C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

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Mateusz
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2020)

#26 Post by Mateusz » Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:22 am

Hi, does any of you have an insight when and how will this film premiere? I’m a huge Mike Mills fan, and can’t wait. It supposed to premiere in May 2020, then in November 2020, then on Sundance 2021, but still nothing. Any info would be appreciated

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DarkImbecile
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2020)

#27 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Jul 29, 2021 3:49 pm

Mateusz wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:22 am
Hi, does any of you have an insight when and how will this film premiere?
An apparent crew member tweeted today that the film would have its world premiere at Telluride

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therewillbeblus
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2020)

#28 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Jul 29, 2021 3:57 pm

Thank goodness, I've been waiting for any news on this one for a while and was getting nervous! Telluride is shaping up to be the real deal this year

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2020)

#29 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Jul 29, 2021 4:08 pm

I hope so... I'm in deep withdrawal after last year's cancellation. They've scheduled an extra day this year as well, so that in and of itself is exciting.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2020)

#30 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Jul 29, 2021 4:55 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:
Thu Jul 29, 2021 3:49 pm
Mateusz wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:22 am
Hi, does any of you have an insight when and how will this film premiere?
An apparent crew member tweeted today that the film would have its world premiere at Telluride
The tweet has since been deleted (presumably at the request of the festival organizers, who prefer that the program remain secret until the weekend of the festival)...

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criterionsnob
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#31 Post by criterionsnob » Thu Aug 19, 2021 1:48 pm

C'mon C'mon added to NYFF lineup, with a synopsis, which I've spoiler tagged below.
SpoilerShow
C’mon C’mon
Mike Mills, 2021, USA, 108m
After gracing audiences with Beginners and 20th Century Women (NYFF54), writer-director Mike Mills 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 8-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. An A24 release.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#32 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Aug 19, 2021 2:02 pm

C'mon c'mon, give Mills all the Oscars already

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Persona
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#33 Post by Persona » Thu Aug 19, 2021 2:45 pm

It definitely sounds pretty Oscar-y.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#34 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Aug 19, 2021 2:52 pm

I guess, in the same way Manchester By the Sea could be argued towards that appeal, but I fully expect this to be my favorite movie of the year- unless of course the Larrain or PTA succeeds it by a hair

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The Narrator Returns
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#35 Post by The Narrator Returns » Thu Aug 19, 2021 5:25 pm

It's also listed as a New York premiere only, which suggests that it will indeed be playing at Telluride first.

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The Narrator Returns
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#36 Post by The Narrator Returns » Thu Aug 19, 2021 5:32 pm

As for Mills' Oscar chances here, last time he and his movie really got screwed by A24 devoting all their awards resources to Moonlight instead (that may have made sense and paid off for them but personally made me very sad, so who can say if it really worked?). This year there's much less of an obvious juggernaut to feed all the resources into; Macbeth is the big one but that's being half-covered by Apple, The Humans is a maybe, After Yang and Souvenir II seem like critical darlings more than awards plays, and I remain extremely doubtful that Red Rocket will be Sean Baker's Oscar breakthrough if Florida Project couldn't manage that. So theoretically, it's possible Mills is the head of the pack this time and gets all the attention, but for now I'm just hoping it's as good as I think it will be, awards be damned.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#37 Post by Never Cursed » Thu Aug 19, 2021 6:06 pm

Their contender is gonna be Macbeth for sure (why compete with yourself if Apple is really footing some of the cost, I wonder). Red Rocket certainly deserves such a rollout on its own merits, but given its content I wouldn't be surprised if it's not received kindly over here

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The Narrator Returns
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#38 Post by The Narrator Returns » Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:31 am

Reviews out of Telluride are quite positive (including an A from The Playlist), and they've also revealed that Scoot McNairy is playing Phoenix's brother-in-law (and Gaby Hoffmann's husband) in it.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#39 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Sep 03, 2021 8:35 pm

This was fantastic, just as richly observed and humane as 20th Century Women, and carrying over some of the aesthetic choices that work so well in that film while going in entirely different directions elsewhere, most obviously with its fantastic monochrome cinematography. Joaquin Phoenix is as great as one would hope in what is the funniest, warmest performance I’ve seen from him, Gaby Hoffman is exceptional in a challenging supporting role, and child actor Woody Norman somehow more than holds his own with substantial screen time opposite Phoenix. Mills builds upon the already great use of montage, voiceover, and music from his previous feature with truly remarkable sound design and the best black and white photographing of New York since… Manhattan?… to lock himself in as the best working director I’ve seen at highlighting everyday humanism while also examining meaningful truths about American society and culture. A must see.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#40 Post by Never Cursed » Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:14 am

