C’MON C’MON

C’MON C’MON is a black and white drama that follows a radio journalist, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who’s forced to take care of his nephew, Jesse.

For his most recent radio story, Johnny is interviewing children across the United States, from various backgrounds, about how they perceive the future of America and their lives living in America. However, when Johnny’s sister, Viv, asks Johnny to help take care of her young son, Jesse, Johnny’s thrust into the world of a child’s mind in a completely new way.

Johnny travels to Los Angeles, where Viv and his nephew, Jesse, live, and learns that Viv’s former love, Paul, asks for help after his mental breakdown. Jesse misses his father but welcomes his uncle Johnny almost immediately. Suddenly, Jesse and Johnny are left on their own when Viv must go help Jesse’s father. Johnny quickly realizes that taking care of Jesse has its challenges.

Jesse and his uncle get along fairly well despite many prying questions about Johnny’s past relationships and insecurities. Johnny shows Jesse his radio recording equipment but doesn’t want to be interviewed. Instead, Jesse likes how he can focus on one sound at a time. They go to the beach, and Jesses records the waves. Johnny learns that his sister musty stay out of town for longer. However, Johnny must get back to his story and a new set of interviews in New York City.

Jesse is excited at the idea of exploring a different city. However, Viv becomes more worried about her son’s safety and Johnny’s ability to care for him. However, there seems to be no way around the cross-country trip, and Jesse sees New York for the first time. Jesse loves the city and uses Johnny’s recording equipment to record its sounds.

However, the stress of taking care of Jesse, consoling his sister and his job weigh down on Johnny. Several times he loses his temper with Jesse. Johnny has a newfound appreciation for parenting and decides to learn how to sacrifice what he knows about human interaction for his nephew’s wellbeing. Johnny realizes that one’s age doesn’t limit the expression of emotion and that honesty and vulnerability are the most important thing about relationships.

C’MON C’MON shows the rawness of what it is to take care of a child through phenomenal writing and acting. The black and white palette leads to even more connection to the joy, sadness, anger, resentment, and thankfulness that Johnny and Jesse experience on their trip. C’MON C’MON has some redeeming, morally uplifting elements. For example, it’s pro-motherhood and pro-fatherhood and stresses sacrifice, forgiveness and honesty. However, C’MON C’MON does contain excessive foul language and brief politically correct lines about the environment and abortion. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.