I’m a Mike Mills guy. I wasn’t so much into Thumbsucker, but I became a fan through his autobiographical-inflected indie dramas like Beginners (based on his father) and especially 20th Century Women (based on his mother). I’m completely aware that some will dismiss Mills’ humanistic writing and design approach (complete with elegantly designed montages and name-checking incorporated texts) as pretentious indie movie wank, but I am here for it. C’mon C’mon (2021) is based on his relationship with his own child to an extent, even though it’s about an uncle.
Joaquin Phoenix, after his Oscar win for Joker, plays Johnny, a radio broadcaster who is travelling around the country with colleagues interviewing children about their lives and about the future. The film is shot in black and white, and there are sequences of children being interviewed in different cities, cutting across ages, races and backgrounds. Easy enough to chat to a kid for fifteen minutes with a microphone, but how about spending complete days with one you’re related to? That’s the situation Johnny finds himself in when his estranged sister Viv (Gaby Hoffman) needs help. Johnny travels to Los Angeles to help look after Viv’s son, Jesse (Woody Norman) while Viv is away managing support for Jesse’s father, Paul (Scoot McNairy) who is going through another mental health episode and requires temporary hospitalisation. However, as Johnny’s work demands him to go back to New York, he asks if he can take Jesse with him on the road.
There is drama and humour in C’mon C’mon, but it’s a very observational movie that is mainly about Joaquin Phoenix’s character finally becoming an uncle to his nephew. There are moments that seem recognisable where Phoenix freaks out over how to look after this precocious, inquisitive kid, and calls Gaby Hoffman’s character who just has to roll her eyes as a mother -“I deal with this 247”. In Hollywood movies, there’s a certain type of professional child actor that’s more familiar – but in terms of actually capturing the energy of children, and both how amazing and annoying they can be, Woody Norman feels authentic. There’s not a lot of manufactured incident to the movie’s plot; it’s mainly a hang-out where Joaquin Phoenix plays a normal guy for once and we just watch him relate to this kid as they tour different cities. That was plenty enough for me.
While it might not reach the level of 20th Century Women, I was taken by C’mon C’mon. Maybe as an uncle myself, I was very primed for it. But it’s a humanistic comedy drama that just allows moments to develop that feel recognisable. I love how Mike Mills credits texts on-screen – for example, a children’s book or an essay read in the movie – and how our understanding is based on reading and understanding. The one drawback is that I wish Scoot McNairy’s character was integrated better or more of a human character – here, he unfortunately just becomes a series of images and tics that represent mental health illness and depression. Gaby Hoffman is great also, and makes for a welcome foil to Phoenix’s swings of cool calm and nervous panic. The evocative ambient soundtrack is also by The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner. Recommended.
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