C'mon C'mon Review: Mike Mills' Film Is Profound, Moving & Beautifully Made

[Night hunter]

C’mon C’mon connects adults with children in a thoughtful, touching, and visceral viewing experience that is sure to leave an impact on audiences.

Writer-director Mike Mills aims for the heart in the touching, beautifully told C’mon C’mon. Joaquin Phoenix’s character is a gentle soul, with the film exploring adulthood and the seemingly never-ending conflicts, confusion, and otherwise deep-rooted emotions that come with being an adult. C’mon C’mon connects adults with children in a thoughtful, touching, and visceral viewing experience that is sure to leave an impact on audiences.   

Phoenix plays Johnny, a documentarian traveling the country to interview kids about their thoughts regarding their personal fears and hopes, what they believe the future will hold and what they want out of it. An early scene also reveals Johnny lost his mother the year before, and her passing is still raw. After reconnecting with his sister Viv (Gaby Hoffman), he travels from New York to California to take care of his nephew Jesse (Woody Norman), an eccentric kid with an incredibly vivid imagination, while she tends to her bipolar husband Paul (Scoot McNairy). While Johnny knows how to talk to kids, he finds that he is tested after his care for Jesse goes on past the weekend. 

What C’mon C’mon does so well is treat kids with the dignity they deserve. Johnny listens and learns from them. Their thoughts, worries, and dreams aren’t at all brushed aside or looked down upon. Mills makes sure to put them on equal ground as adults, often by leaning into the notion that they are just as lost and confused by the world as kids are and might need some assistance to get through life. The film veers towards the sentimental, but in a way that is lovely and authentic to the journey of its characters. C’mon C’mon is endearing and honest, yet unwilling to take a turn into contrived melodramatic territory where it could have so easily gone. 

The relationship between Jesse and Johnny is sincere and sweet; their interactions also bring to light some things Johnny would rather not talk about, but is forced to contend with and contemplate because of his nephew’s inquisitive questions. The pair butt heads quite a bit, out of frustration, miscommunication, and Johnny (like most adults) simply not having the energy to keep up with Jesse’s seemingly endless reserves. The scenes of Johnny interviewing kids in various cities are interspersed throughout, offering a grounded sense of comfort that laps at the edges of the story like waves. 

Through Johnny, C’mon C’mon explores parenthood and the difficulties, pressure, and complicated feelings that so often arise by virtue of the responsibilities that come with it. The film gently ponders life, love, and pain through communication, unabashedly using its characters’ emotional connection to drive the narrative, bringing it to a moving and effective conclusion that will pull at the heartstrings. The film is elevated by the palpable onscreen chemistry between Phoenix and Norman, who is unbelievably good and the pair magnetic to watch together. Phoenix’s performance is layered and evocative, as is Hoffman’s, who is endearing and weary as Viv. 

C’mon C’mon’s depth and contemplation is deliberate, yet never emotionally manipulative. The multifaceted story is underscored by Robbie Ryan’s beautiful black and white cinematography, while Mills’ close-ups and lingering aerial shots of the cities are intimate and simultaneously made to make viewers feel small, just humans passing through this life that is much bigger than anyone could have imagined. Mills seamlessly develops the characters and story, the pacing never hurried to get to the end before it’s ready. The film is surprisingly gripping in its analysis of adulthood, family relationships, and the ups and downs of raising a child. C’mon C’mon sneaks up on audiences, carefully introducing the characters and their conflicts without oversharing. There is just enough to understand the hurt and enough happiness to balance out what is ultimately a very human and profound viewing experience.