking to her mother when through out the movie she reflected a lot of what she’s learned through her mother when she talked to Dorothea.
This movie gets even deeper with every rewatch. It holds a terrific opinion on every subtle topic which people rarely admit. Even though I am not familiar with 80s punk music but that's the point which makes it accessible with different approaches. Really informative analysis though.
It makes me so happy that you love this film. It's literally one of my favorite movies I've ever seen -- so sensitive and poignant and unique. I hope you don't mind my little essay here in response....
In my interpretation, Dorothea's primary flaw (and the central conflict of the film) lies in her refusal to share intimate, emotional information about herself, particularly with her son. She's so busy worrying about not understanding Jamie and the world he's growing up in that she doesn't seem to realize that all he really wants is to know her better. At the beginning Jamie asks her a very personal question -- "Are you happy?" -- which she immediately dismisses, as she does repeatedly to him probing her feelings throughout the rest of the movie. No wonder he feels like he needs feminist literature (which he does genuinely enjoy) to understand his mother. And it's only at that point that Dorothea starts to bristle at the arrangement she made with Abby and Julie, when her plan suddenly becomes too personal and uncomfortable for herself. We see that she has learned/changed by the end of the film, though, when Jamie again asks her a very personal question -- "Were you and Dad ever in love?" -- and she actually answers with tremendous honesty.
Yah but hey can you tell me what they wanted to tell like what message are they giving to us from the movie??
The Punk-New Wave dualism ties beautifully into the themes you highlighted (Expecations-Assumptions-Generalizations); Punk rejected mainstream canons but ended up codifying its own strict rules while NW had very few rules.
there is not an ounce of punk in this film . rich kids cosplaying as punk maybe
I'm gonna sound elitist here, but 20th Century Women is such a profound movie that unless you meditate on movies, you're not gonna get how beautiful it is. It's a movie with complex characters who dynamically grow. The movie is also technically sound in its choice of shots and the color pallette :)
Great video essay!
I agree its movie you can only fully appreciate when you look back at it
Trust me I’m looking back. Still just a coming of age type thing. Like perks of being a wallflower.
I absolutely adore 20th Century Women. It shouldn't gotten a Best Actress nomination for Annette Bening, a Best Picture nomination, and possibly even Elle Fanning for Supporting Actress.
greta gerwig's performance was better than elle's though, she would deserve the nom more
Yah but hey can you tell me what they wanted to tell like what message are they giving to us from the movie??
great film and great character . but the acting isnt best actress at all imo
20th century women is one of my fave films of all time and i agree with you that this film was a masterpiece. and hats down to anette bening, elle fanning and greta gerwig because they all stole the show and deserved more golden globes and oscar recognition. but your analysis that julie was an antagonist blew my mind because i never pictured her as one but since i've watch this, i think i'm seeing it now and it made sense at the end when julie said she'll lose touch with jamie and dorothea because she's aware of what she did to these two. i've never seen someone who makes a great analysis with good editing about 20th century women analysis like this and you raised the bar. thank you for this!!
Yah but hey can you tell me what they wanted to tell like what message are they giving to us from the movie??
one of my comfort movies ♥️
This is great! So glad to see other people making video essays about this movie too! Your laying out of subtle callbacks is excellent and gave me new perspective even after watching the film countless times.
You sound like Abby
This film defines the phrase 'Criminally underrated'
I love this video. Unfortunately, this is one of those movies where I love the themes and ideas that the movie brings up in terms of expectations and feminism/masculinity, but I wasn’t really enjoying it while watching it and probably won’t revisit honestly. It was a fantastic film that I couldn’t get into, but enjoyed the ideas it explored
I watched this movie without much expectation but I was blown away. What a great movie. And this video made me understand it more. This movie is my one of favorite of all time now.
Great Explanation.
Great video, just watched this film. Honestly so cathartic!
I genuinely adore this video. Despite me just finding this, I'm about to go and watch every video haha. Love this dude !
This is incredibly well done, phenomenal job!!
I found this channel while searching a review for the iron giant, which was a great review by the way, and I subscribed to this channel with this review of 20th century women. I have yet to see this film but I am now looking forward to every minute. Perhaps a review on the green night next?
I got to say, you have a way of making videos. I really love the effort you put into it, the texts on the screen and the real footage. If I was to say something that could improve the video a little more is playing with its tempo. You have a fast rhythm with a constant tone. This is great to clutter and speed through a sequence of actions, but making a whole video by it requires thorough linearity and sequencing or else it will be desensitizing and too complex. Another way this point is formulized is with sound. You use a single track, an eerie one I must say (again, great for rapid sequencing and wrapping around a unity of complex ideas), which gave the video a single mood. This, like desensitization, makes the viewer tired, because they are enticed all the time and not reflecting on what they just saw, and that is stressful. It also causes us to forget it, as we need the video to be broken down to short segments so we could unconsciously reflect on them and judge them, which helps us get in the end a more formulized and understood and evaluated conclusion. Your tone, seems to me, to be like you are reading from a script, which is what you ought to do of course. But, you should try to change it to be more towards 'curiosity' for example, or excitement, or revelation, and so on. The reason behind that is that when we talk to people we always need to tell them what to feel, like directors do with a narrative and editors with cuts and cinematographers with perspective. And so, if you are not moving with emotions, people will be emotionless too. Analysing art can be an intellectual work, but mostly it is appreciated with emotions and not mere understanding. As such, you need to do the hard work of translating your intellectual analysis of the movie towards being an art itself. A consequence of this can be see as the loss of thesis. You have a great eye of what the movie is about and you are aware of the nuances and perspectives one can take to better appreciate the movie. But, I don't see this going towards a goal. One can, as it were, start from any point of the video or end it at any other without really losing an essential and enriching context or a great conclusion. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere; all the prior mentioned points: constant tempo, single track music, unsegmented story, emotionless narration, and unaimed ideas seem to boil down to this critique. They also show what a great intellectual mind you have but one that misses artistry, misses emotional communication. Reason is the slave of the passions, our emotions tell us what what to ask and follow. If one is bored and sees an intellectual work to be dull, we will sense it to be unimportant however true it is.
