Cyrus

Before I get into the merits and weaknesses of CYRUS (and thankfully, there are more of the former than of the latter), I'd like to say a few things about the cinematic trajectory of directors Jay and Mark Duplass. For those who see the word "mumblecore" in the critical consensus for CYRUS and don't know what it means, it'll probably be easier to understand what it means if you see the Duplass brothers' first two feature-length films, THE PUFFY CHAIR (2006) and BAGHEAD (2008). Essentially, a movie that follows the mumblecore approach is one in which the dialogue is largely improvised (see last year's HUMPDAY, which actually starred one of the Duplass brothers). I have to say that I didn't get the impression that there was improvisation in CYRUS: it felt like there was a script, and that the actors were following it. That wasn't the case with the brothers' first two films, which I'll talk about now.

THE PUFFY CHAIR is unlikely to have been seen by many people, and that is a real shame because it is a truly fantastic piece of indie filmmaking, perhaps the best movie of the so-called mumblecore movement. The dialogue is improvised, but it is incredibly insightful and well thought-out. It's a road trip movie that is incredibly perceptive about relationships and has a handful of humor to boot. And it has an amazing final scene. All that for a low budget and with virtually no script. I don't know whether or not to recommend it, because it may not be your "type" of movie, but if you think that it is, I say put it at the top of your Netflix queue right now. Unfortunately, two years later, the Duplass brothers decided to make a different type of film. BAGHEAD is sort of a horror/comedy, but it's not exactly what we're used to getting when we look forward to a film that mixes those two elements. The movie is actually ably directed... but some of the acting is truly DREADFUL, in particular that of Greta Gerwig, who's performed better in several other movies, including this year's GREENBERG.

With CYRUS, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that Jay and Mark Duplass have returned to drama, which I think is their stronger genre. The bad news is that, despite having a higher budget and much more famous people in its cast, CYRUS isn't nearly as great as THE PUFFY CHAIR. However, it's still great to see that they're finally being able to reach slightly more mainstream audiences, and one suspects that after the success of CYRUS, they may eventually take some of the brilliance we saw in their very first film and pour it into their next project.

John (John C. Reilly) and Jamie (Catherine Keener) got divorced several years ago. One of the things that I immediately appreciated during the first few seconds of CYRUS is that Jamie is portrayed as an ex-wife who still sort of looks after her former spouse and even tries hard to see if he can meet another woman, and Jamie does all of this even though she's already engaged to marry her current boyfriend. In fact, she has sort of become John's confidante; any time he has a problem, he usually goes to her. It's an unusual departure from the stereotypical character of the ex-wife, who's usually on-screen to nag or argue.

Jamie is so helpful that she invites John to a party so that he can meet people. The fact that John is an awkward fellow who has trouble making conversation becomes quickly evident, and there are some delightfully awkward, cringe-inducing moments during John's interactions with people at the party. It all gets even better, though, when John sneaks over to pee on a plant, thinking that no one is seeing him. Enter Molly (Marisa Tomei), whose first line is uproariously funny, and the same can basically be said from the rest of the conversation. We get the feeling that Molly doesn't care about the fact that John bumbles a little bit in conversation. They seem like a perfect match. They start sleeping together, but something suspicious keeps happening: Molly always leaves in the middle of the night. This prompts John to follow Molly one night to her house, and that's where he discovers our title character, Cyrus (Jonah Hill), who is Molly's 21-year-old son.

The first half of CYRUS teems with masterful dark comedy. There's an expertly executed conversation when all three characters are together for the first time at a dinner table. The line "But you can feel it already" is delivered at the most inopportune moment for the characters, yet it is incredibly opportune for comedic purposes. The reason why the first half of CYRUS is magnificent is because the title character behaves completely amiably towards John, yet there's this constant undercurrent that something is off. A moment in which a character is seen holding a knife in the dark is truly a brilliant touch. There's something clearly unhealthy about Cyrus' relationship with his mother, and all the subtle hints at this are handled greatly by the Duplass brothers.

The reason why CYRUS starts losing points in its second half is that all the subtlety suddenly goes away when Cyrus and John literally declare war on each other. The film stops being about the nuanced conversations and about the indirect hints that the title character may be related to Oedipus and it chooses to announce all of this way too plainly. This is all a matter of personal preference: I like my movies more subtle, simple as that. There's still plenty of hilarity to be found, particularly from the way Cyrus silently mouths "Fuck you" at one point and then from a hand-written message that Cyrus gradually reveals to John.

The entire cast is solid. John C. Reilly is great at acting like a bumbling idiot during the initial scenes, and even better, he never goes over the top once his anger towards Cyrus gets the best of his character. Marisa Tomei's is easily the best performance of the film: she has to balance her attraction to John with her ill-conceived clinginess to her son, and she never hits a false note. When my favorite critic (James Berardinelli) reviewed CYRUS, he noted that he could easily see Jonah Hill playing a serial killer, considering what he did in this film. I had a hard time believing or understanding how it could be possible that Hill could give that impression, since CYRUS seemed like such a light-hearted movie. But now that I've seen it, I completely agree. Some of the moments in which Hill stares deeply, without blinking, are truly eerie. This is different from anything else that Hill has done, and a sign that he could easily continue giving even more nuanced dramatic performances.

Minimalism is something I largely encourage when it comes to films (and it worked absolutely perfectly in THE PUFFY CHAIR), but it gets a little in the way of the last few scenes of CYRUS. The movie doesn't become bad at all in the second half: it just becomes too simple, which is an unexpected departure from all the depth and nuance we had gotten used to from the first half. The film's denouement is what one may call "too easy." A deep dramedy could've given us a little bit more than this. To sum it up more simply, CYRUS is a great movie during the moments in which its title character is still nice to John, while he's still holding in all of his frustration towards the fact that his mother is dating someone. Once Cyrus explodes, things become a little bit more obvious, and the movie continues being GOOD, but nothing more than that.

6/10