C'mon C'mon Review

9.5/10

C’mon C’mon is exactly the kind of film I love. I knew nothing about it when I first saw it other than my familiarity with the director Mike Mills. I found it to be one of the most emotional and touching films I’ve seen in ages. The story is simple and cuts right to the bone: a radio journalist, Johnny, has to take care of his young nephew Jesse when his sister Viv is away. Gaby Hoffmann is fantastic as the sister carrying the world on her shoulders. She leaves to take care of her husband Paul who is suffering from a worsening manic episode. This aspect of the film gives it a unique angle. Paul is played with wonderful depth by Scott McNairy. His mental health struggles were difficult to watch at times. I’ve not dealt with those same issues, but I know someone who has gone through a similar situation. Portrayals of mental health in films are mixed, to say the least. It is handled with care and sensitivity here. I never felt like Paul's problems were too exaggerated or exploitative.

Throughout the film we see Johnny interviewing young people about their lives and their thoughts on the future. Their hopes and dreams are a fascinating mixture of optimism and cynicism, but their thoughts are always earnest. I never once felt that these scenes were staged; I was just a bystander watching a real interview. This is one of Joaquin Phoenix’s best performances. He’s always magnificent, but here he plays such a relatable and warm person. His interactions with Jesse or the interviewees offer a glimpse into who he is. Artifice is bound to creep into any staged conversation; it can feel too scripted and insincere. Johnny's conversations are from the perspective of a man genuinely interested in what these people have to say. He doesn’t jump in for a quip or second-guess them. He just lets these people air their thoughts.

His strained relationship with his sister Viv has a lot of nuances. The film never spoon-feeds. We get a real understanding of their relationship and how difficult it was when she felt Johnny wasn't around as much as he should have been. That tension between the estranged siblings erodes throughout the story revealing the connection they’ve not had before. There are many directions C’mon C’mon could have gone. The plot is hardly unique and groundbreaking. Variations of it have existed before, often in cheesy overly sentimental tearjerkers. There are often two extremes when it comes to kids in films. They are either absurdly stupid and obnoxious or sassy fountains of wisdom who are wise beyond their years.

Both of those tropes can be equally annoying. It’s easy to tell those characters are written by people with no understanding of children. The relationship between Johnny and Jesse is one of the most honest and realistic I’ve seen in ages. Woody Norman as Jesse captures every minutia of childhood, all that unfiltered energy, frustrations, and anger. Many child actors tend to go over the top and end up not being believable. Norman feels completely authentic and grounded in his performance. It’s difficult to create chemistry with any two actors. In my limited experience, I can tell it's not the kind of thing a director can force. They can certainly guide and harness a dynamic between two actors, but those two people need to already have an instinctual connection that can grow over time.

I have no idea how Mike Mills was able to cultivate such an emotional bond between the two. Even the story beats that have been done by other films feel real here. Jessie goes missing for a brief moment in a store then is soon found. Oh, spoiler alert. That kind of scene has been done to death by many other films, but here the panic feels genuine. Johnny is trying to be a good person and be supportive of his estranged sister, so Jesse running off is a heart-stopping moment of fear. We feel his growing anxiety about the missing boy and their eventual reunion isn’t a cheesy Hollywood moment. It’s a cathartic moment of relief. Johnny doesn’t know how to handle this kid for a good portion of the film. Rather than throw his nephew into the typical wacky comedy film shenanigans, Jesse is along for the ride. They go on a road trip together when Johnny needs to complete a radio assignment in New Orleans.

Here is where the film could have easily derailed into goofy schlock, but it never does. Jesse genuinely wants to be involved and is even given a microphone and headphones to observe the world around him. If this was a much worse film, he would have interrupted Johnny’s interviews by being rude and grating. Instead, these interviews only strengthen their growing bond. Johnny is not used to taking care of a kid, he has been a loner for a long time. C’mon C’mon isn’t just a tender look at the bond between an adult and a child, it’s a joyous celebration of our hopes for the future. The radio interview scenes are the glue that binds this message to the story and elevates it.

I had a very specific reaction to the film that doesn’t happen much. I genuinely wanted the characters to be happy. It may sound cheesy to some, but that response is completely earnest and rare. Those are the moments in a theater where the rest of the world vanishes. I wasn’t simply amongst a crowd watching a screen, I was a participant in these people’s lives. I felt every sense of exuberance, sorrow, and anxiety. By the time the film was over, I had that slight daze that comes from being immersed in a tangible experience. Leaving the characters behind was a disappointment. I had become so immersed in their world that I was reluctant to leave.

It’s easy to fall prey to cynicism when it comes to emotional sincerity. We live in such a jaded time that a film about good people trying to get by and connect could be sneered at by those craving despair and perpetual angst. For a long time, I used to write and indulge in exclusively twisted and dark media. I certainly still love the films that dive into the grotesque and obscene, but after a while all that grimness gets grating. I adore a great action-packed blockbuster and I still dabble in warped material, but there is nothing more enriching for me than a heartfelt exploration of real people.