Beginners (2010)
From The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast by Bright Wall/Dark Room
July 21, 2025 · 20 min · Episode 65
About this episode
The episode explores the melancholic themes and unique storytelling of Mike Mills's film Beginners.
For a taste of summertime sadness, we look at a pick from curator Christos Nikou (Apples [2020] and Fingernails [2023]): Mike Mills’s semi-autobiographical bleak comedy Beginners (2010). We get into the film’s tonality of “melancholic smile,” non-human actors, is this Mills’s All Fours?, Christopher Plummer’s silent expressivity (and “ascot game”), aging out of the gay bar, and nightclub as metaphor for life.--The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast is co-hosted by Veronica Fitzpatrick and Chad Perman, and produced by Eli Sands. Our theme music is composed by Chad. This episode is sponsored by Galerie, a new kind of film club. Discover more at Galerie.com.
People in this episode
Hosts: Veronica Fitzpatrick, Chad Perman
Topics covered
- melancholic comedy
- aging
- film analysis
- non-human actors
- queer themes
- cinematic tonality
Keywords
- Beginners
- Mike Mills
- Christopher Plummer
- melancholy
- film review
- queer cinema
- non-human actors
Sponsors
Galerie
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Beginners
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