Mike Mills

1 sketch, 27 claims, and 17 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

The Big Picture: ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies (guest)

Loves French new wave and Italian cinema (Fellini, Godard), Buster Keaton, radio journalism (Studs Terkel, Ira Glass), and Chekhovian small stories like Bob's Burgers. Drawn to personal, uncommercial, non-plot-driven films and to the fable image of a child and adult. Suspicious of tidy 'truth'; likes masking and nerves in interviews.

Stances

  • Fatherhood deepened and broadened his work
  • Each film is a bet of all his chips on a primary relationship
  • Long shelf lives and strangers' personal stories are the highest honor
  • Blur the boundaries between documentary and acting

Humor: Self-deprecating and tangential, jokes about therapy and being underexploited.

In their words

  • “I'm going to call my therapist and get her in on this phone call.” (1:28:06)
  • “I'm not a super believer and like there's this like thing called the truth that sits over there all innocent and clean and stays over there and it's lame.” (1:18:33)
  • “I don't think it hurts to be slightly underexploited.” (1:28:52)
  • “each of my films is kind of like a bet like that, I can only do the bet if I can willing to bet all my chips, you know?” (1:23:48)
  • “usually I'm much more of like a French new wave person.” (1:22:03)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Big Picture

Their claims

Showing 1–27 of 27 claims.

  1. people (people): Come On, Come On → Mike Mills's son. The project began with Mills being his kid's dad; the uncle idea distances it.
    “the whole project is just my kid and me being my kid's dad”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:02:30 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft): Come On, Come On → Buster Keaton's films. Mills made Johnny an uncle so every scene plays like a Buster Keaton movie of not knowing what to do.
    “So it's like a it's like a Buster Keaton movie all of a sudden, you know?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:04:45 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. craft (craft): Come On, Come On → Buster Keaton. An uncle who does not know how to parent makes every scene like a Keaton movie.
    “it's like a Buster Keaton movie all of a sudden, you know?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:04:45 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. people (people): Nancy Gale → Come On, Come On. Nancy Gale, who ran his kid's preschool, taught him about children's power and breadth of feeling.
    “Nancy Gale comes in mind who ran my kids, preschool, is a very deep person about children”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:08:52 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  5. career (career): Come On, Come On → Mills's SFMOMA kids-interview video piece. The film grew from his video piece interviewing Silicon Valley kids about the future, which he did not feel done with.
    “I really didn't feel like I was done with asking kids about the future.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:13:00 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  6. lineage (lineage): Joaquin Phoenix → Studs Terkel. Mills introduced Phoenix to Studs Terkel to build the radio-journalist character.
    “introducing Joaquin to Studs Triple.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:13:58 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  7. lineage (lineage): Come On, Come On → Ira Glass. Johnny is a WNYC-style old-school radio journalist; Ira Glass is a big influence on Mills.
    “Ira Glass has been like a big influence, big hero to me.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:14:04 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. craft (craft): Joaquin Phoenix → Come On, Come On. Phoenix surprised Mills with how good he was at doing the interviews.
    “I was surprised at how deeply Joaquin got into it and how good he was at it.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:17:03 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  9. people (people): Molly Webster → Come On, Come On. Webster, a real radio journalist, is cast as an actor, blurring documentary and fiction.
    “Molly Webster is from Radar Lab and his radio journalist is not an actor and she's an actor in my movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:17:13 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  10. people (people): Jaboukie Young-White → Come On, Come On. Comedian Young-White is in the film as an actor, mixing smart minds.
    “Jabuki Young White is, yeah, a comedian and I think he's really an actor”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:17:18 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  11. people (people): Sunni Patterson → Come On, Come On. The New Orleans woman is played by a non-actress.
    “The Sonny Patterson who plays the woman whose house they go to in New Orleans, she's not an actress either.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:17:36 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  12. craft (craft): Come On, Come On → Jacqueline Rose. The film includes texts by authors like Jacqueline Rose.
    “different texts by like Jacqueline Rose or Kristen Johnson”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:19:56 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  13. craft (craft): Come On, Come On → Satie. He thinks of the simple look as Satie music or a drawing, not a painting.
    “I did sort of see this as simpler or like satee music, you know, or like a drawing.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:20:05 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  14. contrast (contrast): Come On, Come On → Beginners. Earlier films were like paintings with a wider palette; this one is a drawing.
    “maybe my other films are more like a painting, you know, or there's a wider palette deployed to tell the story.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:20:14 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  15. craft (craft): Mike Mills → Come On, Come On. Mills compares the black-and-white look to a Hockney portrait and a drawing versus a painting.
    “I want to be like a David Hockney portrait of a friend”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:20:23 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  16. craft (craft): Come On, Come On → Casablanca. The framing in clean single shots is like Casablanca.
    “It's like, it's like out of Casablanca or something.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:21:59 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  17. lineage (lineage): Mike Mills → Fellini and Godard. Mills says he is home somewhere between Fellini and Godard, a French new wave person.
    “usually I'm much more of like a French new wave person.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:22:03 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  18. lineage (lineage): Mike Mills → Federico Fellini. Mills learned filmmaking somewhere between Fellini and Godard, his usual French new wave language.
    “somewhere between Italian, like Fellini and and Goddard is like where I learned how to get interested in filmmaking.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:22:07 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  19. craft (craft): Come On, Come On → Beginners. Mills says he used text and archival-like material in earlier films and found a different way here, via included texts.
    “I love archival stuff and real, but I feel like I just did that with the text.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:22:28 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  20. people (people): 20th Century Women → Mills's sister. The Greta character in 20th Century Women is based on one of his sisters.
    “the Greta character is really based on one of my sisters”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:25:36 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  21. people (people): Come On, Come On → Beginners. Mills says he kept his sisters largely out of his films besides 20th Century Women.
    “I've kept my sisters largely out of my films, except for 20th”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:25:36 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  22. people (people): Come On, Come On → Beginners. Mills says Beginners resonates with people coping with a parent's death.
    “you should see this movie called Beginners with Christopher Plummer.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:25:54 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  23. people (people): Come On, Come On → Beginners. Beginners was about Mills and his dad.
    “That's sort of me and my dad.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:26:08 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  24. career (career): Mike Mills → Beginners. He says he got away with murder by making these three personal, uncommercial movies.
    “I got away with murder, you know, by making these 3 movies.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:28:43 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  25. contrast (contrast): Hero → Bob's Burgers (TV series). Mills offers two recommendations at opposite ends of the spectrum.
    “2 sides of the spectrum.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:30:37 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  26. verdict (verdict): Hero → Come On, Come On. Mills's last great thing he saw: A Hero, praised for patient layering and ambiguity.
    “I thought that was so masterfully built up, like such a micro layering of a story”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:30:43 · Mike Mills (0.80 sure it was them)
  27. craft (craft): Bob's Burgers (TV series) → Anton Chekhov. Mills calls Bob's Burgers Chekhovian and like Russian short stories.
    “I think Bob's Burgers is totally Chekovian awesomeness.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:31:39 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–17 of 17 fun items.

