15 Years After Coming To Theaters, Beginners Is Still One Of The Century's Best Dramedies

Published Jul 29, 2026, 3:20 PM EDT Brandon Zachary is a Lead Writer for Screen Rant's New Movie Team. He also writes or has written for Comicbook.com, CBR, That Hashtag Show, Just Watch, and TVBrittanyF. Brandon is an Emerging Screenwriters Semi-Finalist, co-writer of a Screencraft Quarter-Finalist, a seasoned on-screen interviewer, and a MASSIVE nerd. You can reach him at bs.zachary@gmail.com Beginners is getting a Criterion release as part of the "I'll Remind You Of Everything" trilogy, giving cinephiles the perfect excuse to revisit this pitch-perfect dramedy. Mike Mills had already established his directing chops by the time he directed and wrote the Oscar-winning dramedy. Of course, he's continued to do good work since. The rest of the informal trilogy underscores his talents, with both 20th Century Women and C'mon C'mon both deserving of their own accolades. Together, the three make for a perfect low-key dramedy collection from the Criterion Collection. However, it's still Beginners, the film that really elevated Mike Mills status in the film industry, that stands out. Hailing from an era of mumblecore indies and soft-spoken treatises on life, Beginners is one of those rare films that gets that tone perfectly. It understands just how much of life can be heartbreaking, hilarious, and heartfelt all at once. With the film getting a fresh re-release through Criterion, now is the perfect time to revisit (or finally introduce yourself to) to Mike Mills' best movie. How Beginners Juggles Three Love Stories At Once Making his debut with a number of short films before going on to make documentaries and narrative stories alike, Mike Mills is at his best when he embraces the dramedy genre -- and that's never been clearer than in Beginners. The film's a quietly emotional story that has all the weight of his other films but with the right touch of vulnerability balanced out by surprising comedy. The film follows Ewan McGregor's Oliver Fields, a kind enough graphic designer who has never formed a lasting relationship after growing up seeing the divide between his parents. The movie is told across a few different periods of his life, but largely focuses on two relationships he experiences -- that with his father Hal and with an actress named Anna. The core of the film is Oliver's growing willingness to open up to both of them, especially his father. After having spent years distant from his son, Hal has come out of the closet and, in doing so, finally allows himself to connect with his son. It's one of Christopher Plummer's best performances, charming and bittersweet in equal measures (and more than deserving of the Academy Award it won the actor). Meanwhile, his slow-brewing romance with Anna helps Oliver continue to lower his guard in unexpected ways, giving him the opportunity to look inward and allow himself to become the kind of loving person it took his father almost his entire life to become. It's a love story in every meaning of the phrase and all the more impressive for balancing it. Beginners Does What Few Dramedies Ever Could Beginners has a story that could be melodramatic or overwrought in the wrong hands, but Mills (along with the incredibly gifted cast) maintains a deeply human core in the story. It's from an era where attempts to capitalize on the indie boom led to lots of self-aware, raw storytelling that didn't always feel authentic or even all that entertaining. While others could feel inauthentic in their approach to the complexities of love in all its forms (for family, lovers, and self), Beginners gets all of it just right. It's romantic and fun and never without a bittersweet touch. It's the kind of vibes that make 20th Century Women and C'mon C'mon so good, but with a tighter focus and softer edge that makes it more memorable. Those films are all great expressions of emotional-first storytelling, where the vibes are just as important to the experience as the narrative or characters. While the latter two films are more ambitious in terms of setting and cast, it's hard to forget the fragile but loving touches that make Beginnings so good. Plummer's cheerful demeanor provides the film with more than enough charm and love to make up for the more somber touches. As Hal teaches Oliver how to actually live even as his days become more numbered, the heart is just as vivid and alive as the characters. It's a delicate tonal balancing act that perfectly connects to the human experience the film is working to represent. Beginners Has Aged As Gracefully As Hal Did Mike Mills is a perfectly understated director who gets to the heart of the emotion in his characters in a way few filmmakers do. There's a vulnerable touch that doesn't take away the prickly aspects or the tougher parts of the characters. It gives them a human depth that takes them beyond the tropes they could become in lesser hands. Oliver could be a boring bummer of a character, but his disconnect is always given a sense of sad hollowness that McGregor's vulnerable side steadily fills out. Mélanie Laurent could just be a manic pixie dream girl, but her disconnect from others and distance from herself give her a realistic sense of being emotionally bruised that keeps her from feeling like a trope. Christopher Plummer won Best Supporting Actor at the 84th Academy Awards for his performance in Beginners. He was the oldest person to win an acting award at the Oscars until Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor at the 93rd Academy Awards. Plummer is pitch-perfect in one of his best-ever performances, a romantic who is finally opening up his heart. Mills's screenplay is resonant in a way that feels timeless, even while being deeply reflective of the way 2010 was truly a changing time for culture when it came to representation in the arts. Beginners is one of those rare movies that will make you cry from laughter and sadness, exactly the kind of exemplification of a genre that can become too twee for its own good. If you're a fan of Mike Mills, then the "I'll Remind You Of Everything" trilogy is a must-buy -- but even audiences who haven't fallen in love with his work need to open their hearts to Beginners. Beginners Release Date June 9, 2011 Runtime 104 minutes