Anytime Joaquin Phoenix shows up in a movie, you expect some larger than life performance of a first rate actor. However, Phoenix is a part of a Mike Mills film, the Mike Mills who delves into quiet meditative studies of the human condition. So what does that mean for Joaquin? It means we get something that’s totally compelling but not in a Joker way, more in a Her performance way, gently teaching us lessons about this particular human condition: raising a child.
Joaquin plays Johnny (MUCH better than Tommy Wiseau‘s Johnny), a radio talk show personality on an NPR type show. Currently, Johnny’s going around the US, interviewing kids about the future. In the middle of that project, Johnny’s sister Viv (Gaby Hoffman) throws Johnny a curveball. Her ex husband (Scott McNairy) is having severe issues, and Viv needs Johnny to take care of her son Jesse (Woody Norman) for a few days. Well, Jesse and Johnny’s few days quickly grow into weeks, as Viv’s ex proves more troublesome getting help for than initially expected.
C’mon C’mon is a tale of adults and kids. When focusing on the adults, the movie is simply amazing. Mills takes us down the complicated mechanics of raising a child. The little moments stand out: temporarily losing a kid in a store, trying to get Jesse to eat/sleep, playing one of Jesse’s weird games. Johnny gets to experience all those emotions and feelings for the first time, with Phoenix playing each moment just right. My personal favorite moments are his conversations with Gaby Hoffman over the phone. Plotwise that could get repetitive if it wasn’t so engaging, with Phoenix and Hoffman acting the hell out of trying to find understanding in the day to day struggle of simply trying to take care of one little life. Mills directs all these moments with a gentle hand, and Phoenix and Hoffman hit the sweet spot of simply becoming normal parents trying to raise a child.
What makes C’mon C’mon so wonderful is how natural every moment feels. Which brings us to the character of Jesse. Clearly holding a PhD in Psychology, Jesse asks the most incisive, cutting, deep questions to Johnny over and over again, as if Johnny would be talking to a therapist. I’ve never in my life seen a 10 year old with such a level of understanding of the adult human condition. Every question is so brilliantly worded that at some point I started rolling my eyes, taken out of a series of wonderful moments and undercutting what the movie is trying to do. When Jesse is allowed to be a 10 year old, the movie comes back alive again, finding those specific/ubiquitous moments of parenting that C’mon C’mon aspires to be about, but then another laser pointed psychological questionnaire is presented to Johnny, and we’re taken right back out of the wonder.
Fortunately, Mills gets it right more than he doesn’t making C’mon C’mon a rewarding experience overall. It helps that he’s got Joaquin Phoenix, maybe the best actor of his generation, and Gaby Hoffman doing all the heavy lifting. Hopefully this makes more people cast Hoffman in movies/TV, because she makes every project she’s in better, even since her heat check kid performance in Field of Dreams. If you cast Gaby, people will come!