C’mon C’mon: Tender Family Drama Explores Uncommon Kid/Grownup Relationship

By Kim Hughes

Rating: B+

Mike Mills movies are tailor-made for adjective deployment, practically daring viewers not to toss around descriptors like “intimate,” “quirky,” and “soulful” like so much popcorn.

As he did with 2016’s heartbreaking 20th Century Women and 2010’s Beginners —which won Christopher Plummer his sole Oscar — Mills sticks to the familiar roadmap with C’mon C’mon which, like the beforementioned titles, spins on the axis of family but does so in far more muted shades and with the volume turned way down.

The narrative is very simple and yet not so simple. Convivial New York-based radio journalist Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) is drafted by his L.A.-based sister Viv (Gaby Hoffmann) to care for his nephew, nine-year-old Jesse (Woody Norman) while Viv heads to Oakland to tend to her estranged husband, who is collapsing under mental illness.

To call Jesse precocious is akin to calling earthquakes pesky. The kid is an unfiltered brainiac weirdo spazz of the highest order. Which is excellent until it isn’t. Johnny appears to have no experience dealing with children and must navigate the boundaries and chasms dividing caregiver and endlessly chatting kid.

Johnny also learns that children’s candor begets candor. He is soon articulating uncomfortable stuff he hasn’t talked about before, which forces him to rethink himself. All the while, Johnny and Jesse use Johnny’s ever-present recording equipment to document themselves and their surroundings, a reminder, perhaps, to walk through life alertly.

What begins as a few days of Johnny’s familial oversight over Jesse soon stretches into weeks as Jesse’s dad spirals and Viv is forced to remain in Oakland. Johnny and Jesse eventually head to New York so Johnny can resume working, and from there they begin bonding (and occasionally butting heads) in earnest as Johnny talks and texts with Viv, unpacking their own complicated history while trading notes on parenting.

And so, we see Johnny and Jesse in many conversations, some funny, some frantic, others angry, as both learn to talk to each other. That, right there, is the literal sum and upshot of this slowly unfurling movie.

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

There are some complements. Actual books are read aloud — poignantly, Claire Nivola; in a fourth wall breach, Mills lists credits on the screen as the scenes unfold. Also, texts pop up while a parallel, but through-line narrative, follows Johnny as he criss-crosses the U.S. interviewing teens, real and unscripted, about their hopes and fears for the future for broadcast on his fictional radio show.

That most of these teens are in racialized and marginalized groups is not explicitly commented upon (except by them and not apropos of the plot). But the intent seems to be that… the opportunity for triumph over adversity belongs to those who seek it? I mean, I guess? Why this particular tangent is followed at this particular moment is unclear.

C’mon C’mon is shot in black and white, which ratchets up the intimacy (there’s that word) keeping the background very much in the background and the focus trained on Johnny and Jesse and/or Johnny and Viv.

Partly inspired by Mills’ own ascent into fatherhood in 2014, C’mon C’mon is lovely to behold and buoyed by three terrific performances and the remarkable, almost palpable, chemistry between Phoenix and Norman. But it really can’t be endorsed across the board. It’s just too… unusual. Inarguably too long, arguably too navel-gazing, and, ultimately, not a lot happens over its 108 minutes.

Those ambivalent towards children may find the film positively tedious. Those in tune with its up-close storytelling and gentle pace may find much to enjoy.

C’mon C’mon. Written and directed by Mike Mills. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Woody Norman, and Gaby Hoffmann. Opens November 26 in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa, expanding to additional markets December 3.