Trailer, sans release date

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Pavel
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#41 Post by Pavel » Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:23 am

On Twitter they said it's coming out in November

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Never Cursed
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#42 Post by Never Cursed » Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:42 pm

Scoot McNairy is now listed as playing a supporting role in this (specifically as Woody Norman's character's father, the one who's having a mental episode)

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#43 Post by yoloswegmaster » Thu Sep 23, 2021 4:40 pm

The theatrical release date has been set for November 19.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#44 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Oct 25, 2021 12:19 am

After Miranda July processed her own feelings on parenthood with Kajillionaire last year, C'mon c'mon feels like Mills' own form of processing parenthood through his more sharply-focused, yet own distinctive worldview. Mills repeats a lot of his themes here, and even reiterates a line that could have been taken verbatim from his last feature regarding the unknowability of those we love, but his latest is still a fresh, compassionate portrait of how people serve as complementary vehicles to help inspire one another. Specifically focusing on the relationship between adults and youth, Mills acknowledges the truth that adults don't possess all the answers they've been conditioned to trick kids into believing they have for generations, and finds comfort in recognizing the reciprocity of these relationships for both roles when intimacy and honesty are cultivated.

I've rarely, if ever, seen a film so attentively pronounce a child's abilities to perceive adult themes, something so many adults still don't allow themselves to see as they, often subconsciously, create power differentials, to both parties' detriment. Children have immense wisdom, understand the world isn't fair, share our fears and insecurities, and are more resilient and prepared than we think they are to be treated as equals and have their experiences validated. Mills also represents himself as a disciple of new-age parenting, trusting that being direct, honest, processing an incident with a child, and encouraging self-expression will help develop trusting relationships, self-confidence, and invaluable skills that today's adults didn't necessarily have the opportunity to develop in their youth. Having worked with kids Jesse's age for the majority of my life, it's incredible how accurately Mills comprehends supportive behavioral interventions with current research. I particularly loved one teenager's admission that he is aware of his parentified role -a quality that, while certainly problematic in some ways, is treated with unconditional positive regard because it's a choice made by the child consciously based on familial love and moral values for a greater spiritual necessity under unideal circumstances.

So the inverse to this positive engagement is the deficit the adults in this film are left with, and there is so much empathy for how adults need help too. The imperfections are not plucked apart but allowed to be left grey. Gaby Hoffmann (who all but steals the film; she and child actor Woody Norman should both receive nods for their supporting parts) participates in behavior that could be cast aside and labeled as problematically self-destructive 'caretaking' in a lesser film, but her actions are understandable not only from her own emotional space of love that is too difficult to part with, but a perceived responsibility of wielding her restricted agency to provide her son with the best possible life, that just might include a stable father if she exhausts herself a little bit more. Every character in this film, just like every person in real life, has blind spots- we can't find all the answers alone. So whether we're interviewing strangers from across the country, or reading quotes from literature, or associating on a close interpersonal level with a loved one, we may not find any finite answers to our deepest, loneliest questions, but we can confront our self-alienating tendencies to move closer to these resources to lift ourselves from isolation and into fleeting harmony together.

However, this is where the youth/adult dynamic becomes key: Mills seems to posit that adults on their own struggle to influence one another because as you age, and life wears you down, you become jaded, narcissistic, detached, and introverted. The returning idea that a child does not remember all their cherished encounters is tragic, partly because the loss of innocence yields a transformation into a compromised adult. And still, there's hope for this next generation, the kids who have learned to express themselves, who have been validated, who have been questioned earnestly and listened to- and hope for adults as well with the variable of a child, one who thinks and acts in friction with the adult's complacency, forcing an expanded worldview through this foreign provocation of that state of wonder we have forgotten.

Mills sees this harmonic bond as possible through the value of questioning, not to discover answers but to elicit and empathize with these questions' rhetorical, enigmatic nature. The diverse responses are approached with curiosity, affirmation, and induce greater insight into areas we wouldn't ponder or be sober to independently. Mills doesn't know all the answers but he's clarified that vision of the nebulous in his last two features, and here celebrates inquisitiveness to highlight the miracles of connection in a western civilization so habitually, fatalistically disconnected. This is also a film about the value of memory, the inevitable loss of that memory, and yet finds an impermanent, but no less precious answer in shared memory. "I'll remember for you" signifies all the possibilities from social affinity, and creates existential meaning where our relationships with the most treasured people in our lives become a tangible Higher Power we can capture and absorb with grace.

