#19: the new twee
Extremely familiar and incredibly whelming: Mike Mills' latest film, C'mon C'mon
C’mon C’mon was this year’s surprise film at London Film Festival. There we all were, packed into the hall at the Southbank Centre, waiting at 9pm for the feature to be unveiled. A few whoops when distributor A24’s logo came up on screen in black and white.
I wish I had a lot to say about this film but I don’t. Partly because, while I’m feeling much better, I’m not in any rush to overexert myself - I have actually just paused watching The Holiday to type this - but also because, while I was impressed by young newcomer Woody Norman who has the formidable task of playing a main character role of young Jesse against Joaquin Phoenix as his NPR/This American Life style audio-host uncle, Johnny.
Structurally, it’s not too dissimilar from the ‘thrust into parenting’ movies of the 80s and 90s, but there are a few things here that make it feel like more of a serious contender. Jesse’s dad (played by Scoot McNairy) is ill and is going through a patch of acute paranoia and distress that in turn means his mom (Gaby Hoffmann here showing that she is probably the best ‘adult sister’ actor on either coast - I’m thinking of her turn as Adam’s sister on GIRLS) has to help him get help outside of the home. Jesse is boisterous, curious, stroppy, profound. Sometimes so much so it feels like the runtime isn’t earned - we know about precocious children teaching the commitmentphobic adults in their life about love, we do!
I find Johnny’s project kind of interesting in that it mirrors the question I have with the film. He’s going around the country, interviewing different children and young people about their lives. Sometimes they will have lots to say about their circumstances, or hopes for the future: the idea that this is remarkable feels a little patronising to their immense personhood? Kids say the darnedest, truest things, but especially when living in cramped housing in a newly arrived migrant family. Or, say, if their loving and creative California parents split due to circumstances beyond any of their control.
Without wanting to go too into it, I do wonder if the idea of Johnny’s act of caregiving being remarkable, which is sort of the frame of the film, would hold up if it were an aunt taking on the responsibility, rather than an uncle. I think it would be taken for granted by family and critics alike.
And the thing is I wouldn’t mind so much, I’m just curious at the suggestion this film is particularly profound! It’s charming and sweet, and has great performances. It’s a little long, but not so much so I don’t want to watch Mills’ other films, Beginners and 20th Century Women which I’ve been meaning to check out for some time now. But I think its indie credibility means people will take its sentimentality - famously, big fan of the stuff this year when applied well - more seriously than if it had come from someone else, and with less grey tone.
If you want to be heart warmed but in a way that isn’t too saccharine though, please, be my guest! I am just interested to see if this heralds a resurgence of the kind of Sundance-bait flick that marked by teenage days (Little Miss Sunshine et al).