A graphic designer named Oliver tries to love again after his father, Hal, came out as gay at 75 and then died of cancer. Oliver meets a French actress at a party and slowly learns what his parents never taught him. Worth watching for how Mills turns his own family story into something warm and funny.
Beginners is a 2011 drama, comedy and romance film directed by Mike Mills. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 narrative, 1 editing and 1 psychology), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Mirror uses several of the same techniques.
Drawing on the filmmaker's own life but keeping it at arm's length, often through a fictional stand-in. The result is precise and unsentimental, and it can question how memory flatters us.
How this film uses it
Mike Mills has said the story comes from his own father coming out late in life. He makes the film through a stand-in, Oliver, which lets him look at the memories honestly without turning them into a speech. The details feel specific and unforced.
Where to see it
Hal's announcement: six months after his wife Georgia dies, Hal tells Oliver he is gay. He then explores life as an openly gay man at 75.
Telling the story out of order by jumping between time periods. The order you see events in changes how you understand them.
How this film uses it
The film jumps between 2003, when Oliver meets Anna, and earlier years with his parents and father's illness. The memories are not told in order. They show up when Oliver needs them, so his past comments on his present love life.
Where to see it
The flashbacks: while Oliver gets closer to Anna, scenes of his father's last years and his mother's life appear. They show the cool marriage Oliver does not want to repeat.
Giving a character's conscience or split self a visible or audible form, so inner conflict plays out as dialogue with another presence.
How this film uses it
Oliver's dog Arthur seems to answer him in subtitles. The little lines give a voice to the loneliness Oliver cannot say aloud. It makes the dog a friend and a conscience at once.
Where to see it
Arthur's subtitles: Oliver talks to his father's Jack Russell terrier at home, and Arthur's replies appear on screen as subtitles.
Cutting between a letter or interview and the scenes it describes. The words and images play against each other.
How this film uses it
Mills cuts from Oliver's present to still photographs and archive images of earlier decades, often with Oliver's voice explaining what the world looked like then. The pictures place his parents' lives inside history, and the words and images play against each other.
Where to see it
The history montages: Oliver narrates over still images of past years, describing his parents' world. They give his father's late coming out a larger backdrop.
Making a character face their own death or age, so time becomes visible. The confrontation changes what they value.
How this film uses it
Hal faces his cancer with humor and an odd curiosity, and Oliver watches him do it. The way his father spends his last years changes what Oliver decides to risk. Death becomes the reason he tries to love someone.
Where to see it
Hal's last years: Oliver helps with his father's cancer treatments and notes his grace and good humor. He decides to pursue Anna because of Hal's attitude.
Questions
Beginners: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Beginners use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Beginners (2011): Autobiographical Distance, Non-Linear Narrative, Externalized Inner Voice, Intercut Documents and Mortality Confrontation Arc.
Who directed Beginners?
Mike Mills directed Beginners, released in 2011. CineCode also covers 20th Century Women (2016), C'mon C'mon (2021).
What films are similar to Beginners?
Films that share techniques with Beginners include Mirror (1975), Inception (2010), Pulp Fiction (1994), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).
