SXSW Review: Cyrus

in

Cyrus

I know I'm not the only one who felt a little nostalgic during the SXSW screening of Cyrus, the latest film from the filmmaking brothers Jay and Mark Duplass. The former Austinites debuted The Puffy Chair in 2005, at the first SXSW I attended, in a weeknight screening at Alamo on South Lamar. Five years later, they've made a film with Fox Searchlight that stars John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill, which premiered at Sundance in January. The question is -- is it any good? Did the studio experience "spoil" the filmmakers' style?

I think Cyrus is the best feature film the brothers have made so far -- and one that will appeal to a wider audience than, say, Baghead, which was funny if you go to a lot of film festivals but didn't quite catch on outside of that circle. However, the brothers are still able to retain their skewed sense of humor and their intimate way of shooting a scene.

Reilly plays John, a middle-age schlub whose ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener) is trying to encourage him to date. The scene in which Jamie strides into John's house uninvited and finds him engaged in a rather private activity speaks worlds about both characters. And then there's the party where Jamie and her fiance push John into trying to introduce himself to various women. That party may seem awfully familiar to some of us. Fortunately, John meets Molly (Marisa Tomei), in what may be is a modern-day twist on the Meet Cute scenarios of old-fashioned romantic comedies, and they hit it off fairly quickly.

The pair seem to be shaping up into a lovely older-couple romance (this is oddly familiar to me too) when John encounters Molly's son Cyrus (Jonah Hill). Molly is a single mom and Cyrus is her only child, and although he is college-age, he's not used to his mother having boyfriends around. Molly and Cyrus have developed any number of family routines in which John does not quite fit in. A few odd incidents cause John to suspect that Cyrus may actively dislike him and want to break up the relationship ... or is John being paranoid?

The success of Cyrus hinges on this strange trio of characters, who are played superbly by the three leads. In particular, Reilly and Hill are absolutely hilarious together. Keener hovers on the edge playing a fairly standard character and giving Reilly an outlet for expressing his frustration with the goings-on. But I'm most impressed with Reilly, and wish he'd make more low-key comedies like this and not so much Step Brothers. His character is obviously on the loser side of the world's social equations, but he keeps us in his corner, cheering for him, from nearly the first time we see him onscreen.

The Duplasses have continued to use their camera style of often zooming in, pulling momentarily out of focus, cutting quickly ... as though we were watching the film through a hidden camera, trying to get close during the interesting bits, hastily edited in order to cut away what is unnecessary. It sounds terribly sloppy when I describe it, but when I watch the film, it gives a feeling of spontaneity and intimacy that adds another layer to the film.

Cyrus is probably the happiest "sad sack main character" movie I've seen all year, and this is a year where that kind of film is surprisingly prevalent. The plot may be low-key and even a bit predictable but the humor comes out of nowhere and can take you by surprise.

Austin connections: Jay and Mark Duplass attended The University of Texas at Austin and started their filmmaking careers here. A number of other current and former Austinites worked on the crew for Cyrus -- check out my interview with the Duplasses (later today) for specific details.