Cyrus

Review: It’s often times refreshing to see a new take on a story/formula that is not so new. Cyrus takes a tried and true formula and rehashes it in a refreshing way. We’ve all seen the storyline of the single mom and the child who is so attached they won’t let in a new man to take up the mantle as the “new dad” (I seem to remember a ‘Man of the House’ movie starring Chevy Chase, Farah Fawcett, and of course, Jonathan Taylor Thomas back in the day, but I digress). This formula leans heavily toward the shtick and can lend itself to somewhat comical, but mostly over the top nonsense. Cyrus doesn’t go that route.

Instead of focusing on the child and making the “new dad” the lovable villain, Cyrus goes the other way and focuses on the “new dad,” making the kid the villain. But here’s the real kicker, he’s no kid at all, Cyrus in this movie is “21, almost 22 years old.” This presents a much different dynamic for the ensuing relationship between Cyrus (played by Jonah Hill), John (John C. Reilly) and Molly (Marissa Tomei).

Cyrus is your consummate coddled adult. His mother protected him from pretty much everything in his life and as a result he has turned into an overly protective socially awkward child afraid of new things and new people. He has had an uninterrupted relationship with his mother for his entire life and a new man being introduced only serves to prevent the relationship from continuing as he knows it. As usual, this means war on John conducted by Cyrus.

This is where the movie has to deal with the danger of slipping off the deep end and moving into slapstick. However, these actors and filmmakers are too talented to let that happen. The ensuing battle between John and Cyrus remains at the same time funny and believable. The filmmakers do a good job of showing sympathy for both sides in this struggle. This is where most of the movie takes place and it makes it enjoyable to watch.
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The usual suspects provide solid performances. John C. Reilly, Marissa Tomei, and Catherine Keener are actors that don’t get enough credit for what they do. Even though all have been up for Oscars and Tomei has actually won nobody seems to recognize that they are all great actors who only honed their craft with age.

However, the real treasure of this movie is Jonah Hill. His portrayal of Cyrus is heartfelt and sympathetic and I think he definitely deserves Oscar consideration. The Academy would never be as bold as to do something like that but it is definitely deserving. While mostly comical in his past performances Hill shows a great range and a depth of acting skill I had no idea he was capable of. This makes me excited for the possible future of Hill and his career. I imagine he has a career that follows similar to John C. Reilly’s.

Ultimately, this movie is worth your time, but be warned, it is a little bit different than you would expect from the trailer and carries with it a bit more of a dramatic punch than you would think.

The beauty of Cyrus is its ability to take a premise that has been achieved before in more contrived and artificial manners and give it a sense of verisimilitude. The laughs are not necessarily "roll on the floor" kind of laughs because they are not set up in the way most movies set them up. They are fused with real development and real emotion.

The actors will be recognized most for selling their small scale reactions and intriguing us in the process but the Duplass brothers deserve ample credit for their style which provides an allowance for improvisational responses. Rather than just create an outline though, they write a full script then allow for the improv to compliment it. Given their previous work, and now this little gem, their method seems to work very well as their writing lays down the foundation of the characters and their development but is still open to input that will enhance the realism.

This movie is all about the normal American. It's focus is not on the drama but on the lack of it. It considers the desire and need for comfort, enjoyment, and uninterrupted companionship in those moments between all the points of stress. Each character has their path that makes them happy and the conflict simply comes along when they are held back from that path. It's appropriate for that is the way of life for the average person and films are not usually about truly average sort of people, just about those with average lives. The characters struggled but they dealt the way we all deal and gave off the impression that they wanted to enjoy life and did everything in their power to do so.

Fascinatingly and oddly enough, the film could also be described in a manner contrary than what I have already done. For there is drama and it is dealt with in extremes at times. The story ultimately becomes one major stress point as the characters deal with their conflicts in a complicated manner. What's important though is that we don't come away from the experience feeling that anything has been complicated or dramatized for our sake. Yet, I would hardly call it slice of life for it's not that clean. It's more like a bulging lump that got craftily sculpted into something wonderfully aesthetic. The structure is tidy enough but only because we deem it so, just as we do with all memorable events.

  I hope and anticipate the Duplass brothers to one day be a force to be reckoned with but only if they avoid seeing themselves as such. They are character-centric not only in their writing but in the way they direct their films. The storyline in Cyrus was relatively simple, but one day these guys will take their methods and stumble upon a story where the stakes are much higher and when they do it will indeed be something grand.nullspan style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: #333333; font-size: 3px;"null<span style="line-height: 18px;">
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Last updated: 2010-07-17 17:52:34 by KevinPatterson

The movie Cyrus could be described as a family film - it does focus on the relationship of a mother and son - but it's a dysfunctional one at that.  John C. Reilly plays a guy named John who feels like his life has been on a downward spiral since the end of his marriage.  His ex-wife, whom he has maintained a good friendship with, is about to get re-married.  He wants to be happy again like she is.  He begrudgingly agrees to go to a party that his wife wants him to attend with her and the husband-to-be.  It's there that he meets a very attractive woman named Molly.  She's played by Marisa Tomei.  John and Molly hit it off and John begins to regain the confidence he had lost quite a while ago.
Then he meets her son Cyrus.  Cyrus comes off as extremely friendly at first, maybe too much so.  John starts spending more time at their house and soon enough he realizes there's a very strange relationship between Cyrus and his mother.  They're pretty much the closest mother and son you've ever seen.  They act like best buds and spend all their time together, even having a set routine of going to the park every morning and taking pictures.  There's nothing wrong with a strong bond between mother and son, but these two are inseparable. 
Cyrus pretends to be ok with the situation... having a new guy in his mother's life.  But deep down, he feels that his mother is being taken away from him and he feels threatened by it.  John learns that Cyrus can be quite demented and will stop at nothing to rid himself of the new obstruction to him and his mother's tight bond.  The movie has many funny scenes basically dealing with John and Cyrus battling each other while Molly remains oblivious to the battle for her heart.  Jonah Hill is perfectly cast as Cyrus who seems to border on insanity at times.  He has a slick, cunning way of going about his plan to get rid of John but at the same time shows nothing but warmth and compassion to his mother.  He knows how to play both naughty and nice.  It's fun watching a guy in his late 40's go to battle with a 21 year-old, and it gets to the point where they blatantly threaten each other in ways that could be scary to each other but funny to the audience.  The movie can be rather weird at times but all in all it's a fun little bit of odd humor.  Keep an open mind and you will enjoy it.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