I've noticed a pattern in films I've seen this year, during and outside of the festival, of leaning into the unknown, into the challenging barriers both internal and external that obstruct our power to access existential and emotional growth, and that point to the salvation we can obtain through the actions of assisting one another in finding impermanent peace in the present moment. We can give our lives meaning, grow, and discover ourselves and one another limitlessly with corporeal means in our social environment. It seems appropriately defining for this strange world we live in right now, and I'm so grateful for storytellers venturing deeper into this sensitive territory to help us share this feeling together in a theatre, take home that feeling to meditate on in solitude, and perhaps prompt us to look around at our significant adjacent relationships and continue the work there. There are attainable answers found here, and I believe they are the most essential ingredients to live a better life. Mills knows that tomorrow matters, but he also possesses an assured humility to communicate that what we can control is merely building that meaning from today's. Films like this help me to keep things simple, by reminding me to pay greater attention to all the opportunities for enhanced intimacy ubiquitously occurring around me, that I miss when I'm trapped in a cocoon of worry about those big questions. Thank God for that, and Mills for channelling that socio-spiritual liberation through his art.

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hearthesilence
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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#45 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Dec 04, 2021 2:53 pm

Mills was at MoMA last night to present this film and he sat down for a pretty generous discussion afterwards. I've never read his interviews or seen him speak before, and he came off like a quiet but articulate, nice, warm, down-to-earth individual. If you can imagine the least surprising personality based on the films he's made, this would be it.

As he's mentioned, his films are highly personal affairs that deal directly if not autobiographically with his life: his father in Beginners, his mother in 20th Century Women, and his own child in C'mon C'mon. (He also started off the discussion by mentioning his father was a museum curator, so MoMA was like Mecca for him.) C'mon C'mon even has the help and participation of his close personal friends.

When it was suggested that his film could be seen as a road movie, he joked it was more of an "airplane" movie but then added he felt like it missed a vital feature of road movies and it was more about "places." He then brought up Wim Wenders's Alice in the Cities which he said was a massive influence and IIRC C'mon C'mon would not have existed if it wasn't for Alice in the Cities. (In retrospect, I wish I had told him that Wim Wenders actually premiered his latest restoration of Alice in the Cities in the exact same theater in 2015. Given some other comments he made about having C'mon C'mon screen there at MoMA, he probably would have appreciated that fact.)

It was interesting to hear how he worked with the cast. He thought casting Joaquin Phoenix was a challenge because the film was always going to be "naturalistic" and according to Mills, Phoenix himself would say there's nothing more contrived than an actor trying to act "normal." Since Johnny is a podcast/audio documentary producer, Mills was already planning to use real life examples to create a framework for the character - Studs Terkel was the first one he used, and that seemed to help sell the role to Phoenix. Mills also looked at others, and he said one model, Ira Glass, actually told him about Scott Carrier (at least I believe it's Carrier - is his last name pronounced like "Courier"?) All this material went to Phoenix and later on, presumably when they were still working out the character before production officially started, Phoenix suggested to Mills that Johnny would be more like a Carrier-type podcast producer, which signaled to him that Phoenix was now fully onboard, saying "when actors start 'authoring' their character, it's a really good sign."

All the children interviewed were real children, not professional actors. (The credits are very detailed in terms of who they were and the cities and organizations that were contacted for these interviews.) He pointed out this was all shot in fall 2019, so "there was Joker shit everywhere." Once in a while, a kid would come in and say that ("Hey, you're the Joker!") and Phoenix would be pretty smooth about turning things back on track, something like "yeah, cool right? But let me ask you something else..."

Mills always wanted to work with Gaby Hoffmann, but neither she nor Phoenix wanted to meet each other until they were on-set for their characters' first scene together. It was interesting because their characters are brother and sister (though they haven't really talked in a while). When the two finally meet on-set, both Hoffmann and Phoenix became really anxious and nervous. Hoffmann later admitted to Mills she was now facing a challenge, but she said she could sense some familial bond there and it was just something she had to "crack" (and eventually did). Amusingly, Mills told the audience "Did you know Woody [Norman] was British?" His American accent does not hint that at all and he really is amazing in the film. Mills said Hoffmann and Phoenix were constantly laughing or arguing together, and Woody would be the "adult" on-set, dramatically complaining "they're impossible to work with." FWIW, it just occurred to me that both Hoffmann and Phoenix were child actors as well.

When it was asked how he tried to create a sense of naturalism, he mentioned how usually when a movie is a shot, there's a build up on-set where everything seems to really peak with "the take." With C'mon C'mon it was more like a prolonged simmer (and he used hand gestures to communicate that it was not a sustained peak, it "simmered" lower than that) where they would "just do this thing for 15 or 20 minutes."

