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In writer-director Mike Mills' "20th Century Women," we learn in the most thoughtful and endearing ways imaginable that behind every neurotic filmmaker there are at least three fascinating women.

The stand-in for Mills in this semi-autobiographical comedy-drama is Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), a 15-year-old kid growing up in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1979. It's the era of Jimmy Carter, women's liberation, the sexual revolution, bell-bottom pants and punk rock. For Jamie, it's a time to figure out his identity — a tough trick in a house full of women.

First and foremost is Dorothea (Annette Bening), Jamie's defiantly single mom, 55 and pursuing her own eccentrically intellectual path. Abbie (Greta Gerwig), who rents a room upstairs and teaches Jamie about rock music, is 28 and is diagnosed with cervical cancer caused by her mother's taking DES while pregnant. Julie (Elle Fanning) is 17 and longtime friends with Jamie, though recently his feelings for her have shifted to the carnal, a change Julie rejects — even while she frequently sneaks into his bedroom window.

Also living in the house is William (Billy Crudup), a handyman who is repairing Dorothea's rundown house. She hopes he will be a good male influence on Jamie, though she doesn't necessarily believe Jamie needs a man for that. William, who has a brief sexual fling with Abbie, also becomes Dorothea's sounding board for trying to figure out Jamie as an adolescent — for example, listening to the extremes of Jamie's musical tastes, Black Flag vs. Talking Heads.

Mills strings together incidents — Dorothea's car catching fire, the household listening to Carter's "crisis of confidence" speech, a punk-rock show Jamie and Abbie attend without his mom's permission — into a mosaic of a freeform life. As he did in "Beginners," Mills constructs the story like a scrapbook, a moment here and an artifact there, with characters narrating the past, present and futures of their lives.

The main focus of "20th Century Women" is on Bening's Dorothea, as she balances her maternal love with the wonder of watching Jamie becoming his own person — a person she would like to talk to, adult-to-adult, if he weren't simultaneously trying to get out from under her motherly influence. Bening and Mills encapsulate this complex feeling in one line of dialogue, brilliantly written and heartbreakingly delivered, when Dorothea expresses her envy for Abbie: "You get to see him out in the world, as a person. I never will."

Mills' script is shot through with such gems, precisely worded and beautifully said by a talented ensemble. In "20th Century Women," he captures a singularity of possibility, before forces both external (Reagan, AIDS, MTV) and internal (growing up and growing old) weighed heavily on these joyously offbeat characters.

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'20th Century Women'

A teen in '70s California feels the influence of three women — ages 55, 28 and 17 — in this happily offbeat look at growing up and growing old.

Where • Area theaters.

When • Opens Friday, Jan. 20.

Rating • R for sexual material, language, some nudity and brief drug use.

Running time • 118 minutes.