I’ll Remind You of Everything: The Films of Mike Mills Is the Pick of the Week

Award-winning filmmaker Mike Mills has only made a handful of films, but they are solid enough to make him one of the talented filmmakers of his generation. When you see them, you realize that you are in the hands of a director who is pouring his life and heart out on screen, crafting personal works about life and the people who shape it along the way.

This week from the always reliable folks at Criterion, the new box set I’ll Remind You of Everything: The Films of Mike Mills, showcases a trilogy of films that trace Mills’ upbringing to who he is today. Beginners (2010) is based on his father coming out late in life, where Christopher Plummer is the father and Ewan McGregor is the son. 20th Century Women (2016) stars Annette Bening as a strong-willed individual and mother trying to connect with her young son, with the help of two vastly different women, played by Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning. C’mom C’mom (2021) has Joaquin Phoenix as a radio journalist who volunteers to look after his emotional nephew while his sister (Gaby Hoffman) deals with a personal crisis.

Through this proclaimed trilogy, you come away with a newfound sense of how life can transform in ways you don’t even know. You learn some much needed lessons and appreciate the people who help you do that. You can thank Mills for that.

Being released on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions, the set includes new 4K masters for all three films, commentaries by Mills, and a good slate of supplements including a new documentary featuring Mills in conversation with filmmaker Kirsten Johnson; making-of programs; music videos directed by Mills for Air’s “All I Need” and Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”; five short films; and trailers. It also comes a new appreciation by filmmaker Joachim Trier and an interview with Mills.

If you’re really looking films about people, places, and things, or want to introduce yourself to Mills’ world, then I highly recommend this new box set.

Other interesting releases:

Cruel Story of Youth (Criterion): Nagisa Oshima’s bleak 1960 portrait of postwar Tokyo where teenage lovers turn to a life of crime by extorting money from lecherous middle-aged men, but eventually fate has other plans.

The Love That Remains Blu (Criterion Premieres): Captures a year in the life of a broken family as the parents navigate their separation. Through a series of vignettes and events, the film explores family, love, and the complexities of memories.

Falling Down (Arrow): Michael Douglas goes on a rampage of epic proportions in Joel Schumacher’s 1993 thriller of male fragility.

Pleasantville (Shout Factory): The 1998 classic starring Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon as a siblings who get trapped into a 1950s sitcom where their influence changes that colorless, submissive world.

Pillion Blu (A24): A timid man (Harry Melling) meets the confident leader of a biker gang (Alexander Skarsgard) who takes him as his submissive. The more intense their relationship gets, the more they’re both pushed out of their comfort zones.