C'mon C'mon · reception & legacy

2021 · Mike Mills

How C'mon C'mon has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Premiered at Telluride in 2021 to warm reviews and instant 'awards player' chatter — then got completely shut out of the Oscars, a snub Letterboxd has never stopped grumbling about. It's since settled into beloved-sleeper status, the A24 drama people insist was criminally under-celebrated.

What's debated

The perennial split: is it a genuinely profound piece of tenderness or peak twee A24 preciousness — black-and-white, soft-spoken, and engineered to make you cry?

Its footprint

It lives on as a comfort-cry touchstone — the 'I'll remind you of everything' exchange gets quoted endlessly in reviews, and the film's unscripted interviews with real kids about the future are its most talked-about texture.

Where it stands

A quiet canon-climber and certified Letterboxd tears-in-black-and-white favourite — the Mike Mills film people recommend with 'trust me, just watch it.'

★ Did you know? The interviews Joaquin Phoenix conducts with children throughout the film are real — actual, unscripted kids in cities like Detroit, New York and New Orleans answering questions about their lives and the future. It was also Phoenix's first role after winning the Oscar for Joker, and young Woody Norman is British, doing a seamless American accent.

Named by the director

Influences Mike Mills has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

Alice in the Cities (1974) — Mills cited Wenders' black-and-white road movie about a man travelling with a child as a touchstone for the film's look and shape.