Mike Mills | |
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Born | Michael Chadbourne Mills March 20, 1966 Berkeley, California, U.S. |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1995–present |
Spouse | |
Children | 1 |
Michael Chadbourne Mills (born March 20, 1966) is an American film and music video director, writer and graphic designer. He made his directorial debut with the independent film Thumbsucker (2005). His followup films include Beginners (2010), 20th Century Women (2016), and C'mon, C'mon (2021). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for 20th Century Women.
Michael Chadbourne Mills [1] was born in Berkeley, California, [2] the son of Paul Chadbourne Mills, an art historian and museum director, and Janet L. Dowd, a draftsperson. [3] [4] [5]
He graduated from Cooper Union in Lower Manhattan, New York City. [6]
Mike Mills has created music videos for acts including Moby, Yoko Ono and Air. Air named the fifth song on their album Talkie Walkie after Mills. [7] [ failed verification ] He has also worked as a graphic designer on promotional material and album covers for such acts as Beastie Boys, Beck, Sonic Youth, They Might Be Giants, and Ol' Dirty Bastard. In addition he has created graphics for X-Girl, Marc Jacobs, and produces his own line of posters and fabrics called Humans by Mike Mills. [8] Mills played guitar and performed background vocals with the short-lived indie rock band Butter 08 along with Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, Russell Simins of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Rick Lee of Skeleton Key. The band released one self-titled album in 1996 on the now defunct Grand Royal record label. [9]
Thumbsucker (2005) was his feature-film directorial debut, for which he also created the film posters. In 2007, Mills filmed the feature-length documentary Does Your Soul Have A Cold?, which explored the issues around the introduction of anti-depressants to Japanese culture. The film premiered at SXSW Festival and was part of IFC's documentary film series. [10] In 2010 he directed the Focus Features independent comedy Beginners which starred Ewan McGregor, Mélanie Laurent, and Christopher Plummer. The film is both a romantic comedy and a film about a son reflecting on his memories of his father. Amy Taubin of Film Comment praised Mills, calling it a breakthrough, writing, "Mike Mills treats love and loss with a disarming tenderness and a refusal of sentimentality that make Beginners, his second feature, something of an anomaly among male identity flicks." [11] Plummer went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. [12] [13]
His next feature film was the A24 coming-of-age drama 20th Century Women (2016) which starred Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning and Billy Crudup. [14] [15] [16] The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, and was released on December 28, 2016. [17] [18] The Hollywood Reporter film critic David Rooney praised the film saying, "Mills uses some of the same devices as Beginners to illuminate his characters' cultural formation, notably historic montages of their birth years or backgrounds prior to coming together. And he also glances ahead to their future lives, after the arc of the movie. But the quilting is more seamless here because the eccentricities are so integral to the writing and performances." [19]
He has released some of his art/documentary photography works with the two books, Gas Book 11 (2003) and Humans (2006). In 2009, the Berlin-based culture magazine 032c devoted an issue to Mills. For the occasion Mills was interviewed by Nick Currie, best known for his work as Momus, in a piece called "Getting Through the New Depression". [20] In 2019, he directed the short film I Am Easy to Find starring Alicia Vikander, which accompanied the album of the same name by The National. [21]
Mills' latest directorial feature film was the 2021 black-and-white drama film entitled C'mon C'mon starring Joaquin Phoenix, Woody Norman, and Gaby Hoffmann. The film was distributed by A24 and had its world premiere on 2 September 2021 at Telluride Film Festival. [22] [23] Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent praised Phoenix's performance noting it as "a career best", and further applauded Mills as "a master of intimate, unforced emotion and the kind of simple wisdom that always sounds best when it’s coming from the minds of children". [24]
Mills has cited as his cinematic influences, Alain Resnais, François Truffaut, Yasujirō Ozu, Ermanno Olmi, Woody Allen, and Jim Jarmusch. [25] [26] [27]
Mills' mother died of brain cancer in 1999. Six months after she died, his father Paul came out as gay at the age of 75 and after 45 years of marriage. Five years later, his father died of cancer. [6]
Mills is married to fellow artist and film director Miranda July, [28] with whom he has a child, born in February 2012. [29] [30]
Year | Title | Distribution | Notes |
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1999 | Air: Eating, Sleeping, Waiting and Playing | Source - une division de Virgin disques | Documentary feature |
2005 | Thumbsucker | Sony Pictures Classics | |
2007 | Does Your Soul Have A Cold? | IFC, Uplink (Japan) | Documentary feature |
