Overview

Director Mike Mills (Beginners, Thumbsucker) returns to features after a six-year absence with this Southern Californian bildungsroman that largely swaps out Hockney for dark, evening interiors. Dorothea Fields (Annette Bening) is a tough lady. She’s a single mother north of fifty who is bound and determined to raise her teenage son in the loose footing of late '70s Santa Barbara. Dorothea assembles a village to assist her, including a punk artist (Greta Gerwig), a chilled-out maintenance man (Billy Crudup), and a canny neighborhood girl (Elle Fanning).