Writer-director Mike Mills (20TH CENTURY WOMAN, BEGINNERS) returns with another warm, insightful and gratifyingly askew portrait of American family life. A soulful Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny, a kindhearted radio journalist deep into a project in which he interviews children across the U.S. about our world’s uncertain future. His sister Viv (a marvelously intuitive Gaby Hoffmann) asks him to watch her 9-year-old son Jesse (Woody Norman, in one of the most affecting breakout child performances in years), while she tends to the child’s father, who’s suffering from mental health issues. After agreeing, Johnny finds himself connecting with his nephew in ways he hadn’t expected, ultimately taking Jesse with him on a journey from Los Angeles to New York to New Orleans. Anchored by three remarkable actors, C’MON, C’MON is a gentle yet impeccably crafted drama about coming to terms with personal trauma and historical legacies. (Synopsis from the 2021 New York Film Festival)
“Phoenix, set free from his famously coiled persona, feels miles away from the spiraling mania of JOKER; he's rarely seemed this loose or vulnerable on screen. Hoffmann, too, is her own fierce whole-cloth character — another rich creation in Mills' bittersweet, gently profound collisions of art and life.” —Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly “Quirky wonder, brutal honesty, and the fuzzy sense that our shared feelings of uncertainty can make us feel less alone so long as we find the confidence to compare notes with each other.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire “...A monochrome reverie of midlife yearning.” —Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