2010 | Beginners | Focus Features | |
2016 | 20th Century Women | A24 | |
2021 | C'mon C'mon | ||
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1995 | An Introduction to Harmolodics | short |
1995 | Skating with Dave and Jared | short |
1998 | Hair Shoes Love and Honesty | short |
1999 | The Architecture of Reassurance | Short film |
2000 | Not How Or When Or Why But Yes | Short film |
2000 | Deformer | Short film |
2001 | Paperboys | Documentary short |
2019 | I Am Easy to Find | short |
Year | Title | Artist(s) |
---|---|---|
1995 | "Men in Black" | Frank Black |
1996 | "2 Kindsa Love" | Jon Spencer Blues Explosion |
1997 | "Le soleil est près de moi" | Air |
"Hey Hey You Say" | Papas Fritas | |
"Spokes" | Pond | |
1998 | "Afrodiziak" | Bran Van 3000 |
"All I Need" | Air | |
"Kelly Watch the Stars" | Air | |
"Sexy Boy" | Air | |
"Party Hard" | Pulp | |
"Legacy" | Mansun | |
1999 | "Temperamental" | Everything but the Girl |
"Sometimes" | Les Rhythmes Digitales | |
"Run On" | Moby | |
"1, 2, 3, 4" | Titán | |
2001 | "Bad Ambassador" | The Divine Comedy |
"It's Automatic" | Zoot Woman | |
2002 | "Concrete Sky" | Beth Orton |
2003 | "Stardust" | Martin Gore |
"Walking on Thin Ice" | Yoko Ono | |
2007 | "The Dress" | Blonde Redhead |
"My Impure Hair" | Blonde Redhead | |
"Silently" | Blonde Redhead | |
"Top Ranking" | Blonde Redhead | |
2019 | "Light Years" | The National |
"Hairpin Turns" | The National | |
"Hey Rosey" | The National |
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(October 2022) |
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(October 2022) |
Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Santa Fe Film Festival | Best Documentary | Paperboys | Won | |
2005 | Sundance Film Festival | Grand Jury Prize | Thumbsucker | Nominated | |
2005 | Berlin International Film Festival | Golden Bear | Nominated | ||
2006 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best First Feature | Nominated | ||
2011 | SXSW Film Festival | Audience Awards | Beginners | Nominated | |
2011 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Director | Nominated | ||
Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
2011 | Gotham Awards | Best Feature | Won | ||
2011 | Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2011 | Detroit Film Critics Society | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2011 | Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Won | ||
2011 | Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2011 | San Diego Film Critics Society | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2011 | Utah Film Critics Association Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2016 | Academy Awards | Best Original Screenplay | 20th Century Women | Nominated | [31] |
2016 | Independent Spirit Award | Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2016 | Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2016 | Austin Film Critics Association | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2016 | Florida Film Critics Circle | Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2016 | Dorian Awards | Screenplay of the Year | Nominated | ||
2016 | Hawaii Film Critics Society | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2016 | North Carolina Film Critics Association | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||
2021 | SCAD Savannah Film Festival | Auteur Award | Won | [32] | |
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix is an American actor. Known for his roles as dark, unconventional and eccentric characters, particularly in period dramas, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, The New York Times named him one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Gus Green Van Sant Jr. is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician who has earned acclaim as an independent filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures.
Deee-Lite was an American house and dance music group formed in New York City. The group's single "Groove Is in the Heart," which was released in 1990 from their debut studio album, World Clique (1990), was a top-ten hit in multiple countries. In December 2016, Billboard ranked them as the 55th most successful dance artists of all time.
World Clique is the debut album by American dance music band Deee-Lite, which was released in 1990. The album's first single, "Groove Is in the Heart", was a top-five success on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart as well as a No. 1 hit on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart. Three subsequent singles also hit the top ten on the U.S. dance chart, including "Power of Love/Build That Bridge", which also hit No. 1, and "Good Beat".
"Groove Is in the Heart" is a song by American dance band Deee-Lite, released in August 1990 by Elektra as their debut and lead single from their first album, World Clique (1990). Written and produced by the band, it was a hit in many countries, reaching number-one in Australia and on both the Canadian RPM and US Billboard dance charts. Today it is widely recognized as a classic of its genre. It was accompanied with a psychedelic 60s-themed music video directed by Hiroyuki Nakano.
