On today’s episode of our daily NYFF59 podcasts, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez sits down with director Mike Mills and actors Joaquin Phoenix and Molly Webster to discuss C’mon C’mon, a selection in the Spotlight section of this year’s festival. 

C’mon C’mon screens again on Sunday, October 10th at 12:15pm. Standby tickets may be available.

After gracing audiences with Beginners and 20th Century Women (NYFF54), writer-director Mike Mills returns with another warm, insightful, and gratifyingly askew portrait of American family life. A soulful Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny, a kindhearted radio journalist deep into a project in which he interviews children across the U.S. about our world’s uncertain future. His sister, Viv (a marvelously intuitive Gaby Hoffmann), asks him to watch her 9-year-old son, Jesse (Woody Norman, in one of the most affecting breakout child performances in years), while she tends to the child’s father, who’s suffering from mental health issues. After agreeing, Johnny finds himself connecting with his nephew in ways he hadn’t expected, ultimately taking Jesse with him on a journey from Los Angeles to New York to New Orleans. Anchored by three remarkable actors, C’mon C’mon is a gentle yet impeccably crafted drama about coming to terms with personal trauma and historical legacies. An A24 release.

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Watch/listen to the discussion on the film below and don’t forget to subscribe on iTunesSpotify, or Stitcher for more filmmaker conversations.