Mother superior

Unlike with buses, you wait ages and ages for one fabulous film as framed by the older female perspective to come along and then there’s absolutely no saying when the next one will be, or if there will ever be another. (Indeed, a recent study of 2,000 films found that women in the 42–65 age bracket are given less and less to say while dialogue for men of the same age actually increases.) So don’t let this pass, and don’t do so having dismissed it as ‘a feminist film’ because it’s emotionally smart about everybody. It just takes in that portion of the human race usually left out, is all.

20th Century Women is written and directed by Mike Mills, whose previous film, Beginners (2011), paid homage to his father, who came out as gay at 75 and was portrayed by Christopher Plummer in an Oscar-winning performance. This time round, it’s a film loosely based on his mother, Dorothea, as played by Annette Bening who, for her performance, deserves thousands and thousands of Oscars — tipped on to her lawn, flung into any open window, laid by her breakfast setting every morning — but didn’t even earn a nomination.