Thumbsucker is a 2005 American independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Mills in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Lou Taylor Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kelli Garner, Benjamin Bratt, Vince Vaughn, and Keanu Reeves. The plot focuses on Justin Cobb, a teenager in suburban Oregon, as he copes with his thumb-sucking problem, romance, and his diagnosis with ADHD and subsequent experience using Ritalin. The screenplay was adapted from the 1999 Walter Kirn novel of the same name. Swinton also served as an executive producer.
Beginners is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Mills. It tells the story of a man reflecting on the life and death of his father, while trying to forge a new romantic relationship with a woman dealing with father-issues of her own. The film is based on the coming out of Mills' own father at the age of 75, five years before his death.
Richard "Ric" Menello was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. Menello co-directed the landmark music video for the Beastie Boys' 1987 single, "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right ". His contributions to music during the era led MTV to call him, "one of the most influential visionaries behind the emergence of commercial hip-hop in the 1980s."
20th Century Women is a 2016 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Mills and starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Lucas Jade Zumann, and Billy Crudup. It is set in 1979 in Southern California and partly inspired by Mills's childhood.
C'mon C'mon is a 2021 American black-and-white drama film written and directed by Mike Mills, and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann, Scoot McNairy, Molly Webster, Jaboukie Young-White, and Woody Norman. It had its world premiere at the 48th Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2021, and was given a limited theatrical release by A24 starting on November 19, 2021. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for its performances, direction, and cinematography, but was a box-office bomb, grossing $4.5 million against a production budget of $8.3 million.
Roger Neill is an American composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, guitarist and educator. He is best known for his scores for the films 20th Century Women, Don't Think Twice, and Beginners. Notable television scores include the series Mozart In The Jungle and King of the Hill. Neill has created orchestral arrangements for many recording artists, such as the French band AIR, for their album 10 000 Hz Legend, and in concert. In the theater world, Neill is best known for the controversial musical The Beastly Bombing, or A Terrible Tale of Terrorists Tamed by the Tangle of True Love.
Julia is a 2021 American documentary film directed and produced by Julie Cohen and Betsy West. The documentary chronicles the life of Julia Child. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard serve as executive producers.
Encounter is a 2021 crime drama thriller film, directed by Michael Pearce from a screenplay by Pearce and Joe Barton. The film stars Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Janina Gavankar, Rory Cochrane, Lucian-River Chauhan, and Aditya Geddada.
Becoming Cousteau is a 2021 American documentary film directed and produced by Liz Garbus. It follows the life and career of Jacques Cousteau.
Citizen Ashe is a 2021 American-British documentary film directed by Rex Miller and Sam Pollard revolving around the life and career of Arthur Ashe. Alex Gibney and John Legend were two of the executive producers.
Nuclear Family is an American documentary miniseries directed and produced by Ry Russo-Young. It follows Russo-Young's mothers as an unexpected lawsuit sends shockwaves throughout their family's lives. It consisted of 3 episodes and premiered on September 26, 2021, on HBO.
Procession is a 2021 American documentary film, directed and edited by Robert Greene. It follows six men, who suffered abuse by priests, looking for peace.
The Automat is a 2021 American documentary directed and produced by Lisa Hurwitz and written by Michael Levine. It is about the automats once operated by Horn & Hardart. It features an original song by Mel Brooks. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2021. It was released in the United States on February 18, 2022, by A Slice of Pie Productions. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.
C'mon C'mon (Original Motion Picture Score) is the film score to the 2021 film of the same name directed by Mike Mills. Featuring original score composed by The National's Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner, the film also marked Aaron's feature film scoring debut. The soundtrack was released on November 12, 2021, through A24's music division, to positive reviews and fetched an award for Best Original Score in an Independent Film at the 12th Hollywood Music in Media Awards.
20th Century Women (Music from the Motion Picture) is the soundtrack to the 2016 film 20th Century Women directed by Mike Mills. It features punk rock, pop and jazz music selections from Talking Heads, the Raincoats, Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, David Bowie, Devo, Siouxsie and the Banshees amongst others, and an original score composed by Roger Neill. The album was released through Rhino Records on December 30, 2016.
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