If you’re in the mood for strong dramas that know how to keep from treading on melodramatic ground, these two films offer drama with restraint - and end up being much more effective.
C’mon C’mon (Video On Demand) - This is a Mike Mills film, so right off the bat, you know you’ll get sensitive portrayals, strong drama, and unique relationships. Mills is credited with Beginners in 2010, a beautiful film which starred Ewan McGregor, and Christopher Plummer as his gay father; and in 2016, gave us 20th Century Women, which starred Annette Benning, Elle Fanning, and Greta Gerwig. Here in his latest, shot in black and white, we have Joaquin Phoenix playing Johnny, a radio journalist who goes around the country interviewing people, Gaby Hoffman as his estranged sister, who’s married to a man with mental health issues, and Woody Norman as her 9-year-old son - who’s precocious, intelligent, difficult, and bordering on obnoxious.
Johnny and his sister had a falling out when their mother was suffering from dementia, before passing on. In an attempt to reconnect and be of help, Johnny offers to take care of his nephew, while his sister attends to her husband. Without pandering to the audience, we get a moving, heartfelt narrative of uncle bonding with nephew, and how each teases out valuable lessons from each other. Mills has always distinguished himself for his empathetic approach to film-making, and C’mon C’mon is no different. You’ll laugh, you’ll tear, you’ll even cry, over some of the sequences that just come across as feeling so real and natural. Mills knows exactly what he wants from his cast, and to his credit, the young Woody Norman holds his own when paired with Joaquin Phoenix. A touching film that doesn’t go overboard.
Mass (Video on Demand) - Here’s an interesting film concept that feels much like theater. We basically get four characters, two sets of parents, and they’re located in the social room of a community church. After the introductions are made, it dawns on us why these four individuals are coming together. One set of parents have lost their son in a senseless shooting rampage done at the school where the boy attended, and the second set, are the parents of the boy who went ballistic, mowing down his fellow students. The idea is not to interrogate, accuse or goad, but to try and find some closure and understanding as to why these deaths had to occur. Of course, we know that achieving that without rancor or anger is impossible.
What’s also interesting with this debut directorial effort of Fran Kranz, is how the four main protagonists are played by character actors - actors we’ve seen in numerous films, playing the mother, the benevolent uncle, the best friend; and now they’ve been given the opportunity to display their acting skills, with the spotlight directly on them. And they really take the roles home, giving texture and nuance to these portrayals. The four are far from one-dimensional, each parent imbued with a complex set of values and beliefs. Of course, they’re all victims - even the parents of the perpetrator. And that is one of the valuable insights of this film, how the notion of blame and responsibility is a shifting, malleable concept. Strong dramatic film, that doesn’t overstay its welcome.