C’MON C’MON

Name: C’MON C’MON
Item: C’MON C’MON
Author: Tess Farrand

"An Honest Exploration of the Mind of a Child"

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

C’MON C’MON stars Joaquin Phoenix as a radio journalist named Johnny whose sister asks him to take care of her son, Jesse, in Los Angeles. Johnny agrees, but his work requires him to travel, so he takes his nephew with him across the country. This is Jesse’s first experience away from his mother and outside of Los Angeles. Jesse’s energy, curiosity and authenticity catch his uncle Johnny off guard. Johnny must manage his job, console his sister and look after Jesse, who has endless amounts of questions, theories and energy.

Shot in black and white, 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. The story 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. However, C’MON C’MON contains excessive foul language and brief politically correct dialogue about the environment and abortion. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

Content:

(B, C, PC, E, Fe, LLL, V, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Light moral, redemptive worldview about parenthood, sacrifice and forgiveness, in a story about an uncle having to take care of his sister’s son for a while, but the uncle sometimes shows a lack of discipline while trying to parent his nephew, plus there are some brief politically correct discussions about the environment and about abortion that includes one comment about a woman’s “choice”

Foul Language:

About 25 uses of the “f” word, at least two “s” words, a very muffled obscenity for female genitals that’s hard to hear, several GD profanities, and exclamations of “God”

Violence:

Mother’s death is talked about, various scenes where a child is lost, discussion about hurricane Katrina and death, mention of an abortion, and most violence is talked about but never shown

Sex:

No sex

Nudity:

No nudity

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or illegal drug use, but medications are mentioned;

Miscellaneous Immorality:

This movie is about an unlikely guardian and a rambunctious child, while endearing and raw in most scenes, there is a lack of discipline throughout, but in every conflict, there is an accepted responsibility on both sides and a genuine desire to forgive and understand.

More Detail:

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.

Watch C’MON C’MON →

Quality:

- Content: -2