C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021) Joaquin Phoenix
When this was over, I felt like I had just sat through a sermon. The text might have been Matthew 19:14. The theme was something about accepting everyone as whatever they are. That was conveyed not only by the story but within it by the fact that the main character (Phoenix's) goes around collecting cute things said on his audio recorder by young people, mainly about what they think about the future. For the most part, they (the young people) are optimistic. So, therefore, is the film. So you should feel good after you've seen it, OK? OK? Oh ... c'mon!
Joaquin is good, despite having to work with a cute kid. (There might even have been a dog as well.)
Kent H. Wilhelm:
We last saw Phoenix in 2019’s controversial Joker, in which he played an emaciated, sadistic comedian who struggles with mental illness. Johnny is a tremendous departure from the murderous Arthur Fleck, though they both live in New York City. Throughout his career, Phoenix impresses with his ability to disappear into the characters he portrays; however heightened or average. His range makes it difficult to argue that he’s not one of the most talented actors of his generation. ...
The success of this film, as with Mills’s other work, is the respect he has for young people. His films don’t present them as an obstacle or a puzzle that adults must manage. He’s genuinely interested in their perspective and puts them on the same level as the adults in his films. Mills’s message is this: Kids are always talking. We try to stop them, but we shouldn’t. tilt mag.
Peter Bradshaw:
Steven Spielberg once said that if you over-rehearse child actors you risk a bad case of the cutes. But it may be even more of a risk with very natural child actors and their accomplished adult co-stars in beautiful black-and-white films in love with their own emotional literacy.
Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon is a swooningly photographed drama about a radio journalist and adorable guy in middle age called Johnny ...
C’mon C’mon is a well-made film with some nice exchanges between Johnny and Jesse, and between Johnny and the perennially exasperated Viv. Robbie Ryan’s monochrome cinematography is lovely, though it makes every scene look like a picture from the same expensive coffee-table book. But I found something a bit self-congratulatory here ...
It’s an impressively contrived film, almost a machine for winning awards, a monochrome reverie of midlife yearning. The Guardian.
Monica Castillo:
C’mon C’mon is the kind of movie that invites reflection. It’s not building towards a larger cinematic event or full of explosions. It’s a sincere drama about relationships, told from the perspectives of different members of one family. Through its questions, posed both by an adult on the job and a curious child, and gentle pacing, the movie can tap into our own memories of when we were once lost in a store or scared something was happening to our families that we didn’t yet fully understand. It imagines a place where reconciliation is possible and the questions to get to know each other better keep coming. We have however long after the credits roll to think about what our answers would be. Roger Ebert.
Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 31 January, 2022 | Now: 3 December, 2023