Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”) shows his heartwarming side as the uncle of his nine-year-old nephew in Mike Mills’ big-hearted drama “Come on, Come on.” It is a small, quiet film that tackles big issues through the eyes of young people and can be seen in cinemas from today.
In this film, Phoenix plays a radio journalist named Johnny who travels across the United States interviewing children and asking them about their lives, fears and dreams. The answers differ. Some are fearful, some are hopeful, some want the world to be a better place, some just want the world to see them for who they are.
children and their world
“I don’t think the world is going to end, I just think the world won’t be as clean as it used to be,” says a young girl matter-of-factly.
It’s real responses from “real” kids (rather than actors) that Mike Mills sprinkles throughout his film, including Devante Bryant, a nine-year-old who was later shot. The children talk about their fears of global warming, racism and war. They talk about feeling lonely and adults not listening to them. Their answers lend a deeper, documentary background to the film, which Mills shot in black and white with cinematographer Robbie Ryan (“The Favourite”).
Soon Johnny, a single guy, will have his “own” child, his nine-year-old nephew Jesse (played beautifully by Woody Norman), whom he’ll babysit for a few weeks because his mother (Gaby Hoffmann) can’t take care of him.
Mike Mills, the writer-director behind films as personal as ‘Beginners’ (2010) and ‘Women of the Century’ (2016), eschews simplistic finger pointing about the state of the world and paints adults as just as lost as those much younger . “Come on, Come on” doesn’t have all the answers, but it does ask the right questions.
“Come on, come on”USA 2021, 109 min., in cinemas starting today
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Source: Nachrichten
