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C’mon C’mon Movie Review

C’mon C’mon is a 2021 indie drama film directed by Mike Mills and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Woody Norman. It’s a very charming, but uneven movie.

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“And when the time comes to return to your star,

it may be hard to say goodbye to that strangely beautiful world“

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When his sister asks him to look after her son, a radio journalist embarks on a cross-country trip with his energetic nephew to show him life away from Los Angeles. Mike Mills is a director who makes solid, far from great, but sweet movies and this one continues the tradition of ‘Beginners’ and ‘20^th Century Women’, though it had the potential to be much better.

I loved the central dynamic between Phoenix and Norman. This relationship is nothing new to cinema, but it works because the two are so much fun together. The best moment comes in the last act when he teaches the kid how to channel his emotions and actually be angry and sad when he is like that instead of keeping it inside of him. That was a great message and the scene was just beautiful.

I wished the rest of the movie was like that. While Woody Norman was terrific in one of the better child performances in recent years, I still could not relate to this kid. Will Hollywood ever start depicting these smart kids who act like adults? They are in such an extreme minority in real life that they constitute a statistically insignificant group. I wish that they depict more children that act and speak like children for once.

C’mon C’mon does benefit from a typecast Joaquin Phoenix. He plays this very calm, almost meditative man and Phoenix was perfect for this role, so he obviously delivered in spades. I also loved seeing Gaby Hoffmann, though she got a standard role of a frustrated mother.

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The movie benefits from gorgeous black-and-white cinematography that emphasizes the best parts of US cities, but it also has an incredible score that is pleasantly upbeat and charming. The film’s directing is also solid, but again the dialogue was too pseudo-intellectual at times and it simply rang false for the kid. The themes are great, but those documentarian interview scenes felt unnecessary.

C’mon C’mon does have a couple of wonderful, sweet scenes in the third act and the central uncle-nephew dynamic really worked. The movie is also wonderfully filmed and scored. Still, I found the kid character very unrelatable and unrealistic. Hollywood really needs to stop portraying kids that act and speak as adults. It is a very frustrating trope to me.

My Rating – 3.5