Screaming Flowers of Life: Review of the film "C'mon C'mon".
A sensitive masterpiece about the communication of adults and children, their present and past with the unrecognizable Joaquin Phoenix.
Radio journalist Johnny travels around the States, interviewing middle-aged children for his special project about their relationship with their parents and the outside world, their inner self-perception. In parallel, the hero is asked to look after his nephew Jesse. The time spent together will ask both of them not childish questions and offer invaluable communication experience.
"C'mon C'mon" completes director Mike Mills' conditional family trilogy: Beginners, with the late Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor, were inspired by the director's father, Women of the 20th Century, with Annette Bening, was based on Mills's mother, while "C'mon C'mon" is a recognition in love to her son Hopper, who was raised married to indie filmmaker and actress Miranda July (“Kajillionaire”). His new tape turned out to be unhurried and heartfelt, but most importantly, equally realistic and magical, showing the child in the center of the plot as a full participant in the world with his own vision, the same meticulousness in setting up sound recording equipment, rebelliousness and empathy.
Johnny (Phoenix), despite deadlines, comes to the aid of Viv's sister (the amazing Gaby Hoffman from the TV series Girls): her husband Paul (Scoot McNairy) has a mental illness that has worsened, she needs to take him to the hospital, where the man will be helped. There is no one to leave their school-age son Jesse (Woody Norman) with. Johnny never planned to become a father, so he embarks on a new mission with interest. After some time, they have to leave sandy Los Angeles and go to work in New York, where Jesse and Johnny will try to coexist together, overcoming misunderstanding, stubbornness and loneliness.
Here there are no banal and generated memories of childhood, as in the recent Belfast by Kenneth Branagh, with which Kamon has only monochrome in common, here it is much more thoughtful and warm. The central intergenerational dynamic could easily turn into another conflict about monkeys that do not close their eyes and ears, or a lengthy, smeared wording with nostalgic motifs. But Mills deliberately lets the future of all speak out by setting up a microphone for the children, introducing a documentary narrative and listening carefully to each of them, asking questions about an uncertain future (I wish there were no wars), global warming, absent parents and loss. Astute, attuned teenagers and near-teens share their pain and hopes, making Johnny himself understand a lot about himself and his connection with Jesse.
The guy is nine years old, but during this time he has clearly become overwhelmed, communicates and behaves on a par with adults (he “hung out” with them mostly all his life) and manages to teach his relative worldly wisdom. Jesse also realizes that his father is ill, and is extremely worried that the same fate may eventually overtake him. "I'm not okay," Jessie gets angry. “Louder, louder,” Johnny encourages him. Both scream, and through an exaltation ironically comparable to the well-known scene of collective crying from Ari Aster's Solstice, the nephew lets go of himself and realizes that his feelings are not devalued, that his self-doubt is valid. For an average child who grew up in a country where it is customary, at best, to ignore children's problems, and at worst, to use the violence of upbringing for the sake of (more often to combine), looking at such reflection is wildly curious and therapeutic.
"C'mon C'mon" does not slide into the sugariness of its predecessors and does not have the polemics of the pseudo-psychologists of the current century, but offers support that most did not have at the beginning of life. At first, Jesse refuses to give an interview to Johnny as part of the project, but then he secretly takes the microphone and slanders several effective recommendations for saving an adult, from which the film's title is formed: “Whatever happens, go ahead (you have to c'mon, c 'mon, c'mon, c'mon)". Jesse is also simultaneously worried that he will not remember anything from spending time with his uncle in the future when he turns out to be quite an adult. Johnny at the end of the tape, after listening to the appeal, replies: "If you forget, I will definitely remind you."
Phoenix began his acting career following his older brother River, who died of an overdose in 1993. Having survived the death of a loved one and earned a reputation as an unpredictable artist, Joaquin is transformed in this film like nowhere else, because the most difficult transformation always takes place inside and away from prying eyes. With his participation in Kamon Kamon, Phoenix seems to replace courses on successfully becoming a father (in 2020, he and Rooney Mara had a son, River). His radical change of image, tenderness, caring, lack of chaos surprise and disarm better than any Oscar-winning performance.
An equally bewitching work here is given out by Briton Woody Norman. It is usually customary to evaluate children's acting with condescension or not at all to be considered next to established, adult artists, but Woody cancels all stereotypes and appears as a wise, inquisitive, chaotic, loving, standing on his child of the new time. Gaby Hoffman, as his mother Viv, is just as powerful as the film progresses, reminding the viewer of the importance of a mother's fatigue and irritability teaching her son important life lessons. The camera of the Irishman Robbie Ryan (Oscar nominee for The Favourite) and the euphoric soundtrack of the brothers Brian and Aaron Dessner from The National are the key characters rightfully connecting several cities and moods at once.
"C'mon C'mon" is a rare, equally soothing and action-packed film about the mutual learning of life, the uniqueness of every day, the elusiveness and the search regardless of age. The closing credits are adorned with a montage of children's voices continuing to share, perhaps insignificant, but personal, not imposed observations and experiences. Young participants endow themselves with autonomy and naively, but honestly, bring their future closer, no matter how terrible and sad it may be.
This article was sponsored by Russell Notides
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