Mike Mills is one of those screenwriters-directors who have a formidable talent for bringing real life, as we know it, to the screen. I noticed this in one of his previous films – ’20th Century Women’ and this opinion was confirmed by watching his latest feature film (from 2021) – ‘C’mon C’mon‘. It is a life story with characters so real that it seems like we have known them forever, and at the same time a chiseled film, with beautiful moments of cinematography, commensurate with the authenticity of the story and the characters.
Johnny is a radio reporter or perhaps the author of audio podcasts. During this period of his career he specializes in interviews with children and adolescents from various social backgrounds, asking them questions about their lives and especially about how they see the future. His personal life is complicated. Together with his sister, Viv, he had nursed the long agony of their mother, who had died a year earlier. He is unmarried and still recovering from a relationship he seems to regret. When Viv asks him to look after her 9-year-old son, Jesse, so that she can take care of her husband’s health, Johnny finds himself in an unusual situation for him. The uncle-nephew relationship is complicated and an unknown territory for an aging bachelor. The two will embark on a journey from California to New York, from Detroit to New Orleans, in which they will discover landscapes of America seen through the eyes of the children they interview, but above all they will learn to know each other and themselves.
Mike Mills and cinematographer Robbie Ryan chose to use black and white, which integrates very well with the documentary sequences and allows for authentic and stylized representations of the places the two heroes pass through: Californian beaches, New York streets, decaying Detroit and New Orleans during carnival days. The interviews are also authentic, Joaquin Phoenix completely stepped out of his role into the life of a reporter and, together with a colleague, asked questions and recorded answers that could be the subject of a separate documentary. This technique reinforces the feeling of authenticity of the bond between the uncle who finds himself in the position of a clumsy surrogate father and the nephew who is at many times more emotionally mature than him. Johnny’s profession as a radio reporter is a good pretext to make the voice-over process credible and well-integrated (something rare in nowadays’ movies).Woody Norman is a formidable choice and, as always when I see a child actor dominating a film and conquering hearts on screen, I fear and wonder how his life and career will evolve if he and his parents decide to continue it. I also really liked Gaby Hoffmann, who plays the role of Viv, – a very interesting and lesser-known actress. ‘C’mon C’mon‘ is a beautiful and moving cinematic mosaic, assembled from pieces of life.