I popped over to the little theater here in Norwalk that actually shows the indies and not-so-popular flicks to see Cyrus. I knew it was going to be a bit quirkier based on the little I had read about the writers/directors, the Duplass brothers. I didn't read much going in, sometimes I prefer it this way so that I go in with an unbiased opinion. What I was met with was an awkwardly woven love triangle.
This is the second movie in the past few months that I have watched that made me actually feel awkward and out of place during the film. The Duplass brothers have introduced us to John (John C Reilly), a lonely guy, still feeling a bit sad about his divorce from ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener), who's in a bit of a rut and can't seem to get out of it. Jamie comes over his apt to find him masturbating when she just wanted to give him the news that she's engaged to her new boyfriend. The two seem to have a pretty good relationship considering they're divorced with no children... although John is still upset by the split when she has obviously moved on. She tells him to come to a party that she and said fiance are going to where he'll be "intellectually stimulated" and find hot chicks. So he cleans himself up and goes to the party. This is one of the first times that I felt awkward for him, making a complete fool of himself while trying to talk to girls... it isn't until that he goes outside to pee in the bushes that Molly (Marisa Tomei) walks past and says "nice penis." She informs him that she overheard his truthful declaration to the last girl that he was trying to pick up and she found it interesting and truthful. The two hit it off and she goes home with him. When he wakes up in the morning, she's gone, but has left a note on the pillow with her name and number on it. She calls (pretends to forget who he was) and agrees to come over his place. And once again, they have sex but she leaves in the middle of the night - this time John wakes up when she leaves... so what does he do? He follows her home to see what she's really up to.
One thing leads to another and we meet our title character, Cyrus (Jonah Hill). Her 21yr old, almost 22 yr old son who appears to be a huge mamma's boy. I don't want to tell you the whole plot line, so I'll leave it up to you to see it for yourself.
The cinematography was jarring at first for me, lots of close ups, handheld and a lot of an in your face type of shot. After a while it grew on me, realizing that the awkward cinematography matched the awkwardness that was happening in the story line. What I did like was where you'd see the characters talking and not talking, but their conversation was being played the whole time. So sometimes the shots would actually match what they were saying and other shots would focus on body language and the unspoken part of getting to know each other moments with their converstaion still being overheard. A very interesting way to portray the sometimes hard to show the getting to know you bits... you know what I'm saying?!
The acting by Reilly, Tomei and Hill were all splendid. Reilly was a loveable lug, who you couldn't help but root for. Tomei, a smart and sexy but sometimes clueless to the tricks her son is trying to pull and Hill transforms perfectly into a weird, grown up baby (that's right, I just described it like that) that makes us want to cringe sometimes too. Overall, I enjoyed the awkward (boy, I've said that a lot this time) ride the Duplass brothers taks us on... it's not in your face, but more of a weird emotional ride that all of us have been on (not this exact ride, but you know what I mean) with our own families at one point or another.
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