Cyrus- She said

Cyrus is a movie where the super awkward meets the super awkward. John C. Reily’s John is a mopey, still-not-over-his-ex-of-seven-years guy who has trouble getting a date (can’t imagine why). He meets Marisa Tomei’s Molly, who is a free-spirit, fun gal with a little secret-she has a college aged son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill), who lives with her, and they have an awkwardly close relationship. John doesn’t seem to initially mind that Molly has a kid because hey, we all have baggage. But slowly he begins to see that their relationship isn’t exactly normal, and Cyrus is a sneaky, conniving, jealous son.


Molly and John seem to fit each other well. They’re both flawed in different ways, but they dig each other and may even love each other. But Cyrus doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like John and thinks John isn’t right for his mother. So, Cyrus doesn’t pull the whiney kid mode or even talks to his mom about his feelings…he’s sneaky in a very conniving and almost scary way. He’s smart, and he knows how to manipulate his mother.

So there’s the plot. Boy meets girl; they fall in love; girl’s son doesn’t like boy and tries to break them up. We’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again. However, the Duplass brothers take a different approach to this scenario. They put their characters in some of the most awkward situations and use personal camera angles to make you feel like you’re in the situation too. There’s some amazing character work that the Duplass brothers created. The subtleties of the acting between Cyrus and John are eerily perfect. There is so much said in glances, unspoken beats, and smirks that only actors with real talent could pull off.

The problem I had with the movie is that overall it seemed really boring and has an awkward pace. Maybe the pacing is suppose to be the point because there’s not much of a plot, just one awkward situation after another. I’ve been using the word awkward a lot, but I think that’s what the Duplass brothers get off on putting their characters in those situations.

Overall, the movie is good, I guess. I wasn’t blown away, and I liked the little moments between the characters rather than the overall picture. I believed all the relationships, as messed up as most of them were, and I felt uncomfortable in the places where I was suppose to. It’s a fresh look on an old story; I’m just indifferent to the whole thing.