20th Century Women (2016)

This is a very good film, if short on plot.
Jamie Fields (Lucas Jade Zumann) is a teenage boy and his mother, Dorothea (Annette Bening) is struggling to raise him by herself. She was an older mother and then divorced his father. Dorothea is a true character, brimming with personality.
The film details a small portion of Jamie's life, during the time he had a platonic relationship with the older Julie (Elle Fanning) who was rather sexually promiscuous, and the cancer survivor Abbie (Greta Gerwig, great), struggling with her art of photography and the fact that she shouldn't have children. There is also another tenant in the house Dorothea owns, the mechanic and potter William (Billy Crudrup), but Jamie doesn't connect well with him. He is the least developed character of the quintet.
The film is excellently told, presented in a way that shows the private personality of Dorothea to the whole world, but she wouldn't mind.
There isn't really a love arc in this film. Sure, Abbie and William do sleep together, though William assures Dorothea that it's nothing serious. (Her response is one of the greatest lines in the film, 'Then why do it?') and Jamie has a rather large crush on Julie, but she likes him too much for anything stronger or physical.
With the lyrical style and the transportation back to 1979, this film is a wonder and is better than the slightly overrated Beginners, writer and director Mike Mills ode to his father. The reason is simple, there are more characters and they are better developed, without ever becoming stock characters. Grade: A-