MUBI

To me, this movie hardly qualifies as a comedy, it is never lough out loud hilarious and the laughter is usually a result of anxiety by the celebration of Awkwardness in Cyrus. That being sad, I thought this was quite a good movie, nothing spectacular but an unusual approach to a topic that is barely touched upon, a grown son who refuses to give up his close and intimate relationship with his mother for one of her suitors. One could expect an American white-trash feast of cheap laughs and toilet humour, especially with Jonah Hill and Reilly on board, yet we are spared any profanities and can enjoy a subtle and ginger chamber play about insecurity, togetherness and facing your fear. I felt like the movie never really decided for which team it should play, sometimes it lined itself up for a great comic showdown (the wedding etc.) but nothing came of it and whenever the movie was in danger of becoming a hollow rom-com, Jonah Hill made a delightful mess of it with his inarguable big comic talent . All in all, I felt like the film did not really came to full bloom and while I see what they tried to do, a sloppy script, too uninvolved direction and a stale performance by Reilly stopped the quality meter rising half way. HX

You know the formula for a Hollywood Romance or Romantic Comedy: Set-up a dilemma. Churn through repetitions of the effects of the dilemma you set up. Resolve the dilemma and roll the credits.

This isn’t that. It looks like it is going to be, but then keeps progressing as the characters learn and develop and their relationships change. All around outstanding performances. But what else would you expect with this cast? And, man, can I be the loser who goes from Catherine Keener to Marisa Tomei? What a way to lose!

Leave it to the true “all-stars” of this film movement (the Duplass Bros.) to make, in my opinion, the best mumblecore-related movie ever. This is what happens when you get ACTUAL actors to star in your film instead of your buddies, which is something these mumblecore directors cant seem to get past. Just because your friend who works at American apparel is cute, or your buddy who lives off of the L train line is kind of funny, doesn’t mean they can hold down an entire movie. Aside from co-stars; John C Reilly and Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener is probably one of the best American actresses working today. And i know its become pretty cliche and typical to voice your hatred for Judd Apatow related-“anything”, but i even found Jonah Hill pretty damn funny in this too. And most importantly, when you cast actual actors, your dialogue wont consists of every other word being “like” or the phrase “you know?” coming after every other sentence. I mean, even though the basic plot of ‘Cyrus’ has been done before (a son or stepson trying to ruin his single mom’s love life so he can have her all to himself), it was still a solid film overall.
What makes this mumblecore movie stand out over all the other films is that its the first (or at least the first of what I’ve seen) to deal with characters outside of the typical age-range that these films usually focus on. The main characters are in their 40’s, divorced and one is a single parent. No mumblecore-related film that I’ve seen has yet to focus on any of that along with parenting or the type of dysfunctional relationship between Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei’s characters.
In ‘Cyrus’ John C Reilly plays a lonely guy, who hasn’t moved on or had a real relationship since his divorce. At the advice of his ex-wife, he tries his best to get back out there and meet someone. Eventually he does (Marisa Tomei), and they both seem to hit it off real well until Tomei’s son (played by Jonah Hill) comes in to the picture. She has no idea that her son isn’t the perfect angel that she thinks he is. Hill sees Reilly as a threat, and tries his best to sabotage his mom’s relationship so he can have her all to himself. Unfortunately, no one recognizes what Hill is really like except for Reilly. So the 2 of them have to put up a front when they’re around Tomei like they’re really getting along, but when she’s not around, they’re at each others throats, essentially competing to win her over
The mother/son relationship in ‘Cyrus’ is very interesting, odd and…unique. Even though the son is in his 20’s, he still needs his mom to pick the vegetables out of his food, sleep in the same bed as him when he has “panic attacks” (which may or may not even be real panic attacks) and they hang out more than a 20-something year old son should hang out with his mother. In fact, he doesn’t seem to have any friends (or even a girlfriend for that matter) outside of his mother. There’s nothing incestuous between the 2, but its definitely not a normal relationship.
John C Reilly’s performance is a nice transition in to his next and more dramatic role (‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’). I love “Dr. Steve Brule” just as much as anyone else, and Reilly is a funny guy, but I’m starting to get worried that there’s a new generation of kids who are going to only identify him as a comedic actor, unaware of his earlier work like; ‘State of Grace’ or ‘The Thin Red Line’. It seems like ever since he started playing the somewhat dopey/comedic supporting roles in the more serious films PT Anderson (‘Sydney’, ‘Boogie Nights’ and ‘Magnolia’), Reilly started to get get typecast after that. His performance in ‘Cyrus’ is just as funny (the opening scene when Catherine Keener catches him masturbating or the scene when Reilly quietly threatens to knock Jonah Hill out) as it is sad (the scene in the beginning of the film when he’s at the party and confesses some pretty heavy/sad stuff about his life to a complete stranger). I don’t know if any actor couldve pulled off the performance the same way he did.
The Duplass brothers managed to maintain their John Cassavetes-influenced/natural looking cinematography (found in their previous films) and this may sound corny, but ‘Cyrus’ does have a some genuine and touching moments. Yes, as the story unfolds it does get predictable and sure you can see the ending coming from a mile away, but i still enjoyed it very much.

With a surprising amount of on-screen chemistry, Marisa Tomei and John C. Reilly do their best with the material they are given. Their relationship of shared glances and feelings lifts this film up above its fairly average, flat script. Jonah Hill plays the demented, attached son of Tomei with a creepy conviction that works for most of the film. Most importantly, it was nice to see a middle-age divorce/romance movie that didn’t treat its adult subjects with sweeping cliches or, on the other end of the spectrum, a heavy dose of melancholy. Tomei and Reilly are lovable characters that we can relate to; unfortunately, that doesn’t amount to much of a movie.