The Milwaukee Post

By TOM JOZWIK Post Film Critic Mother-and-son movies are relatively rare. There's Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," of course (a mother-son flick after a fashion). Then there's Martin Scorsese's excellent "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" from 1974. Set in Santa Barbara of 1979, "20th Century Women" reminds me much more of "Alice." The Scorsese film had the accomplished Ellen Burstyn as its title charac- ter, a role that ear ned Burstyn an Oscar. "20th Century Women" has an equally adept perfor mer, Annette Bening, portraying a single mother to 15-year- old Jamie Fields (Lucas Jade Zumann, outstanding in his third big-screen appearance). Parent and child love each other, but don't really understand each other, or each other's world. "I know him less every day," muses Bening as Dorothea Fields. "I don't want you to end up in the same place as me," Dorothea later tells Jamie, prompting him to respond, "What does that mean?" "20th Century Women" is an inventive motion pic- ture, what with its non-lin- ear plot, photographic tricks, lines from literature exhibited onscreen, prepon- derance of still pictures and multicharacter narra- tion — a technique done perhaps most memorably seven long decades ago in "Citizen Kane." The new film makes some points worth mulling over, too — for instance, that friend- ship is of greater impor- tance than sex. "20th Century Women" tells a rather unique story, that of a young man's will- ingness to immerse himself in feminist philosophy. The AIDS crisis, the Reagan administration and the internet are on the horizon and guests at a dinner party hosted by Dorothea watch President Jimmy Carter deliver his "Crisis of Confidence" oration on tel- evision. Being a Carter admirer and the nostalgic type, I much appreciated seeing footage of the speech; I also enjoyed watching clips from "Casablanca" (Dorothea jokes that she wants to marry Humphrey Bogart) and hearing its signature song, "As Time Goes By." Dorothea has turned her home into a boarding house, with rooms (and occasionally the same room) occupied by gifted perfor mers Greta Gerwig and — fresh from his inter- viewer turn in "Jackie" — Billy Crudup. Gerwig plays an eccentric artist named Abbie, who joins with Dorothea, and with their adolescent neighbor, Jamie's gal pal Julie (Elle Fanning, also playing pecu- liar), in making a feminist of young Mr. Fields. Gerwig's younger character also gives middle-aged Dorothea a veritable guided tour of that new world Dorothea yearns to — but doesn't quite — under- stand. Like its characters and content, "20th Century Women" is idiosyncratic. Given the many movies that are almost indistinguishable these days, that's a big point in this one's favor. 14 • Milwaukee County Post • January 20, 2017 MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Art Museum announced the promised gift of an extensive collec- tion of work by French graphic master Jules Chéret. The unparalleled group of more than 500 Chéret artworks, one of the largest and most compre- hensive of its kind, has been generously promised by Milwaukeeans Susee and James Wiechmann. The gift encompasses the full range of Chéret's inno- vative output from his bold, expressive posters adver- tising theatrical events, social gatherings and a myriad of products; to designs for book covers and menus; to intimate litho- graphic studies of his mod- els. Often referred to as the "father of the modern poster," Chéret inspired many other important artists of his time includ- ing Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard. "Susee and I are thrilled to add our Jules Chéret poster collection to the Museum's treasures where it can be shared by all," said James Wiechmann. "These posters that lit up the streets of Paris in the late 1800s will now shine in the galleries of our Milwaukee Art Museum and those of other muse- ums as they are exhibited around the country." The Wiechmanns were lenders to the museum's popular 2012 exhibition "Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and His Contemporaries." From that loan began an impor- tant relationship with the institution. In addition to the prom- ised gift of their Chéret col- lection, the Wiechmanns have underscored their commitment by underwrit- ing a curatorial position. Thanks to the Wiechmanns' generosity B r i t a n y L. Sals- bury will join the m u s e u m in Feb- ruary as associate c u r a t o r of prints a n d d r a w - ings. Salsbury comes from the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, where she has been the Andrew W. Mellon curator- ial fellow in the Prints, Drawings and Photographs department since 2015. During her tenure she worked on a major exhibi- tion scheduled to open in June titled "Altered States: Etching in Late 19th Century Paris," which has an accompanying publica- tion. She also developed a number of exhibitions including "Inventing Impressionism" (2016), and regularly instructed class- es from RISD and Brown University on the history of works on paper in the museum's print study room. Salsbury's experi- ence includes positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library & Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. As the associate curator of prints and drawings, Salsbury will oversee the Chéret gift, along with the museum's broad and diverse collection of works on paper. The museum's strengths in this area include German Express- ionism and French print- making from the 16th through the 19th cen- turies. "We look forward to welcoming Britany as an integral part of the muse- um's curatorial team," said Marcelle Polednik, Donna and Donald Baumgartner director. "In addition to managing our works on paper collection, her extensive experience makes her the perfect per- son to catalogue and devel- op a major exhibition based on the Chéret gift." "I am excited and hon- ored to join the Milwaukee Art Museum. I look for- ward to being part of the Museum's exceptional team, and to exploring its impressive works on paper collection — especially at a moment when the Wiechmanns' generous gift brings a renewed focus to the history of prints," Salsbury said. "The Milwaukee Art Museum is thrilled about this extraordinary gift. It raises our standing both nationally and inter na- tionally, and makes us an important center for the study of the art of the French poster. We are deeply honored to receive this significant gift to the Museum, and are incredi- bly grateful to Susee and James for their generosity both in terms of a major gift of art and for the cru- cial institutional support which will help bring the collection to life," Polednik said. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Art Museum Jules Chéret's "Les Girard," an 1879 lithograph, is a promised gift of James and Susee Wiechmann. ENTERTAINMENT Merrick Morton, courtesy of A24 Annette Bening and Lucas Jade Zumann play a single mother and her 15-year-old son in Mike Mills' "20th Century Women." Salsbury Milwaukee Art Museum gets historic Chéret gift New flick starring Bening evokes Scorses's 'Alice' At a glance "20th Century Women" ★★★1/2 Starring: Annette Bening, Lucas Jade Zumann, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, Elle Fanning Director: Mike Mills MPAA rating: R Running time: 118 minutes Release date: Friday Showings: www. landmarktheatres.com

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