[Rating: Rock Fist Way Up]
There’s a difference between intimate, poignant stories with rich emotional cores and what I refer to as “emotional porn.” The latter is formulaic, designed to manipulate an experience and force a response. They’re gross, I hate them.
C’mon C’mon, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann, and Woody Norman, could easily have been emotional porn. It has all the ingredients: an isolated uncle (Phoenix), his kooky sister (Hoffmann), a kid in distress (Norman), and a cross country trip. But with Mike Mills (Beginners) at the helm (he both wrote and directed), the story of an uncle caring for his nephew during a time of familial upheaval becomes invitational and gentle, encouraging you to look closer.
We all know Joaquin Phoenix can act (you may be thinking of Joker, but watch his feral turn in The Master without flinching), and the skill he displays here is an ability to bring the tension inward, emanating vulnerability from a place of self-protection.
You can’t front with kids, you must be emotionally present. Uncle Johnny isn’t that. Still hurting from love leaving him, he records interviews with adolescents for a work project, listening to the world instead of engaging with it. When his mother dies (lightly used flashback scenes), he escapes reality by indulging in her delusions, diving into the comfort of playing pretend. His sister, Viv, refuses to deal in anything less than stark emotional reality, denying herself that comfort and sitting with her own distress. She raises her son Jesse to do the same – feel, acknowledge, and communicate.
When Viv must care for her mentally ill and unraveling spouse, she leaves Jesse with her well-meaning brother. I didn’t expect to be so excited to see Gaby Hoffmann on screen. I grew up with her movies and haven’t seen her in anything since 2014’s Veronica Mars. She’s still outstanding, with an honesty to her performance that foils Phoenix’s. While he hides, she calls him back out. She gives him room, but will not indulge emotional dishonesty.
The movie’s heart is in the scenes between Johnny and Jesse. The casual intimacy of children is everywhere, with the kid’s feet all over his uncle, tapping games at the table, and overstimulated conversations. Woody Norman’s performance as Jesse is as excellent as his costars – he never veers into canned precociousness. He’s more wild thing than cherub, trying to make sense of his world and find a villain, but learning sometimes there isn’t one.
The film is gorgeous. Shooting in perfectly balanced black and white, cinematographer Robbie Ryan (The Favourite, Marriage Story) turns LA, NYC, and NOLA into pure visual pleasure – showing off boardwalks, Broadway, and bayous with equal affection. The short visual montages offer relief from what could be a relentless emotional experience, but without adding drag (the film still comes in under two hours). Also, Johnny’s recording project allows Mills to play with audio, sharing the ambient sounds around the characters, bringing the audience even more into the moment.
C’mon C’mon is beautiful, displaying a younger generation’s concerns and fierceness against the control and avoidance of those that came before. In one of my favorite scenes, Johnny asks a young interview subject what she would change about herself. She puts on a big, cheerful smile, and says, “My anger.”
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