My Movie Review: Cyrus

My Movie Review: Cyrus

4.5/5

Opening Statement: I had the pleasure of screening this film in Columbus, sitting a couple seats down from Kevin Carr, film critic for Fat Guys at the Movies and Film School Rejects. I wanna take this time to thank Film School Rejects for the free ticket and invite to screen this excellent film that circles around John (John C. Reilly) a brutally lonely guy, with a sort of awkward personality. John carries with him a since of fear, fear of being alone for the rest of his life. He is invited by his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) to a party where he meets Molly (Marisa Tomei). Molly takes a liking to Johns personality and the click almost immediately. Soon John discovers that Molly secretly has a a 21 year old son living with him named Cyrus (Jonah Hill) who is very attached to his loving mom, this creates a dispute between him and John.

What's Good: I was borderline 4/5 with this one, because I don't think it impacted me as much at first. I had to soak it in. First thing's first. The cast is awesome. You have Oscar nominated actors like Tomei and Reilly. Doing expectingly great. Then you have young Jonah Hill who delivers the best performance of his career. He has the best performance here. The Duplass brothers are the masterminds behind Cyrus, and I find there "mumblecore" style of filmmaking well, odd. In Cyrus the comedy formula is, dark, awkward comedy. Where John's fear of being lonely and Cyrus' fear of losing his mom collide. It is interesting how the characters play off each other here. Especially Hill and Reilly, 2 comedic geniuses. The 2nd half of this film is pure emotional art. I do admit I have a soft spot for dysfunctional comedy, which was done best by Wes Anderson in The Royal Tenenbaums. However, I think Cyrus has a lot to offer to any audience. It doesn't just attempt to be funny, the situation calls for it. Sometimes it seems the actors aren't even trying to be funny but are. I will also comment on the score, each score resembles Cyrus' kind of music, which I loved. The music helped differentiate a sad scene and a funny scene. The formula on the outside seems pretty basic, but since the Duplasses deal with their material in the most realistic and heartfelt manner, and let the comedy flow naturally. Cyrus earns its 4.5 from me.

What's Bad: It is completely understandable if an audience doesn't like Cyrus, because it is simply not there style of humor. Also it will be hard to adapt to the mumblecore styling and the slow pacing. There are a lot of points in this film that I wish they hit it harder, hit the dysfunction harder. Hit the darkness harder. Then when I think about it, that might've made it seem less real, as a film that is trying to deal with real emotion.

Consensus: When Cyrus is funny...it is hilarious. When Cyrus is sad....it is heartbreaking. I felt weird in my stomach with the mix of emotions, but I loved it. Cyrus deals with raw emotion, and the dark comedy behind it in the best of manners. See this film but don't go expecting normal Reilly and Hill comedy.