C’Mon C’Mon - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 6 of 10

Joaquin Phoenix is an actor for this generation, if you were to have a debate of the greatest actor currently working, his name may not be the first one mentioned, but he’d definitely surface in the discussion. Although he started making films in the 80’s & 90’s, he found some supporting parts with serious meat in Gladiator (2000) and then a couple films from M. Night Shyamalan before finally showing us all his Best Actor chops in Walk The Line (2005). His latest film from director Mike Mills is the black and white C’Mon C’Mon, a story of an uncle that takes care of his curious nephew for an extended period of time. While the film doesn’t take Phoenix to his extremes in range like his Joker performance from the other year, it’s excellent work but more subtle and inward. The film as a whole, however, suffers from pacing issues, struggles to keep the audience engaged and the black and white artistic touch is more of an off-putting curiosity than actual genius movie making decision. In all, movie lovers can certainly enjoy the acting, these characters are interesting and some of the screenwriting elements are excellent but for general audiences, once it passes the hour mark, many may start begging the film C’Mon C’Mon.

SYNOPSIS - This character drama begins with Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) interviewing kids and asking them different questions about life, adulthood, the cities they live in and what the future holds for them and humanity. As part of his job he travels to cities around the United States with audio recording equipment and meets with middle school aged kids and young adults asking them about and recording their feelings on these topics. But life throws him a curve ball when his sister Viv (Gaby Hoffmann) calls from Los Angeles asking him to come watch her nine year old son, Jesse (Woody Norman), while she goes to help her husband in San Francisco who’s dealing with some mental problems. Johnny travels to L.A. to take care of Jesse and an amusing and heartwarming relationship ensues. The themes the film explores of the uncle becoming caretaker of a quirky child are not exactly revolutionary, but Mike Mills unravels them in an unusual and interesting way here. Once things continue to drag out and Johnny is forced to take Jesse back to his home in New York, the pace does pick up slightly, but many won’t even notice.

After this slow burn of a film ignites into the smallest fire ever, we’ve gotten to see some incredible acting, especially Phoenix and the delightful Woody Norman, working through these situations and bonding with each other in a way that really hits home. Exploring these relationship dynamics in such a thoughtful and deliberate manner packs an emotional punch, especially for people with children or that were raised in dysfunctional families. As I mentioned, I did enjoy quite a bit of the cinematography but didn’t quite understand the decision to film in black and white other than to put this film at the front of the art house movie lovers wishlist. The sometimes ethereal original score and soundtrack are both nice but fairly low key in keeping with the overall tone and themes of the film. C’Mon is a meditative piece that shows Mike Mills’ competence behind the camera but the actors truly steal the show in what is, by most accounts, a pretty solid little piece of filmmaking.

SUMMARY - By the conclusion you can practically feel the movie trying to pull tears out of your eyes but it just might not be working it’s magic on everybody as successfully as it’s hoping to. C’Mon C’Mon is a movie that most everyone can enjoy and consider to be good but to say this piece of cinema is truly incredible, best of the year or some kind of masterpiece, I mean, come on.