Current@Sundance: Cyrus

Cyrus is an incredibly interesting exercise in assimilation of the studio system by a group of filmmakers who were so far under the radar five years ago that the progress is mind-boggling. Of course, if you're like the majority of "regular" people who don't eat, sleep and breathe festival wonkery, you may find Cyrus in a different kind of funny.



John (C. Reilly) is divorced and feeling incredibly sorry for himself, so his ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener  ) is trying to get him off his ass and back into the real world. After being dragged into a party, shot full of Red Bull and Vodka and gloriously striking out twice, he meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) while pissing in the bushes. At his drunkest, he is the most honest, wanting a relationship and to just not be alone. She relates and one drunken karaoke-with-a-beer-bottle later and the birds are in love. Of course, what comes next is the discovery that his new love interest has a 22-year old son named Cyrus.

A decade ago, this would be the kind of generic comedy that would feature Ice Cube as he tries to win over the rugrats before they came to accept each other. Mark and Jay Duplass took this same concept that normally gets dumped by studios in order to shove idiots into seats and created something intelligent. It doesn't mean that they've completely ironed on the kinks, as Jonah Hill takes sociopathic to a new level as Cyrus. He's like Eddie Haskell after developing an Oedipus complex and affinity for techno.

But the "new parent" system lingers: Molly is a caring and almost satirical take on a lefty-mother who sleeps with the door open so Cyrus can check on her, yet doesn't see anything wrong with it. In fact, both mother and son seem to be the Duplass Brothers' way of paying homage to this traditionally unfunny concept by having John act outside of their sphere.

Cyrus may be one of the best inside jokes at Sundance. It's both funny and making fun of the system that it's about to come crashing into, leaving most of us shaking our heads and giggling. The only problem is most people outside of Park City don't think Jonah Hill is funny unless he's having fat jokes cracked on him or unless Reilly is doing his Tim and Eric impersonation.