Mills in monochrome
Taking the baton from Rebecca Hall’s recently released film Passing, C’mon C’mon is another classily shot monochrome affair, this time from US director/writer/artist/all-round-creator Mike Mills (husband of director/writer/artist/all-round-creator Miranda July). Joaquin Phoenix stars; “impressively contrived”, says the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw. It’s Mills’s fourth feature film.
That Mike Mills?
Mike Mills (director) shouldn’t be confused with Mike Mills (musician) – though at some point you have to imagine their paths crossed in a Gen X version of the Spider-Man meme. The latter, of course, was a key member of alt rock behemoths REM.
(Don’t go back to) Portman Road
Though REM’s star waned in the 2000s – they gracefully called it quits in 2011 – the group could still pull in a large crowd, such as a UK tour in 2005, culminating in a concert in Hyde Park. Along the way, they played at Portman Road, home of Ipswich Town FC. Back in their late-70s glory days, full-back and captain Mick Mills was a Town legend alongside manager Bobby Robson and John Wark’s moustache.
What’s the frequency, Kevin?
Mick Mills briefly captained England at the 1982 World Cup, standing in for the injured Kevin Keegan. In his own be-permed 70s heyday, Keegan released a pop single – a strange thing that footballers used to do. Head Over Heels in Love reached No 31 in the UK charts. The song wasco-written by Chris Norman, who had had a 1978 hit, Stumblin’ In, with pioneering rocker Suzi Quatro.
Stumblin’ on
In 1978, Quatro appeared as Leather Tuscadero in beloved 50s-set sitcom Happy Days. Jump forward to 1994 and you’ll find Happy Days appropriated ingeniously in Weezer’s Buddy Holly video, directed by Spike Jonze. Jonze’s most recent feature, Her, from 2014, also starred Joaquin Phoenix. Both having jumped through commercials, music videos and films at roughly the same time – and both with Coppola connections (Mills has a production company with Roman; Jonze was married to Sofia) – Mills and Jonze are almost as easily confused as Mills (director) and Mills (musician), but not Mills (Mick).
Watch 20th Century Women. Mills’s previous feature film was a hazy, poignant 70s family drama led by a brilliant Annette Bening (see also Christopher Plummer’s Oscar-winning turn in Mills’s 2010 Beginners).
Eat In Interview magazine, Miranda July charted 15 years of gifts she had been given by a handyman in her east LA neighbourhood, including delicious and healthy(ish) Inka plantain chips.
