Someday, someone will have to explain to me why we need worthless labels like “mumblecore” to describe films. When the average person has to pull up Wikipedia to figure out what the fuck kind of movie it is they’re going to see, things may have gotten out of hand.
For those of you out there not wearing a t-shirt with a hiply-ironic print on it, in the case of Cyrus, mumblecore just happens to mean “a charmingly off-putting comedy driven by fascinating characters with enough neuroses to make them challenging and authentic.”
Cyrus is Jonah Hill. He and his mother Molly (Marisa Tomei) have a strangely unique relationship. Let’s just say they have a very close bond. That bond is tested when Molly falls for John (C. Reilly) at a party, and things move pretty quickly, which was of course not the case when I met Ms. Tomei at a party years ago. But I digress…
To say the least, Cyrus isn’t a big fan of John and Molly taking things to the next level (or any level, for that matter). And he makes it his mission not only to come between the two of them, but to win the war against his new nemesis.
There’s not much I can say about the work of the cast here. Reilly is typically hilarious in his understated, everyman kind of way. Tomei gives Molly enough appeal to be worthy of John’s affections, but she’s also detached enough from the reality of what her family is for us to wonder if that appeal is enough to keep John around. But the best work here has to be turned in by Jonah Hill. After seeing him in Get Him To The Greek, and re-watching Superbad last night, his Cyrus is much more restrained and quiet, a welcome departure from Hill’s usual manic and socially-challenged outcast. His scenes with Reilly are hilariously unsettling, which always keeps the audience guessing as to where they might go next.
I’d just like to commend the filmmaking Duplass brothers briefly. Cyrus is truly funny, while being grounded in reality. The characters never become over-the-top comic caricatures so readily available in most modern comedies. And while the ending may be a bit too telegraphed for some, I found it satisfying and natural.
And now, my one cinematic cock-punch. This doesn’t just apply to the Duplass Brothers, but to all filmmakers who equate camera movement with “a style.” Get a fucking tripod, and use it. Please. When I’m trying to focus on the characters, their interactions and the emotional subtext you’ve worked hard to establish, and you zoom in and out in the middle of a shot, I notice it. And it pisses me off. Suddenly I’m not thinking “I wonder if Cyrus will really do something nasty with that knife,” I’m thinking “why did the camera suddenly zoom in and out? Is the camera operator Michael J. Fox?” Quit waving the camera around. A smart story and clever cast are all you need, and you’ve got that.
That rant aside, Cyrus is wonderfully-written, perfectly-acted and disturbingly funny. And it’s certainly worth seeing.
