I can’t figure it out. C’mon, c’mon, members of the Academy, how come C’MON, C’MON did not get a single Oscar nomination?
“I’ll figure it out” seems to be a mantra in the early stages of C’MON C’MON.
Trying to “figure it out” is at the heart of this beautifully naturalistic film, the latest by Mike Mills who steered Christopher Plummer to his first and only Oscar in Beginners and was Oscar nominated for his screenplay, 2oth Century Women.
Equally as good if not better than his previous films, C’MON C’MON features Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny, a sort of latter day Art Linkletter. A radio journalist, his latest assignment is traversing the United States interviewing kids about the future. “When you think about the future, how do you imagine it will be?” is the main question he posits kids from Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and New Orleans.
Important as his work is, these interactions with children are fleeting, and as much as he is sensitive to kids and can build a reporter’s rapport, he has no lived experience of parenting.
That changes quite dramatically when he offers to look after his nephew, Jesse, when his sister, Viv, Jesse’s mother, needs to attend her estranged husband, Jesse’s father, who is suffering an extreme mental illness.
Johnny has lots of reasons to want to be there for his sister, but he has no experience with parenting a child—let alone one as smart and perceptive as Jesse. As they travel across the US, their relationship peaks and troughs, soars and plateaus, as both navigate and negotiate a narrative of how we keep going even though we have no idea what’s coming.
They push one another to hang tight through anxieties, to say what could not be said, to not let each other off the hook. I’m not fine becomes a totally reasonable response. Be funny when you can, a demonstrable mantra. Jesse confesses a fear that he wont remember this time with his uncle, while Johnny assures him “I’ll remind you”.
Joaquin Phoenix is quietly but profoundly affecting in his portrayal as the “bachelor father”, no histrionics, just an honest, open portrayal of deep end parenting.
Gabby Hoffman as Viv balances the sibling dynamic with the maternal and matrimonial, devoted to her child, with a commitment to her ailing ex, but also committed to living her own life.
The revelation is Woody Norman as Jesse. Wow. Think of any other astonishing juvenile performance in the whole history of the movies and he’s right up there.
Presented in breathtaking black and white by cinematographer Robbie Ryan and featuring a fantastic score by Bryce and Aaron Dessner, C’MON, C’MON is an emotionally loaded and often funny film, endearing, enduring and entirely entertaining.
Richard Cotter