As the film Cyrus begins there is an uncomfortable feeling that the presentation, the characters, and perhaps the story will all be familiar to the audience by the time things get moving. There is the gritty documentary feel, the down on his luck protagonist who has a weirdly understanding ex-wife, and the humor comes off as, well, recognizable. However, Mark and Jay Duplass manage to balance the easy choices of style with the interesting and overall touching subject matter that is at the heart of their script. Nothing about the humor or the character choices ever seems strained, though that could have been a problem with the delivery. Instead the Duplass brothers contain the more awkward and unconventional moments, especially between John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill, into their intended story that focuses more on character that it does on comedic moments. The style is simple but the narrative is filled with heart and observational humor that many modern comedies fail to embrace. Cyrus isn’t exceptionally new, but the filmmakers seem to grasp the fact that awkward can be funny and revealing if it’s supported by a good script and talented actors.
            Cyrus really is about a down on his luck freelance editor in Los Angeles whose ex-wife is getting remarried as his own social life plummets into the depths of nothingness. However, John, played exquisitely by a controlled and talented John C. Reilly, ends up meeting a beautiful woman named Molly (Marisa Tomei) at a party and life actually begins to be looking up for him. Things move quickly with Molly until he finds out that she has a 21 year old son who still lives at home who’s named Cyrus. Immediately there is that under your skin presence that Jonah Hill can provide so well with his depiction of Cyrus, and things begin to get complicated for John as it becomes obvious that Cyrus doesn’t want him around his mother. If it weren’t for the great casting for these characters the film would have fallen so flat it could never recover from whatever jokes or situations were in the film. But Jonah Hill does a much better job here than he has in previous films to play with his type rather than against it as John C. Reilly becomes a man determined to do whatever he can to hold onto the last chance of happiness he deems to be existent in his life. The script has a genuine quality within its more unnerving moments because life isn’t always naturally charming and as humans we constantly mess up what is good for us. It’s tough to watch at times, but Cyrus is an interesting character examination that utilizes humor in the most unconventional ways.
            The main criticism the film will possibly receive is for its simplistic delivery style with the gritty and documentary feel imagery that seems incredibly overused in the past decade. At first, when the story is beginning, you will definitely feel a bit annoyed with the rough cutting and drastic zooming changes as the film attempts to be more indie than it should be. But luckily as we get more engrossed in the characters’ situations and lives the style tends to take a back seat to the content on the screen. Usually style should accentuate what is being presented in the film, and for the most part the grittiness of the image reflect the dysfunctional and extremely uncomfortable moments that continuously present themselves on the screen. Cyrus is funniest when it’s more painful to watch, as you cringe and chuckle at the downward spiral that is unfolding in front of you that would make Michael Scott from The Office think twice before saying something. Film as a whole is supposed to make you feel something and the way the Duplass brothers present the realistically uncomfortable situations of life makes Cyrus feel genuine and human, providing for a heart warming and understanding ending.
            As it has been stated before it was really due to the talents of the cast that bring this film so delightfully and painfully to life. John C. Reilly is at the heart of this story and is really at his missed best ever since he chose to do ridiculous no nothing comedies like Step Brothers and Walk Hard. His performance of a man in his most difficult of times of desperation and loneliness can make anyone relate to the mental and emotional pain he is going through. While some might think Marisa Tomei is way out of John’s league in the looks department the film handles that well as Tomei makes it believable that honesty in a man can be more attractive than his basic looks. But really Jonah Hill makes an unexpected yet delightful performance that brings the film together as the incredibly strange and needy Cyrus. While his actions might be deemed neurotic or even obsessive when it comes to protecting and wanting his mother’s attention, it stems from an upbringing that is hinted at being too dependent so everything is uncomfortably believable. Without this great focus on character intentions that inevitably compliment their actions, Cyrus wouldn’t have worked and it shows a great amount of control from not only the actors themselves but the directors who knew how to bring their written word onto the screen.
            Cyrus is far beyond any conventional comedy that is released into the theater every three months so it’s by far one of the most refreshing movies this summer in style, intention, and delivery. However, the film isn’t for the light hearted or those looking to escape reality with their comedies because the humor in Cyrus is centered on the unnerving realistic situations that find their way in our lives. As a character study Cyrus is remarkably strong and provides ample material for the talented cast to ignite the screen with realism and damaged personalities. Sometimes it’s nice to see a film that can show us that whenever we feel down and out that there is someone out there that has written a script that reflects what humans actually feel. Cyrus is relatable to those who have experienced uncomfortable human interactions or rough relationships with obstacles and perhaps as entertainment it might turn some people away. But there is no denying the Duplass brother’s ability to control themselves on such a difficult but abundant piece of subject matter.