NYFF 2021: C’MON C’MON: Tender and Simple Right to the Very End

I think it is fair to say that if you are familiar with Mike Mills’ storytelling sensibilities in previous films like 20th Century Women and the black-and-white short film I Am Easy to Find, then you know you are going to get exactly what you are expecting from C’mon C’mon. It’s a film whose greatest strength is also ironically the thing that holds it back from greatness, that is it reveals its cards and dramatic intentions right from the get-go and you are on to the filmmakers before they even make a move.

And yet, with two beautiful performances by Joaquin Phoenix and newcomer Woody Norman, the film still tugs at your heartstrings through a tender, well-intentioned portrait of parenting and getting by.

Simple Parenting Story, Threaded By Interviews

In a remarkably similar premise as another film that was screened at the New York Film Festival, titled Futura, C’mon C’mon finds Phoenix in the role of Johnny, a radio journalist whose current project is to travel across the country to interview a wide range of high-school teenagers about their lives, communities, passions, and what they see in their futures.

The project will see him traveling from Los Angeles to New York to New Orleans and back, but he’s hit a snag along the way. His estranged sister Viv (Gaby Hoffmann) needs him to watch her 9-year-old son Jesse (Norman), while she looks after her mentally ill husband. And that’s the crux of the film: It’s a simple parenting story that’s short of a two-hour runtime, focusing on the relationship between uncle and nephew, where Johnny gets to learn how difficult being a parent is. As for his project, Johnny has no choice but to bring Jesse along.

Though it is emotionally stirring to see unscripted teenagers bare their souls out to the tune of Bryce and Aaron Dessner’s wonderful score, they inevitably play like documentary vignettes whose sole purpose is to color in the outlines of the main uncle/nephew narrative. It’s almost as if Johnny and Jesse’s story has no thread that connects scene to scene, so it relies on something else to give it forward momentum.

Simplicity vs. Meandering

While Mills has been more precise about his ideas in the past, he seems a bit more aimless here. We either already get the message he’s trying to convey or we’re waiting for him to get to the point. The result is a film that largely rests on vibes, mind-settings, and being present with the characters. Granted, this is not a bad thing, given that Johnny and Jesse’s relationship is wonderfully written and performed, but every once in a while, I can’t help but feel the potential impact C’mon C’mon could’ve made on me had it been slightly more focused and narratively condensed.

Where the film succeeds is in its simplicity. The gorgeous black-and-white cinematography by Robbie Ryan is more than just a method to capture raw intimacy and connection between two people. Sprawling shots of city skyscrapers, highways, and beaches do so much to the film’s atmosphere. They serve more than just being a background, but as an ethereal headspace for the characters to roam around it. Though the scene can meander on paper, it certainly creates an astonishing effect on screen, thanks to its simplicity. These moments, accompanied by that musical score and Phoenix’s occasional narration, give C’mon C’mon a sense of peace and comfort.

Beautiful Performances

Of course, so much of C’mon C’mon rests on Phoenix’s shoulders. Coming fresh from his Oscar win, he’s back into Her territory by creating a character who’s not exactly damaged, but certainly vulnerable and fragmented in how he conveys his feelings to people. Johnny has plenty of his own personal problems, ranging from reeling from his mother’s death (which affects his current relationship with Viv) and having just broken up with a long-term girlfriend. You can imagine his project of traveling across the country and hearing other people’s voices as an excuse for him to not express his own.

Conceptually, these seem like familiar beats and throughlines for a character, but the film thankfully offers a child’s eye at interpreting these events. Many things that bother Johnny would confuse Jesse. Some of them would even bore him, as he calls them “blah blah blah” more than once. With Norman so comfortably inhabiting a child character who is weird and insecure and eager to explore the world, he acts as the perfect counterbalance to Johnny’s emotional limbo.

But it is also Mills’ sense of empathy that allows his characters to slowly realize the mistakes they’ve made and learn to move on. Whether his mistakes come from his physical actions or simply his attitude, Johnny comes out in the end as a better person, with Jesse disrupting his worldview and Viv comforting him over the phone. It’s a quiet but fulfilling journey that eventually leads to its emotionally cathartic ending.

C’mon C’mon: Balancing the Chaos and Getting By

When the lead duo chemistry and Mills’ handling of tone is this tender and genuine, it’s easy to forgive the writing pitfalls in C’mon C’mon. Despite the occasional meandering of the script and a couple of dramatic beats that get repeated, much of the film feels like an honest search for peace and a sense of balance in life.

You can walk away feeling like Johnny and Jesse are real people. Perhaps they are your neighbors or your relatives. Maybe we are all like them, trying to balance the chaos in our lives while getting by, and it’s the getting by part that makes us eager to search for answers and find a connection in someone else. But it’s also this part that stays with us the most, and I think Mills understands that better than any other filmmaker working today.

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C’mon C’mon premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2021. It is scheduled to be released in theaters by A24 on November 19, 2021.