During rehearsals, the cast was encouraged to bring in music they believed their characters listened to. Then, to encourage familiarity among the cast, there would be a dance party where the only rule was that everyone had to dance and it didn't matter what the song was.
The film is semi-autobiographical, according to Mike Mills. The main cast members are based on one or multiple influences upon Mills from his childhood. Annette Bening's character in particular is based partly on his mother, but with the emphasis on Bening's particular spin on her character. This makes it Mills' second semi-autobiographical movie, after Beginners (2010) which was based on his father, who came out as gay after the death of his mother.
As her character is based on the director's mother, Annette Bening watched a lot of Mike Mills' mother's favorite films, including Pension d'artistes (1937) and movies starring Humphrey Bogart; his seminal film Casablanca (1942) is edited into the film.
Shares a lot of similarities to Presque célèbre (2000): Both are semi-autobiographical stories about a 15-year-old boy discovering music, falling in love with a more sexually experienced blonde, and living with a single mother in southern California during the 1970s. Billy Crudup features in both films, and has exactly the same hair style in both.
The house location was used for the exterior shots in the film adaptation of Courir avec des ciseaux (2006), also starring Annette Bening.