Cyrus (Blu-ray) (2010) |
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Cyrus (Blu-ray) (2010) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Deleted Scenes Interviews-Crew-The Duplass Brothers Featurette-Music Mash-Up John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill Featurette-Behind The Scenes-at SXSW with Duplass Brothers Featurette-Fox Movie Presents: John C. Reilly Featurette-Fox Movie Presents: Jonah Hill Theatrical Trailer |
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| Year Of Production | 2010 | ||
| Running Time | 91:00 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,4 | Directed By |
Jay Duplass Mark Duplass |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring |
John C. Reilly Jonah Hill Marisa Tomei Catherine Keener Matt Walsh Diane Mizota |
| Case | Standard Blu-ray | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | Michael Andrews |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Chinese Cantonese French Portuguese Spanish |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Directors Jay & Mark Duplass are best known as card carrying members of the Mumblecore Movement. Essentially, for those not in the know, this is a loose body of filmmakers who present offbeat relationship drama/comedies usually with lo-fi shooting techniques and improvisational scripting. Opponents of the movement call the films aimless and uninteresting. Supporters love the whole loose feeling and the very real quality of the people and situations presented. Cyrus is, in fact, something of a Mumblecore crossover from the brothers. The core elements are there but instead of the stable of 20-something unknowns, the film features a high profile cast and improved production values. That didn't help it cross over into the mainstream however and despite pretty good reviews the film did little at the Box-Office.
John (John C. Reilly) is in the deepest pit of a many year slump. He has been divorced from Jamie (Catharine Keener) for seven years but refuses to acknowledge that the relationship is completely over. Coming to his house late one evening Jamie surprises John in the act of… well, taking matters into his own hands, and gives him the bad news that she is getting married. She implores him to get his life moving again and somehow convinces him to attend a party. John has been out of the dating game for, like forever, and finds it difficult to socialise. It doesn't help that the party is populated by young, hip, extroverted professionals whereas John, a film editor, is on the shy side. He decides to get over his nerves by getting plastered and seems destined to strike out completely. He makes an impassioned speech to a plain looking girl on a sofa, telling her how he is "got something to give". She walks off to make a phone call. John, disconsolate, goes out to take a leak in the garden only to be found by Molly (Marisa Tomei), a beautiful divorcee. John can't believe his luck. She is funny, clever and totally into him.
The relationship goes swimmingly with one minor flaw. After sleeping together Molly always sneaks out of John’s house in the night to return to her own home. John can't work out whether she has a secret marriage or something worse. He follows her home one night and falls asleep in his car near her driveway. He awakens to find her gone and sneaks around the house only to be met by Cyrus (Jonah Hill) who introduces himself as her son! The film Cyrus then becomes something of a battle of wits between the two loves in Molly's life. Cyrus is 22, prone to night terrors and without any visible means of income - he has set up a ambient/techno music studio in the house. His relationship with his mother is so close as to cause John , and us, to get a little queasy. Cyrus might be socially inept but he knows how to get very, very sneaky when it comes to manipulating his mother and John. But who will win in the struggle for Molly's affections?
Cyrus, the film, is very much a drama/comedy in the Mumblecore tradition. The shooting style is very much cinema verite and it almost has a documentary look to it. Often when zooming in or out from characters the film will go out of focus. In the extras material the actors and the directors pointed out the extent to which improvisation was a useful tool in making the film. In fact Reilly went as far to say that he was given so much freedom that the "brothers would often say that if their improvisation took the film in a different direction then they would simply write ideas for a different film with a different conclusion. The result is a "script" that is part meaningless banter and part genuine insight. The insight part derives from the intimate working knowledge that the cast have of their characters. The idea is to give us a real life experience in watching how these people deal with their problems”.
John C. Reilly is excellent as the slobbish John. He is clearly struggling with the demands placed upon him in wooing Molly and the challenges involved in taking on Cyrus. Marisa Tomei is noticeably older but just as lovely now as she was at the beginning of her career. She has fallen into something of a habit of being paired with less than attractive leads such as Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. Special mention must go to Jonah Hill. In the films of Judd Apatow Hill has always played the fast talking, wisecracking guy. In this film he plays it deadly straight. His Cyrus is just as scary when he laughs as when he is deliberately scheming to get rid of John.
Cyrus presents an antidote to the plethora of dim-witted romantic comedies that have plagued our screens for several years. It is an offbeat tale to be sure and those who like their rom-coms formulaic will perhaps find this too aimless. Those who pick up the Blu-ray, see John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill and expect gut-busting, crude comedy (Step-Brothers meets Superbad), are in for a shock. Those who don't mind their love stories quirky and independent will, however, find very much to like in this film.
