I started this movie a couple of times before I actually watched the whole thing through. My attention span is so short now, and with a one-year old baby just learning to walk around the house, it’s like this even for movies that end up being my favorite.

My Brief Review of C’mon C’mon

Having my one-year old daughter around may have contributed to reasons why I really enjoyed this movie because it is so focused on the main character’s relationship with his young nephew. It really focuses on the struggles the nephew, who’s named Jesse in the movie and played by Woody Norman. He’s nine, but so much of the meaning revolves around being a parent or an adult figure in kid’s life.

Many of the people I recommend the movie to tried to watch it and stopped it early one like I did and just never got back to it. I get it because it is a very subtle movie. I really enjoyed the subtly because holding me back was the risk of it being to artsy.

I think the first five or ten minutes might even portray the too-cool for school, artsy vibe, but there is a rich, complex, and — most importantly, it has a logical storyline that progresses at a steady pace.

A lot of movies that put the meaning and attempt to be “deep” often forget about key elements of storytelling. Sometimes, the focus is on the look, sound, and feel, which can be great for many audiences. I prefer a story that has conflict, context, and tension that unfolds in a satisfying pace.

After saying that, I will say this movie does give off “indie” and “artsy” vibes (it’s in black and white). The good news is it doesn’t fall victim of going too far in that direction and finds a balance. There is a focus on the details without lingering in them too long.

Here’s a few details that caught my eye that you might find interesting too…

Viv Uses the Orphan Game as a Way to Help Jesse Go to Bed

At Around 11:40

When we as viewers are first introduced to the Orphan game that Jesse plays, his mom Viv (played by Gaby Hoffman) uses it to her advantage despite the strange, almost disturbing nature of it.

I really had appreciation for this scene as a parent. It demonstrates pretty quickly how in harmony with the absurd struggles of being a mom Viv is. For those who haven’t seen the movie Jesse has a weird habit of playing out scenarios acting as an orphan who has come to replace the parent who have recently lost their kids.

It is so random that it works and is believable, but it might not have been believable if they didn’t explore it and deal with it how one would if it was happening in real life. It has meaning and purpose in the storyline.

And when you see how Viv deals with it in a harmonious way where Jesse doesn’t argue or throw a fit, like he later does in the same scenario with Johnny (Joaquin Pheonix’s character aka the uncle), it shows so much about the mother-son relationship between Viv and Jesse. She stays in the storyline and says that her kids would be going to bed at this time if they were still alive. I found this a great point of dark humor, that was also a character and plot building mechanism.

A Vendor is Selling a Portrait of Heath Ledger’s Joker as They Walk By

Who knows if this is a nod to the fact that Joaquin Phoenix played the Joker in his previous film before C’mon C’mon. The film makers may not have even noticed it but I like to think they did it on purpose.

The Motherhood Quote from the Jaqueline Rose Essay

“What are we doing to mothers when we expect them to carry the burden of everything that is hardest to contemplate about our society and ourselves? Mothers cannot help but be in touch with the most difficult aspects of any fully lived life. Why on Earth should it fall to them to paint things bright and innocent and safe?”

Throughout the movie there are scenes where Johnny’s voice narrates a montage with the dialogue of some piece of literature that he is reading in preparation for his documentarian work. In this scene he is reading Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty by Jaqueline Rose. The quote resonated with me and hit hard with the scenes it showed as he read. It made me think about motherhood in a way I never had before.

In Conclusion

There are so many more details that I noticed including the following:

• 32:50 okay, okayyyyy he says it just like his mom says earlier in movie

• 55:20 interviewing the kid that takes care of his sister. Joaquin’s character in some ways parallels him to himself helping his sister. “You’re a good man”

• 55:30 an incomplete list of what the cameraperson enables by Kirsten Johnson 

• 1:13:34 he’s doing a repair script like the mom said they have online.

All of these details make the movie feel so real. I would encourage you to give it another shot if you turned it down before.