Words can't express how much I love '20th Century Women'

In what has been a truly standout 12 months for Hollywood, there have been a handful of films that I took an instant liking to, where as the credits rolled I just knew I'd watched a master class of acting, writing and direction. This happened for me with Moonlight, with Fences, with Green Room and now, the gloriously funny and moving 20th Century Women.

I found myself wanting to tell everyone I knew about the movie, I want it to be a hit. I want it to be a movie that becomes a part of the American lexicon. It spoke to me that much.

There are traces of peak Woody Allen and Robert Altman in this movie, and maybe a little Wes Anderson too, but for the most part director Mike Mills has discovered a rhythm and playful style all his own as a filmmaker and he's found a flawless cast that can execute this subtle material (set in the uniquely distinct summer of 1979) with grace, warmth and gravitas.

In what has been a remarkable year for women's roles, this film presents three of my favorite: Annette Bening, Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig all get to play complex, flawed, charismatic and ultimately triumphant women, at very different stages of their life, all at interesting moments of self discovery.

Bening plays the kind of mom I think we wish we all had and perhaps some of us do. She is inquisitive and open-hearted, she is a little old fashioned (she adores Casablanca) but also eager to understand the world as it is today (she tries, valiantly, to understand punk). Bening has always been terrific but this may be my favorite performance she's ever given. She comes across so real, so naturally, and her character is someone I wanted to hang out with, to sit up late talking to.

I appreciate the way she thinks, the way she carries herself. If Bening is not nominated for Best Actress later this month it'd be a travesty.

Gerwig, whose ticks and mannerisms have occasionally irked me in the past, is a revelation here. Perhaps, liberated from her normal look, she breathes real life into a character who could have been a caricature, making her utterly sympathetic, awkward and somehow devastatingly cool at the same time.

And Elle Fanning, with this and The Neon Demon, has demonstrated that despite her cherubic appearance she has incredible range and depth as an actress. I have been so impressed by her choices so far -- this is someone who is willing to really bare her soul on screen and take risks. She too creates a powerful piece of this ensemble, which also includes terrific supporting work from the men on the periphery but it is first and foremost about women -- and to some extent how they try to relate to and understand men, but also how they make sense of themselves.

The somewhat episodic film has a simple, strong thread about Bening trying to reach out to her teenage son (played by Lucas Jade Zumann, in a marvelously unaffected performance). She has already formed this ragtag pseudo family with the tenants in her boarding house (including Gerwig, Fanning and a charming Billy Crudup as a handyman with delusions of being a deep thinker). A single mom, Bening earnestly seeks this quirky coterie's help in raising her son, and the results are both heartbreaking and hilarious.

I had no idea until after the fact that the film is semi-autobiographical, drawing from elements of director Mills' own childhood. But now that I know, it makes perfect sense. There is a specificity to this movie that I really appreciated (including the time period details, which are never overstated) and a depth of feeling that seems to come from a very personal place.

I like movies about people who could actually exist, whose stories illuminate aspects of my own life and the lives of the people I care about. 20th Century Women is one of those movies. It's a celebration of life -- in all its messiness, and it's an ode to the women who make life so interesting, cause let's face it, they are the most compelling sex.

I will never stop singing this movie's praises. It really hit me in a personal way that I don't think I can even appropriately put into words. All I can say is that I loved it and that I hope you see it.