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 Thumbsucker (2005). His other 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.
Early life and education Michael Chadbourne Mills was born in Berkeley, California, the son of Paul Chadbourne Mills, an art historian and museum director, and Janet L. Dowd, a draftsperson.
He graduated from Cooper Union in Lower Manhattan, New York City.
Career Mills has created music videos for acts including Moby, Yoko Ono and Air. Air named the fifth song on its album Talkie Walkie after Mills. 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. He has created graphics for X-Girl, Marc Jacobs, and produces his own line of posters and fabrics, called Humans by Mike Mills. 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 a self-titled album in 1996 on the now defunct Grand Royal record label.
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 introduction of anti-depressants to Japanese culture. The film premiered at SXSW Festival and was part of IFC's documentary film series. In 2010 he directed the Focus Features independent comedy Beginners, which stars 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 called it a breakthrough, writing, "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." Plummer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
His next feature film was the A24 coming-of-age drama 20th Century Women (2016), which stars Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, and Billy Crudup. The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival and was released on December 28, 2016. The Hollywood Reporter film critic David Rooney wrote: "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."
He has released some of his art and photography in the 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".Currie, Nick, Getting Through the New Depression. 032c issue #17 (Summer, 2009). . 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.
Mills's latest directorial feature film was the 2021 black-and-white drama 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. Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent called Phoenix's performance "a career best" and called 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".
Influences Mills has cited as influences Alain Resnais, François Truffaut, Yasujirō Ozu, Ermanno Olmi, Woody Allen, and Jim Jarmusch.
Personal life Mills's mother died of brain cancer in 1999. Six months after she died, his father Paul came out as gay at age 75 and after 45 years of marriage, which inspired his film, Beginners; five years later, Paul died of cancer.
Mills married fellow artist and film director Miranda July in 2009, with whom he has a child, born in 2012. In 2022, July announced that she and Mills were separated, although they continue to live near each other and co-parent.
Filmography Feature films Year Title Notes 1999 Air: Eating, Sleeping, Waiting and Playing Documentary film2005 Thumbsucker 2007 Does Your Soul Have A Cold? Documentary film2010 Beginners 2016 20th Century Women 2021 C'mon C'mon
Short films Year Title Notes1995 An Introduction to Harmolodics 1995 Skating with Dave and Jared 1998 Hair Shoes Love and Honesty 1999 The Architecture of Reassurance 2000 Not How Or When Or Why But Yes 2000 Deformer 2001 Paperboys Documentary 2019 I Am Easy to Find
Music videos Year Title Artist(s) 1995 "Men in Black" Frank Black1996 "2 Kindsa Love" Jon Spencer Blues Explosion1997 "Le soleil est près de moi" Air "Hey Hey You Say" Papas Fritas "Spokes" Pond1998 "Afrodiziak" Bran Van 3000 "All I Need" Air "Kelly Watch the Stars" "Sexy Boy" "Party Hard" Pulp "Legacy" Mansun1999 "Temperamental" Everything but the Girl "Sometimes" Les Rhythmes Digitales "Run On" Moby "1, 2, 3, 4" Titán2001 "Bad Ambassador" The Divine Comedy "It's Automatic" Zoot Woman2002 "Concrete Sky" Beth Orton2003 "Stardust" Martin Gore"Walking on Thin Ice" Yoko Ono2007 "The Dress" Blonde Redhead"My Impure Hair" "Silently" "Top Ranking" 2019 "Light Years" The National"Hairpin Turns" "Hey Rosey" 2025 "Psycho Killer" Talking Heads2026 "Big Beautiful Sound" Dana Margolin
Other works
Record sleeves
"Kelly Watch the Stars" single – Air "Moon Safari" – Air "Playground Love" single – Air "Sexy Boy" single – Air "The Virgin Suicides" soundtrack – Air "Root Down" EP – Beastie Boys "Hot Sauce Committee Part Two" – Beastie Boys "Boss Hog" – Boss Hog "Socks, Drugs, and Rock and Roll" – Buffalo Daughter "Butter 08" – Butter 08 "Viva! La Woman" – Cibo Matto "Runaway" single – Deee-Lite "Thank You Everyday" single – Deee-Lite "Infinity Within" – Deee-Lite "I Had a Dream I Was Falling Through a Hole in the Ozone Layer" single – Deee-Lite "Figure 8" promo – Elliott Smith "Experimental Remixes" – Jon Spencer Blues Explosion "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" single – Ol' Dirty Bastard "Tone Dialing" – Ornette Coleman & Prime Time "Junta" – Phish "A Picture of Nectar" – Phish "Rift" – Phish "Promise Me Nothing" – Repercussions "Logan's Sanctuary" – Roger Joseph Manning Jr. & Brian Reitzell "Lose Control" – Silk "No Cities to Love" – Sleater-Kinney "Washing Machine" – Sonic Youth "The Diamond Sea" single – Sonic Youth "Little Trouble Girl" single – Sonic Youth "Superfriends" – Sweet Water "Back to Skull" – They Might Be Giants "John Henry" – They Might Be Giants "Thumbsucker" soundtrack – Tim DeLaughter & The Polyphonic Spree "Wild Flag" – Wild Flag "Future Crimes" b/w "Glass Tambourine" single – Wild Flag
Commercials
Adidas "Forever Sport" Apple Computer CareerBuilder "Self Help Yourself" Cisco "Tomorrow" Clos19 "Bring Them In" DuPont Facebook "Our Friends Manifesto" Facebook "Friend Request" Gap "Cool" Gap "Mambo" Mastercard Nike Old Spice "Fiji" Saturn "Numbers" Tempur-Pedic "Bear" Tempur-Pedic "Cloud" Volkswagen "Tree" Volkswagen "Bubble Boy"
Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Nominated work ResultRef2001 Santa Fe Film Festival Best Documentary Paperboys 2005 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Thumbsucker 2005 Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear 2006 Independent Spirit Awards Best First Feature 2011 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards Beginners 2011 Independent Spirit Awards Best Director Best Screenplay 2011 Gotham Awards Best Feature 2011 Alliance of Women Film Journalists Best Original Screenplay 2011 Detroit Film Critics Society Best Original Screenplay 2011 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards Best Original Screenplay 2011 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards Best Original Screenplay 2011 San Diego Film Critics Society Best Original Screenplay 2011 Utah Film Critics Association Awards Best Original Screenplay 2016 Academy Awards Best Original Screenplay 20th Century Women 2016 Independent Spirit Award Best Screenplay 2016 Alliance of Women Film Journalists Best Original Screenplay 2016 Austin Film Critics Association Best Original Screenplay 2016 Florida Film Critics Circle Best Screenplay 2016 Dorian Awards Screenplay of the Year 2016 Hawaii Film Critics Society Best Original Screenplay 2016 North Carolina Film Critics Association Best Original Screenplay 2021SCAD Savannah Film FestivalAuteur Award
Bibliography Gas Book 11 (2003) Thumbsucker (2005) Humans (2006) Fireworks (2008) Graphics Films (2009) Drawings From the Film Beginners (2011)
References
External links
Mike Mills' blog (last updated 2005)