Review: Cyrus
Independent filmmakers sometimes fall victim to their own success. If they're talented and lucky enough to strike critical and box-office gold a couple of times, they may find themselves working on larger films with respectable budgets and household-name talent, if not bona fide stars. But often as not, their art suffers when it moves uptown. Higher financial stakes come with strings attached, and these once fiercely independent writers and directors are forced to make concessions to commercial viability.
Fortunately, I'm happy to report that there are no such concessions with Cyrus, the latest film from mumblecore heroes Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass. The writing and directing team that brought us The Puffy Chair and Baghead have indeed gone uptown – but they've delivered another fine comedy that is true to the talky, quirky, naturalistic form, if not other mumblecore hallmarks like a shoestring budget and unknown actors.
Cyrus is very much a boy-meets-girl romantic comedy, but I really liked it anyway. It's the story of John (John C. Reilly), an eternally sad sack who still hasn't come to terms with his seven-year-old divorce. His ex-wife Jamie (the ubiquitous Catherine Keener) invites him to a party, where his ham-fisted attempts to chat up attractive women reveal exactly why he's spent so many evenings eating take-out for one. But for once, it's John's lucky night: He meets Molly (Marisa Tomei), a friendly free spirit who finds his awkwardness appealing and ends up going home with him.
John and Molly have great chemistry, and it takes a mere day or two for them to fall madly in like. Of course, there is a complication: Molly's desperately clingy 21-year-old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill) isn't about to let anyone come between him and his best (and seemingly only) friend, Mom. It's immediately apparent, even to the hopelessly smitten John, that Cyrus and Molly's relationship goes far beyond a healthy emotional bond between parent and child.
Cyrus is a clever and slightly creepy man-child, a manipulative liar who knows exactly how to send Molly into protective mother mode, hoping she'll focus on him instead of John. He wastes no time in planting seeds of doubt about the new relationship in Molly's mind. Cyrus also is well aware of his enormous home-field advantage over John, the same advantage he's used to drive away every other man who's dared try to date his mother.
John soon becomes aware of Cyrus's machinations, and the two enter into a darkly funny battle of wits for Molly's affections. The battle is in no one's best interest. But unfortunately it happens mostly at Molly's expense, denying her a rare moment of happiness and leaving her caught in the middle of a fight between two men she deeply cares about.
Pardon my mild blasphemy, but unlike many critics I'm not entirely smitten with the Duplass brothers' best-known previous efforts. While I enjoyed The Puffy Chair and Baghead, I found the stories a bit lightweight, the characters annoyingly whiny, and some of their interplay to be self-consciously cute. But I have no such criticisms of Cyrus, a film that painstakingly avoids any such cutesiness. There is plenty of tart, ironic humor and unpredictability to temper any romantic comedy clichés, along with an unsettling Oedipal undertone of family dysfunction. Cyrus has a certain gravitas lacking in The Puffy Chair and Baghead; it feels more grown up, probably because John and Molly are dealing with the decidedly grown-up problems of middle-aged loneliness.
The trio of lead actors in Cyrus all give terrific performances. Reilly's John is among the best roles in his long career; he's likeable and vulnerable, but in some ways as clingy as Cyrus. Thanks largely to Reilly's everyman face and demeanor, we all know John – he's a really nice guy who's always his own worst enemy (that is, until he meets Cyrus). Tomei's Molly is reminiscent of her Oscar-nominated turn as Cassidy in The Wrestler. A mix of weariness and sexiness, she's the film's most sympathetic character. Hill has done largely forgettable work in a string of welterweight comedies, but his Cyrus is a far more complex beast than any character in Superbad or Get Him to the Greek. At his best, Cyrus is admirably loyal and startlingly self aware; at his worst, he's painfully immature and chillingly sociopathic.
A funny and thoroughly believable take on romance and family relationships gone awry, Cyrus deftly brings mumblecore a step closer to the mainstream. The presence of well-known actors like Reilly, Tomei, Keener and Hill add a lot to the production values and won't hurt the film's box-office appeal. And from its natural dialogue to its generous use of close-up camera work, Cyrus still retains the intimate feel of a true mumblecore film. It proves that a film can indeed have star power without abandoning its humble indie sensibilities.
Austin Connections: Jay and Mark attended The University of Texas at Austin and began their filmmaking careers here. The Puffy Chair won an Audience Award at SXSW 2005, and Cyrus screened at SXSW 2010. The Cyrus crew included a number of current and former Austinites. For another perspective on Cyrus, see Jette's review of the SXSW screening and her interview with the Duplasses.