Joaquin Phoenix stars in moving comedy-drama about an uncle-nephew odyssey across America

It is not a vacation film by most definitions. But “Come on, come on” is ideal for going to the theater on vacation, as long as you go to the theater in your pandemic wheelhouse. It would be compatible with “Encanto” on a double count, so that an 11- or 12-year-old could experience two heartfelt, family-centered, contradicting memories that neither of us is perfect, but we all deserve understanding. Writer and director Mike Mills’ film, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a public radio journalist re-entering his nephew’s life, received an R-rating here and there for a little language. But with a movie that expresses a sincere interest in how kids navigate difficult, unpredictable parts of their lives, 11 or 12 seems fine to me, sez the big city liberal who listens to a lot of public radio. This is the whimsical and very well-traded story of a family in crisis and ongoing. If you can remember the time before “Joker”, Phoenix boasts of the breadth and ambition to record musical biopics (“Walk the Line”), peculiar futuristic romantic comedies (“Her”) and much more. Here, in Mills’ most compact and conventional narrative to date, he plays Johnny, who lives between relationships and is currently touring the country on a radio project that includes in-depth interviews with children about the state of their country, their lives and their future in the present tense of in York living Johnny gets complicated. His half-estranged LA sister Viv (Gaby Hoffmann) has a bright, challenging 9-year-old Jesse (Woody Norman). Viv’s partner Paul (Scoot McNairy) recently accepted a position with an orchestra in the Bay Area. Paul is bipolar, and Viv reluctantly begs Johnny to take Jesse with her for a while so she can help Paul through his final and worst phase of adjustment, Odyssey, as they travel east from New York via Detroit to New Orleans and back again. Jesse’s coping mechanisms include extensive role-playing games; he pretends to be an orphan on the run, looking for a home. Instinctively, Johnny Jesse gets interested in his audio equipment, and much of the sound design in Mills’ film devotes time and listening space to the sounds Jesse captures with his uncle’s headphones and a directional microphone. but true to Mills’ concerns weave a web of flashbacks, interrupting supplements, and quotes from various authors. Also and often there are abrupt vignettes where something embarrassing or irritable or charming happens to Johnny and Jesse. Then suddenly we are in another moment where we Johnny (who is keeping an audio diary) thinking about mistakes or moments of connection that linger. It can get a bit busy, and like Mills’ previous films, especially “Beginners” and my favorite film so far, “20th Century Women”, there is a viciousness and talkative overhaul to work and play that is not always fruitful. But never for long. “C’mon C’mon” feels like a conscious step away from the ensemble of “20th Century Women”. Just when you’re frustrated by some developments (not one lost child in NY sequence, but two; a peak in screaming therapy that feels like a sudden intrusion of scriptwriting software), the actors get the respite and the material You need. For all of its natural, eccentric intensity, Phoenix obviously loves working with and responding to other actors. Norman is great in a role that shines in and out of idealized emotional reality; I believed Hoffmann’s Viv every second, both written and played. Like many other films this season, this one was shot in an earlier rarity: black and white, in this case by cinematographer Robbie Ryan (“The Favorite”, “Fish Tank”, which proves he can ignite any style). There is a distinct difference in shade, detail and quality between the look of “C’mon C’mon” and the flatter, less expressive light and shadow of “Belfast”. It’s nice to look at. Simple transitional shots of a residential street in LA or one of Johnny’s and Jesse’s bedtime reading lessons are wasted with visual care without turning Mills’ compact story into a fairy tale. Will you be touched by the film’s central, thriving relationship that opens up? about what you think Well i was. Despite the sobering assessments of climate change, recent political nightmares, and all of America today contributed by the children’s Johnny interviews, Mills creates a woefully optimistic vision of what a family and perhaps a country can be – if we just move on Ask questions .——— ‘C’MON C’MON’3 stars (out of 4) MPAA rating: R (for language) Runtime: 1:48 Where to see: Now to see in the cinema ———

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