Susan:
Let me start by addressing my good friend Geoff: Man, I am so glad we decided to see this instead of The Last Airbender. Not that The Last Airbender didn’t look awesome, but man, The Last Airbender really didn’t look awesome. Cyrus on the other hand? It’s like if Judd Apatow bought a hand-held DV camera and made a movie on a rainy day when he’d had too much red wine.
The movie is basically a love story about John (John C. Reilly) and Molly (Marisa Tomei). They meet at a party, they fall in love, they have crazy hot sex, he makes her dinner. It’s all super adorable. But then (DUHN DUHN DUHN) John shows up at her house one day and finds out she lives with her 21-year-old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill). And not only does the son live there, but he and his mother have a strangely close relationship. Like, wrestling and hanging out in the bathroom together and leaving bedroom doors open and stuff. Cyrus tries to sabotage John, John retaliates, Molly gets caught in the cross-fire, and hilarity/heart-felt conversations ensue. Seriously, it’s Emo-Apatow. Apatemo if you will.
Even though I joke, I really really really liked this movie. I loved how John wasn’t just another doofy schlub who gets to bang the hot chick but actually seemed aware of his luck and invested in the relationship. I loved that the movie was both really funny and really genuine. I loved that at the end of the film lessons are sort of learned but not in a saccharine way. Though it did get slow in the middle and though Jonah Hill probably shouldn’t be expected to carry dramatic weight, the movie on the whole is totally solid and well worth a watch.
Geoff:
Man, do I ever love John C. Reilly. I will watch him in anything, and he’s one of the few who has incredible comedic timing and tone while also being able to convey a genuineness even in the most bizarre of situations. Tomei does a great job, too, but she’s the straight character, so it’s a little harder for her to stand out here, I feel.
The film is written by the Duplass brothers, who — depending on how much of an indie-film freak you are — you might recognize as the gentlemen behind The Puffy Chair and Baghead. They’re famous for shooting on a shoestring budget with more of an outline of a script and letting their actors pretty much improvise the entire thing, and this is the first time they’ve been given the opportunity to work with some bigger names. Looks like mumblecore’s going mainstream.
The loose structure works beautifully for the most part, and especially for the comedy. I was laughing but good for large swaths of the movie (Jonah Hill holding the butcher knife comes to mind, and then there’s Reilly pretending he had panic attacks as a kid), and Reilly and Tomei, even in improvisation, are able to pretty convincingly pull off the awkwardness of people falling into something quickly.
The only time things kinda fell apart for me was near the end, when, as you’ve already pointed out, Susan, Jonah Hill’s attempt at something sincere and heartfelt falls a little short as Cyrus pleads for John to come back to make his mother happy again. Improvised drama is tough, and I just don’t know that Hill’s completely up to the task. I should give the guy a break though. He’s up against Reilly, who really is just a powerhouse, and by the time John was pulling up in his car and exchanging looks with Molly as she stood on her porch for the final scene, I was already saying “aw” again.
As much as it might have been fun to rag on Airbender, I think we made the right choice.
Susan:
Totally. I agree with all of this. And improvised drama IS hard, which is why the middle bit of the movie when not much is really HAPPENING except a lot of people talking to each other about stuff gets a bit slow. At a certain point when they were doing that mumblecore thing where they don’t just say things but like, say them over and over and stumble over their words to emphasize how they are totally just making it all up as they go, I wanted to shake everyone in the flick and tell them to spit it out already. And then I shook my cane at some neighborhood kids and kept their football because they threw it into my yard. But I digress.
For me, Marisa Tomei was totally a stand out. The scene where she and Jonah Hill are picking the peppers out of dinner and they are going back and forth about why didn’t she just order it without peppers and can you get that big one down there and blah blah blah, I was totally sold. It felt like Jonah Hill was trying to mess her up and she was so solidly in character that she was just not even phased. Totally impressed. There is nothing that woman has done since The Wrestler that hasn’t been absolutely stellar. I remember thinking at one point during the movie (though I can’t remember which one now, there were too many good ones) that she might be the greatest actor of her generation. Maybe that’s saying a lot. But she sure knows how to knock it out of the park when she could have just as easily been a set piece the two male leads moved around. Do it up, girl.
I think we are totally in agreement on this one, Geoff. Funny, heart warming, and some really amazing performances. Totally worth the $10.
Geoff:
Hey, I already said Marisa Tomei is great, and if anything I just think that’s a tougher thing to be when you’re playing the foil. It’s harder to be noticed. One of my favorite moments of hers is when she comes in as Cyrus is playing his music, and it’s just so completely clear that Tomei is doing the first little jig that’s come to her head, and she looks actually happy, and it was just such a natural, mom-ish thing that I thought “Yeah, she totally knows what she’s doing.”
I know what you mean about mumblecore, too. There are just certain times when things break down a little bit and the improvisation really starts to show as improvisation, but I guess everyone needs an aesthetic.
If the film’s playing in your area (on one of the few non-Airbender screens out there right now — Shyamalan’s really trying to dig himself out of a hole that’s at least three films deep), then Susan and I fully endorse a viewing.