For me, the video "Fearful Beauty: Subnautica and The Long Dark" by 'Pixel a Day' is one of the best narratives I try to learn from and I literally watched her video three times just because the narrative was so beautiful.
Not only did I love this essay, it made me want to see the movie! I'd heard about the movie but I wasn't very intrigued by it at all. But now that I've seen your analysis, I can't wait to see it!
Where did you get the 3 act structure cut out that was on the board?? Love the video!!!!
this movie it’s totally a vibe
Commenting because I hope this video gets pushed more. Wonderfully put together!
howw did i not know this channel earlier man fuckkkkk! i so loved this video , reallly so grateful to you for this
i loved this video and how you broke everything down!
Great video man!
FAVORITE MOVIE FAVORITE VIDEO ESSAY
can someone pleaaaaaase tell me what genre this background
music is of !?
sounds like green arrow by yo la tengo
Great movie and a great video mate.
you can reverse the want & need trope for a different kind of story
Underrated and one of my favorite movies.
this is impressive, thank you!!
This is really amazing!
Thank you
I loved the movie. Absolutely loved it.
I LOVE THIS MOVIE SO MUCH
Trully amazing ❤
Great video!
I just watched the movie! It was soo good
Great analysis!
What is that stock track you played during this video?
Here after 3 years,you found it ?
Would you mind telling me what the song in the background for the video was? I love it so much it really fits in with the movie
No. No it does not.
@@rogerneill7962 ur mom
I worked with Lucas (actor who plays Jamie in film) and told him I'd see the film, he said "it's pretty raw, I don't think you'll like it". He left me with a vibe that even as the star, he didn't really dig the film either. I told him I'd see it anyways to be supportive. Parts I liked were the mother rebuking in subtle way the morally dead guy (loose living) that rents from her. The filmmaker shows promise but once again if plagued by this generations narcissism: making a film about MY life and the bubble he lived in while growing up in liberal California. I've taught around the largest film school in the world. 99% of filmmakers today are atheistic nihilists with small tattoos on their legs, disheveled appearance, balding (trying to hide it with ballcap) or bearded, shlubby or skinny fanboy and not filmmaker types. Escape from reality nerds/geeks that want to showcase darkness and the weak storytelling caused from bowing down to subjective morality and feminism (which ironically was funded by the Rockefellers (admitted by Nicholas Rockefeller) to do two things: tax the other half of the population and put the trust in the state and not the family. Yep, old rich white men gave you feminism, not to liberate woman, but to subjugate society. And instead of being statistically happy raising a family (not all but most woman) they have career woman all walking around without any moral compass, loose living, and miserable. Film students think they're "GOING THERE" and "BEING BOLD" telling stories that promote perversion and nihilism with no levity, humility, or heart, but most of us want to go cinema for a cheap family fun night. That's what cinema was for a nickel in the past and will be in the future. Hollywood needs to be humbled.
Love this video ! :)
Thank you!!
@@itsjustcinema:)
Whats up with the aimless guitar music in the background? Do you not like the original musical score for the movie?
I like it.
I wrote it.
I don’t think Abbie’s mom was trying to conform to the expectations for women from her generation. She had two miscarriages before Abbie. It seems to me that she just really wanted to have a child
"men allways feel like they have to fix things for women . ya because you made it our gendre role by leaving men who couldnt do that for men who could . for centuries ...
ig team?
i love the movie but "punk revolution" really ??? this movie shows punk long after it was dead . punks were anarchist ... these rich kids using it as a way to piss off their parents isnt "punk revolution" .... then they blame reagan ??? he created more punks ...the thing that killed punk was the rich people cosplaying and using it as a style and music genre . like she describes
Honestly this movie is just a personal enjoyment question. I don’t like it because it’s about regular life. I hate regular life. But many people really like slice of life shit.
"make sure to subscribe". Meanwhile: only releases 7 videos in past year
so?
did you not see how good and put together this one was? let a bro have a bobby
Quality over quantity
Everyone is fucking obsessed with A24 like it’s a man. It’s not A24’s film, it’s Mike Mills’.
th-cam.com/video/WMNn_DjfFY4/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared I watched this trailer and I dont see anything anti-man about it. Can someone add their perspective if thats what they got from it?
I think you say alot in this video but don't really say anything.
why the hell are you explaining the movie to us?