He also mentioned cinematography comes into play, especially using natural light whenever possible. He really enjoyed working with Robbie Ryan for that reason - he was great with natural light and mentioned he was this wonderful Irish character that lived on a boat. He was also great at shooting these outdoor scenes where no one around would know they were shooting a movie and Phoenix could walk towards the camera without worry. Amusingly, when they shot the beach scene, Phoenix found an iPhone in the sand, and in mid-take, he picked it up and asked a regular bystander "is this yours?" It wasn't though, so Phoenix was in this awkward position where he was like "oh....well, can you take it anyway?"

Other things will probably come to me, but IIRC Mills said this film was also a way of coming up with something positive after the horrible year of 2016. Honestly, he struck me as the kind of nice neighbor I might've had around Brooklyn - I didn't talk to him afterwards, but many did and he seemed very kind and approachable.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#46 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Dec 04, 2021 3:06 pm

Remembered one more thing - Mills loves Satie's music, and he said black & white was the visual equivalent of Satie for him. He explained he felt like the audience would be compelled to "lean in" or be drawn into it the way you'd be with one of Satie's compositions.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#47 Post by Red Screamer » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:35 pm

I remember liking Mills’ last two features but this one is such a misfire (though a perfectly pleasant one) that I had to question myself. Though it’s only slightly more cutesy than his other work, without the concrete observations to back it up meaningfully, his sensibility quickly sours. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Friendless precocious kid who, despite being a brat, asks uncomfortably direct questions and stuns adults with his innocent wisdom, helping them see the world a little differently. Phoenix and Norman are fine but they aren’t given much to do since the movie’s concept is barely dramatized in the first place. Nearly every element of the film is explicitly analyzed for us minutes after it’s introduced, including by using methods as hamfisted as voiceovers reciting sociological essays, whose titles and authors are proudly displayed on the screen like a quote beginning an undergraduate essay. IIRC there’s a similar technique in 20th Century Women, but there it’s a novel approach to a period piece whereas here it feels to me like lazy writing, with Mills not incorporating the ideas into his characters and narrative. My favorite scene is when a half-asleep Phoenix stumbles through a lecture on pro-choice politics to the nine-year-old who just woke him up, the only moment where Mills is self-aware about the “NPR dad who wants you to talk about your feelings” vibe of the whole affair. The most egregious aspect in that regard is the apparently documentary interviews with kids about climate change and such, straining for significance and laying on thick the TV commercial style lyrical B-roll. I could go my whole life without seeing another visually undistinguished movie shot in bland digital black-and-white.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#48 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:46 pm

Red Screamer wrote:
Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:35 pm
I could go my whole life without seeing another visually undistinguished movie shot in bland digital black-and-white.
I strongly disagree with most of your reactions to this film, but this is the most surprising take I've seen here in a while! Robbie Ryan's cinematography here is pretty universally acclaimed, and was among my two or three favorite efforts of the year. What struck you as 'bland' about it?

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#49 Post by Swift » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:50 pm

Agreed, I thought the cinematography was easily the highlight of the film.

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Re: C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)

#50 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:59 pm

Red Screamer wrote:
Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:35 pm
My favorite scene is when a half-asleep Phoenix stumbles through a lecture on pro-choice politics to the nine-year-old who just woke him up, the only moment where Mills is self-aware about the “NPR dad who wants you to talk about your feelings” vibe of the whole affair.
Uh, that's not how that scene played out for me at all. Phoenix isn't searching for opportunities to get the kid to feel, he's responding on the fly and imperfectly to left-field questions kids ask, and ultimately offering himself as that objective variable to help Jesse realise his emotions as valid when he cannot do so for himself- which I'd argue is a universal position we find ourselves in and a service we provide for others that makes this painful social existence worthwhile, and Mills captures that beautifully. As someone who's worked with a variety of often-effervescent kids like Jesse for most of my career, his performance came across as very authentic, as did the new-age techniques of processing/debriefing incidents, and I've certainly found myself in similar situations with kids of delivering messy explanations regardless of how much experience I've had receiving unexpected prompts. I don't think Mills is self-aware about his character/surrogate(?) in a pejorative way as you seem to be suggesting, but instead recognizes both the tragedy in repairing the damage born from irreversible flaws in character and the sublime opportunity in these exchanges of the present to put that experience to use for someone else. We don't always, and sometimes can't bring ourselves to take our own advice, but we often grow through hearing and taking others'.

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