  1. fun, about Mike Mills: Mills's earlier video piece for SFMOMA interviewed children of Silicon Valley workers about the future; Apple NDAs blocked many.
    “all the people that worked at Apple mostly, um, couldn't do it because they signed these crazy NDAs.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:12:07 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Come On, Come On: SFMOMA kids-interview piece: children of Apple employees often could not take part because of NDAs, after earlier trouble over a kid's social media post.
    “some people have run into trouble where their children said something on social media”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:12:15 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Come On, Come On: Johnny is modeled as a WNYC old-school radio journalist who loves Studs Terkel.
    “he's like a very WNYC, slightly old school Scott Currier radio journalist”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:13:50 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Come On, Come On: Mills introduced Joaquin Phoenix to Studs Terkel for the role.
    “introducing Joaquin to Studs Triple.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:13:58 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Come On, Come On: Mills admits "grass is always greener" about wanting Ira Glass's job.
    “So I guess I want that job a little bit or I like that.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:14:10 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Come On, Come On: Mills's interviews of real kids: kid interviews in the film are with non-actors, with Joaquin and Molly Webster following the flow.
    “They're non-actor kids have never been in the film ministry or anything”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:16:42 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Come On, Come On: Mills says the film is "like filled with really smart people", with a mix of actors and non-actors.
    “This movie, I feel like, is, like filled with like really smart people.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:17:32 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Come On, Come On: He told himself a mantra: a drawing, not a painting.
    “I kept referring to a drawing, not a painting.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:20:11 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Come On, Come On: Mills wants the film to be like a David Hockney portrait of a friend.
    “I want to be like a David Hockney portrait of a friend”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:20:23 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Come On, Come On: Mills calls the child-adult fable image deliciously illegal for his usual space.
    “I was like, ooh, that's sort of like deliciously illegal.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:21:15 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about 20th Century Women: The Greta character was based on one of his sisters.
    “the Greta character is really based on one of my sisters”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:25:36 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Beginners: Strangers tell Mills to see Beginners about a dying father, not knowing he made it.
    “oh, you should see this movie called Beginners with Christopher Plummer. And I'm like, oh, I made that movie, you know?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:25:54 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Mike Mills: He says he got away with murder, Robin Hood style, with three personal movies.
    “Robin Hood, like I got away with murder”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:28:43 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Mike Mills: He doesn't think it hurts to be slightly underexploited.
    “I don't think it hurts to be slightly underexploited.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:28:52 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Mike Mills: He jokes about calling his therapist during the interview.
    “I'm going to call my therapist again to talk to you.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:30:14 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Hero: Mills praises the patient micro-layering and positive ambiguity of A Hero.
    “I thought that was so masterfully built up, like such a micro layering of a story with such patience and control”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:30:43 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Bob's Burgers (TV series): Mills and his kid love it; he calls it Chekhovian.
    “I think Bob's Burgers is totally Chekovian awesomeness.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,' and Our Top Five Feel-Good Movies · 1:31:39 · Mike Mills (0.90 sure it was them)