C'mon C'mon (2021)

C'mon C'mon (2021)

Written and Directed by: Mike Mills

Cinematography by: Robbie Ryan
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Woody Norman

I'm in love with this film. I saw the poster and the premise of the film, and thought that I should give this a shot. And one minute into the film, I was hooked and emotionally invested. I think it was the imagery and the visuals that did that to me - just the way they shot the different cities and people in black and white. It did the job. That's when I again realized the importance of imagery in film. It can do everything for you. Firstly, it's like this film reminded me of one of my all time favorite films, Faces Places. It's like being hung up on your ex and trying to find a different version of them in everyone you meet. Though this film is not really a documentary, it plays a little in that space because they both travel to cities and interview kids about life. So they use the footages of the response of the kids in between the film - and that felt like a brilliant tool to support the narrative. They sometimes use the kids' response as a transition and it works beautifully because what the kids say are sometimes way more profound than anything that adults say - simply because kids are brutally honest. 

I really enjoyed the fiction part of the film too. It's essentially the story of a friendship between a kid and his uncle. It was interesting to realize how tough it is to deal with kids - it's almost like one sided love. You love someone, they don't. They come to you sometimes. They don't sometimes. And you have to put up with it because they're too cute, charming, and because of your explicable love for them. What I also loved about the film was, it has a lot of honest moments. I value a moment more than anything else - the actors, the camera, the music, even the entire form of filmmaking goes to a toss if there's an honest moment. Even if the shot is just a leaf flying in the air, or a dog doing something dumb, or an actor creating a moment with some brilliant performance - for me all of them are equally valuable. This film has a lot of such moments, but they do it with actors and writing, which I think is essentially the job of a filmmaker, and it's beautifully done. I'm in love with this film, because it reminded me of my mad love for cinema in its purest form.