A scriptwriting lesson, underlined by a gentle black and white, from the punctuality of the dialogues and from the sumptuous sobriety of the representation. A eulogy of the liquid family, by circumstance or necessity, beyond blood ties. A profound reflection on the importance of training in a suspended and doubtful world. On children and their ability to adapt by jumping obstacles and inconveniences and on parents ready to intercept their weaknesses and understand them. On sweetness and the desire for tenderness, on the strength of being human despite jams and cancellationse. To visit planet Earth you will need to be born as a human baby. You will have so much to learn and so many emotions to experience. And when the time comes to return to your star, it may be difficult to say goodbye to that inexplicably beautiful world.
Director indie Mike Mills, 57, tells an American story leaning on universal themes, sensitively crossing a cinema that, in order to recover from the most stormy crisis, is forced to rely on the noise of blockbusters. C’mon C’mon a film against the tide, very rich in nuances, and for this reason lovable, albeit harsh, without a real conclusion, conceived as a documentary. Not for nothing does Mills rely on the most intense actor of his generation, Joaquin Phoenix, very far from the tensions of that Joker who earned him an Oscar. The sociopath, emaciated, in full nervous deficit. Here radio journalist sad, polite, curious, with bacon, apparently satisfied, in reality introverted and lonely, struggling with grief over the loss of her mother and recent separation from the woman he loved.
Johnny is conducting a truth-investigation that excites him. Question the boys of the Big Country. Record their impressions. Dig into their innocence. She asks what they expect from the future, how they see it, what happiness is. She asks them to tell about their hopes, weaknesses, fears. He travels across a twilight, scared, unsmiling America when his sister Viv (Gaby Hoffmann), a teacher, calls him for an emergency. Husband Paul (Scott McNairy) is sick, a good musician who has devalued and needs psychiatric treatment. So he entrusts him with his nephew, the small, highly intelligent Jesse, 9 years old. Dad and Mom will be away for a week, at the most. So Viv promises Johnny. In fact, living with Jesse will last longer.
The little boy, who has a vivid imagination, confronts his uncle about his father’s absence and mental illness, revealing a natural need for freedom as well as love and protection. Johnny takes him from town to town with him. Together with him he matures, obtaining a decisive boost also for the investigation he is carrying out. He turns into a spare parent, almost without realizing it, marking a decisive trait in Jesse’s existence. The two live stormy moments but become inseparable, forming a new family that completes and integrates the natural one.
Mills surprisingly effective as he alternates between Johnny’s interviews to face to face with Jesse, the explanations that the two give each other, the boy’s escapes and the concentration of that alternative dad who often doesn’t know what to do next. Poetry and melancholy. Seattle to Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Mills tells of an America that tries to look inside to explain the future that awaits it. And if Phoenix is confirmed as the ace we know, the little Woody Norman, already seen there War of the Worldstakes a hit, and sometimes even surpasses it by adding naturalness to the duet. C’mon C’mon an exhortation to be strong and move on, particularly in tune with the moonlight we are living in and the biography of Mills: the mother died of a brain tumor, a few weeks after the 75-year-old father did coming out and five years later he died of lung cancer. Touching the final message: superheroes or not, only by saving ourselves can we save the world.
C’MON C’MON by Mike Mills
(Usa, 2022, duration 108 ‘)
con Joaquin Phoenix, Woody Norman, Gaby Hoffmann, Scott McNairy, Jaboukie Young-White, Kenneth Kynt Bryan
Rating: **** out of 5
In the halls
April 9, 2022 | 08:00
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