Mike Mills shot C'mon C'mon in black and white and built it around a simple setup: Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny, a radio journalist travelling the country to interview kids about the future, who ends up looking after his young nephew Jesse (Woody Norman) while his sister Viv (Gaby Hoffmann) deals with a family crisis. A24 released it in November 2021 after a Telluride premiere, and critics took it to heart. Rotten Tomatoes counts about 94% of reviews as positive, and Metacritic's average of 82 signals universal acclaim.
What critics loved
The pairing at the center came up again and again. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus credits the chemistry between Phoenix and Norman, and Carlos Aguilar at TheWrap called Norman's work a "jaw-dropping turn", praising the trust between the two actors. Hoai-Tran Bui at /Film described Norman as a real discovery who avoids the stiffness of many child performances.
Reviewers were just as struck by how gentle Phoenix is here, coming off much louder roles. Charles Bramesco at Little White Lies wrote that Mills skirts triteness by softening Phoenix's usual intensity, and Guy Lodge, in a review collected on Rotten Tomatoes, found him "quietly, shamblingly human". Bramesco and Aguilar both praised the real interviews with young people woven into the story, and several critics singled out Robbie Ryan's black-and-white photography. Christina Newland at iNews called the whole thing a light-touch, bittersweet beauty.
Where critics split
The doubts were modest but real. Bui at /Film felt the black-and-white look sometimes tips into pretension, noted that Jesse occasionally falls back on the precocious-kid cliché, and acknowledged the story is a familiar one. Bramesco thought a late, cathartic screaming scene felt too obviously written for the screen. Aguilar regretted that Hoffmann is so often off screen, her character mostly reaching the film through phone calls. The sharpest dissent came from Jake Wilson at Australia's The Age, who argued the film mainly reassures a comfortable, progressive audience that their lives are fine.
The consensus
Critics saw C'mon C'mon as finely crafted, tender filmmaking, with two lead performances and a look that earn it a high QC. Fun sits a step lower: it's a quiet, talky, patient film about grief, parenting and listening, more likely to move viewers than to sweep them along, and a few reviewers felt that softness edged into preciousness.
Sources
- TheWrap: C'mon C'mon film review (Carlos Aguilar)
- Little White Lies: C'mon C'mon first-look review (Charles Bramesco)
- /Film: C'mon C'mon review (Hoai-Tran Bui)
- Rotten Tomatoes: C'mon C'mon (critics consensus; Guy Lodge, iNews, The Age)
- Wikipedia: C'mon C'mon) (Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes figures)