FYC: Gaby Hoffmann in "C'mon C'mon"

by Lynn Lee

Gaby Hoffmann doesn’t make it look easy.  Motherhood, that is.  Neither is she a drama queen about it.  As down-to-earth Viv – sister to thoughtful, sad-eyed journalist Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) and mother of Jesse (Woody Norman), the precocious 9-year-old Johnny looks after for a time – she just shows and tells it like it is, with an honesty, humility, and humor that’s as refreshing as it is rare to see on screen.  And that, precisely, is why she’s the secret weapon of C’mon C’mon, and why she should be in the running for Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

That she isn’t even in the conversation is due as much to the nature of C’mon C’mon as Hoffmann’s performance...

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NYFF: "C'mon C'mon"

by Jason Adams

Mike Mills, the maestro of what actually matters, strikes excellence yet again with C'mon C'mon, his latest film screening at NYFF this week. How in the ever-loving world is this only his fourth -- yes you read that right, his fourth! -- feature film? The math don't lie: Thumbsucker, to the grand Beginners, to the masterpiece 20th Century Women, and now C'mon C'mon, and Mills' ability to laser right in on the emotional truth of any and every moment remains unparalleled. Jettisoning all the Joker toxicity from his body, the film stars Joaquin Phoenix, thankfully in his sweet smiling airiest tender boy mode. This is the Joaquin I personally signed up for, whispering his feelings into a telephone with wet eyes. What a heartfelt symphony this whole experience is; a gift..

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Come On Come On, C'Mon C'mon

by Jason Adams

I'm still not sure what to make of the movie year that's been 2021 -- everything still feels to me of a piece with 2020 to be honest, for reasons I am sure you can extrapolate. I have only been inside a movie theater a handful of times and those have been for press screenings or for a cannot-miss repertory screening (like when The Paris here in NYC screened Call Me By Your Name a few weeks ago); that is to say I still haven't been to see a single new movie in a theater with a crowd of normals since March of last year. Add on the fact that I saw several of this fall's big movies this past winter at Sundance (my first), while several of this fall's big movies were first meant to be last fall's big movies, and I think this has given the current moment a formlessness that I'm having trouble delineating.

Anyway my ultimate point is I was going to call Mike Mills' new film C'Mon C'Mon my most anticipated film of the fall, but I actually have no idea what that means anymore. So let's just say I really really really really really wanna see this movie. So much so that doing any "Yes No Maybe So" for this morning's just-dropped first look trailer would be a total and complete farce. I am one thousand percent down for this. I mean did you SEE 20th Century Women? 

C'Mon C'Mon will be playing NYFF in a few weeks and then will presumably be out by the end of the year but A24 hasn't set a date yet. What are your thoughts on the trailer?

The New Classics - 20th Century Women

Michael Cusumano here to thank you for making this post part of your own personal Mike Mills film today. I'm honored.

image via "books in movies"

To watch a Mike Mills movie is to continually ask, “Why don’t more people make movies with this much freedom?” 

His films deploy everything from news clips to rotating narrators to archival footage from a century ago. The screenplay will jump backwards in time, skimming through the characters’ biographies, or forwards to glimpse the details of their death. The focus can zoom in to the most granular details or out to encompass the entire cosmos. I doubt he will ever make a film that doesn’t include a shot of the stars. At least I hope he doesn’t... 

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Interview: Greta Gerwig on what kind of filmmaker she's going to be

by Nathaniel R 

Greta Gerwig directing the prom scene in Lady Bird. Look, she's even dressed for the occasion!The first time we spoke to Greta Gerwig in 2013 for Frances Ha it was over the phone. Her voice was so animated it felt like an in person interview. She was learning the accordion because of that seismically magical moment in the French film Holy Motors and revealing to me that she didn't think being an "actor-for-hire" in other people's work would be her path. Little did I know -- though perhaps she did -- that the exquisite Lady Bird was coming. In between she wrote and starred in Mistress America (2015) and gave what is arguably her best performance in Mike Mills 20th Century Women (2016). The rest is of course current celebration and future history: Lady Bird proved a mainstream breakthrough as a writer/director. It's up for five Oscars including two for Greta Gerwig herself as a writer and as a director.

This time, speaking in person, that familiar voice is just as lively but her laughter even more infectious. She radiates as much joy from talking art in real life as she often has creating it onscreen as a performer.

When I ask her her how the accordion is coming, she admits she's "rusty" and that it hasn't been a movie that inspired her lately but 'certain books' though she leaves them unnamed. Whatever feeds your soul as an artist, that's where you go.

on set directing Timothée and Saoire in Lady Bird (2017)

I reminder her about that comment about acting for others not being her path and she says "I know..." in a goofily apologetic way, like she always knew where she was heading but just hadn't told us.  Our interview is after the jump...

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