The first trailer for 20th Century Women, a film about life and love set in Santa Barbara at the end of the 70’s, has been officially released.
The film is about a single mother named Dorthea (played by Annette Bening), who is struggling to raise her teenage son, Jamie. She enlists the help of two women in her life, Abbie (played by Greta Gerwig) and Julie (Elle Fanning), who are from different eras and have different perspectives on life. Together, the group help to raise Jamie and educate him about life and love, sex and freedom.
You can watch the trailer below:
The first half of the trailer is played over audio Jimmy Carter’s famous “Crisis of Confidence” speech. Lots of random clips and imagery from the film are shown but do not spoil anything. These clips serve the purpose of introducing the world the characters inhabit, and show the late 70’s as an era of hopes and dreams that is filtered through a lens of bright and vibrant colours. After this, the trailer goes into the standard trailer formula, the greatest hits reel of random inspiration/feel good quotes and quirky scenes from the film, but still keeps a lot of its cards to its chest.
The trailer emphasises the feeling of freedom amongst children, they are seen skating through their local streets and seem to be living an independent existence, while the adults seem to be restricted in their lives and are fearful of the present and the future. Whether these themes play a large role in the film is unknown, but it could make for an interesting conversation surrounding the hopeful era of childhood and the hopeless, possibly realistic, era of adulthood.
The film is directed and written by Mike Millis, who is best known for his work on Beginners and Thumbsuckers, and is scheduled for release in early 2017.
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