Mike Mills’s Too-Sweet “20th Century Women”

Many of the movies that reach the sweet spot of critical acclaim and awards consideration are afflicted with a corresponding dosage of artificial sweetness, and the summit of the syndrome is found in Mike Mills’s “20th Century Women.” It’s particularly disheartening to experience any displeasure in viewing this film, which is, at the very least, distinctive and inventive, with a core of real substance. But the terrifying thing about directing—as about writing—is that it defies control and defies intentions. Nobody who makes movies can ever do anything else but reveal himself on film, and what Mills brings out in “20th Century Women” is a confounding combination of imaginative effort to face and represent the tough stuff of experience and a trivializing, facile, and complacent approach to that experience—and both aspects are essential to the film’s critical success.