Cyrus
(2010)A comedy, with a brilliant cast, about a tired, tubby, middle-aged man named John (John C. Reilly). He's got no social life and his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) is about to remarry. Down on his luck, John meets meets the woman of his dreams: Molly (Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler), only to discover she has another man in her life – her weird son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill).... More
Suitor and son clash with Cyrus, an experimental bedroom musician, bluntly issuing a warning to John: "Seriously, don't f**k my mom." This is first major release from indie filmmaker brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, the mumblecore duo behind The Puffy Chair and Baghead.Hide
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Directed by Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Starring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 2 providers
Flicks Review
BY Steve Newall Flicks Writer
On paper, Cyrus looks like a bit of a Sundance-baiting exercise. In one corner are the Duplass brothers, "mumblecore" filmmakers and in the other a cast that includes John C. Reilly, Catherine Keener and Marisa Tomei. But that’s not factoring in Jonah Hill, who’s about as far away from an arthouse drawcard as, oh, I don’t know, Wesley Snipes. Hill’s not really the key factor in whether this will resonate with an audience though, instead it is whether the Duplass brothers can achieve some sort of crossover from indie filmmaking’s fringes into its equivalent of mainstream.... More
Cast aside, Cyrus makes a play for achieving just that, focusing on relationships of both the romantic and overly close kind, and pitching in a bit of misery and boredom in search of a cliche Sundance vibe. More cred points are on offer from the film’s observational/improvisational style that bros Duplass bring along with them, but they’ve neglected the most important part – making the film interesting.
Despite the ripples of hype around them as filmmakers there’s nothing here we haven’t seen before, and certainly not enough laughs, empathy with the characters, or sense of discomfort to justify retreading familiar ground. None of this can be attributed to the cast, who unsurprisingly all turn in good performances (and perhaps Hill will have made a few unexpected fans in the process).Hide
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Cyrus
BY adamatdramatrain superstar
The Press Reviews
80%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Here is a film that uses very good actors and gives them a lot of improvisational freedom to talk their way into, around and out of social discomfort. And it's not snarky. It doesn't mock these characters. It understand they have their difficulties and hopes they find a way to work things out. Full Review
The Duplass brothers enter the mainstream with a touching, original and supremely funny film, whose improvisational style sets it apart from other comedies, and marks the emergence of two major new talents. Great performances, too. Full Review
Insightful but ultimately ponderous entertainment. Full Review
Amuses and unnerves in equal measure. A comedy of discomfort that walks a wonderful line between reality-based emotional honesty and engaging humor, it demonstrates the good things that happen when quirky independent style combines with top-of-the-line acting skill. Full Review
The comedy of discomfort that runs through Cyrus is often about several things at once. But the most prevalent emotion in this quirky yet genuine movie is the awkwardness that comes with trying to fit into someone else's life. Full Review
John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill give such wonderfully satisfying, full-blooded performances in Cyrus that it seems almost churlish to wish this creepy little Oedipal comedy were a little more well-thought-out, and handled its wilder shifts in tone with more finesse. Full Review
Cyrus is more finely tuned than their earlier movies ("The Puffy Chair," "Baghead"), but it shares a similar, almost aggressive lack of ambition. John doesn't work hard and neither do the Duplasses, who don't want their audiences to break a sweat either. That's too bad, because Cyrus is more interesting and fun when you're recoiling at the effrontery of its comedy and not its conventionality. Full Review
It's a great premise but the Duplasses don't seem to know where to take it. The three actors do a great job with a script that is both improbably creepy and yet - as anyone who's tried to blend two families will know - has a core of precise emotional verisimilitude. Full Review
Think of Cyrus as the Duplasses for the masses, as the keenly observant sibs upgrade their scrappy, relationship-based formula to work with movie stars and a Fox Searchlight-size budget without sacrificing the raw, naturalistic feel of their first two features, "The Puffy Chair" and "Baghead." Full Review
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