20th Century Women trailer: Annette Bening stars

A good man is hard to raise in the new trailer for 20th Century Women, Mike Mills’ semi-autbiographical drama starring Annette Bening as a steadfast single mom bringing up a teenage boy in 1970s California.

Set to the sounds of the Buzzcocks and the Talking Heads, the trailer opens with Bening’s Dorothea Fields pondering how to connect with her son, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), as he comes of age. “It’s 1979 and nothing means anything,” she says, “and I know you less and less every day.”

Fortunately, Dorothea is able to lean on two younger women in Jamie’s life for support. Greta Gerwig portrays Abbie, a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields’ home, and Elle Fanning plays Julie, a precocious teenage neighbor.

At one point, Julie asks, “Don’t you need a man to raise a man?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Dorothea replies. “I think you’re what’s going to work for him.”

The trailer goes on to offer glimpses of excitement, confusion, anger, love, pain, and introspection — and not just on Jamie’s behalf.

See the new poster for 20th Century Women and an exclusive image below, and watch the trailer above. The film opens Dec. 25.