The technical details for Cyrus can't be found on IMDB. My belief is that it was shot on high definition digital video. It was probably shown at the cinema at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. This Blu-ray appears to be in the correct aspect ratio.
Although Cyrus is far from the lo-fi origins of the Duplass brothers earlier films it is still, at $7 million, a fairly low budget effort which is reflected in the solid but unspectacular Blu-ray transfer. The aesthetic of the film is not one of glistening surfaces and bright colours. The colours are stable if subdued throughout and there is an accuracy, but not beauty, to the overall image. The flesh tones are a little waxy however the level of detail is fairly good. There are no technical flaws to the presentation. The level of digital noise is low. The issues, like occasional dropping out of focus, are Mumblecore trademarks and not reflective of the transfer.
There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired. Other subtitles include Spanish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Mandarin, Cantonese, French.
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The sound for Cyrus, for English speakers, is the DTS HD Master Audio 5.1. There is also a Dolby Digital 5.1 track in English running at 448Kb/s. Spanish, French and Portuguese (Brazilian) tracks are also included.
The Mumblecore tag may lead one to suspect a frustrating 90 minutes of turning the sound up and watching the subtitles to keep up with the dialogue, but not so. This is a fairly good track. The dialogue can be heard clearly. The film is pretty much front and centre but there is a little ambience given by the surround track and the sub-woofer flares when Cyrus is playing his New Age/techno creations.
The musical score is credited to Michael Andrews of Donnie Darko fame. The film had some association with the song Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros through the trailer but it is not actually in the film. A variety of indie tunes are on offer together with John and Molly's rendition of The Human Leagues' Don't You Want Me?.
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There are a number of little extras on this Blu-ray. Three of these, the Q&A and Fox Movie Presents segments are letterboxed to the left hand corner of the screen.
There are two deleted scenes included with this Blu-ray. Both have the benefit of an introduction from the Duplass brothers. The first titled "puppet movie" relates to a key scene in the film where Cyrus has moved out of Molly's house and his mother is inconsolable. John C. Reilly prepares a puppet show to placate Molly. It is a little weird even for this movie! The second deleted scene titled "Cyrus party" is considerably longer. Once Cyrus has moved out of home we only see him return after suffering an anxiety attack. This lengthy scene (actually a couple of scenes) shows him experiencing difficulty at a party at his new lodgings and having a minor meltdown. Interestingly, in the introduction the Duplass brothers state that they removed this scene as it tended to draw too much sympathy for Cyrus at this point in the movie.
In this short interview session the brothers Duplass take turns in questioning each other about their working methods and the origin of the film. For those who like the mumblecore genre this featurette will be a welcome addition. It is wonderfully offbeat as the toddlers of each Duplass brother take turns in interrupting the interview and demanding attention. There are a few bits of information which come across during the session, particularly regarding the working methods of the pair, but those who are after a serious Q&A will find this wanting. Essentially, the brothers used improvisation extensively in the film to create a heightened sense of reality or, in their own words, to create "an environment where lightning can strike".
This is really a couple of actors just "mucking about". John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill play about on a keyboard which has some techno beats as well as key lines from the film bound to keys. There is a bit of improvising going on with the keyboard and some deadpan humour.
The Duplass brothers are at the SXSW Festival in Austin Texas for the first screening of their movie. We follow them as they experience the anxiety associated with the jump to a more mainstream film.
This feature as well as the second feature involving Jonah Hill consist of interviews with the actors where they discuss their association with the film and the characters. The information conveyed is a little heavy on describing the plot of the film however it is interesting when they talk about the improvisation approach that the Duplass’ took to filming. Reilly relates that he would often spend a whole day on set filming hours of improvised footage only to leave the set with a genuine concern that nothing usable had been shot. Of course, the magic is in the editing!
Ditto.
The theatrical trailer gives a pretty good summary of the film perhaps stressing a little too much the comedy aspect
There is a sneak peek/trailer available for the film Never Let Me Go.
Nope, couldn't get this to work.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
This is identical to the release in other regions.
Anyone who bemoans the lack of original romance stories will embrace Cyrus, even if Jonah Hill’s wonderful performance always keeps us guessing whether the film will descend into a psycho thriller.
The Blu-ray quality will keep fans happy even if it is not sensational. It certainly is accurate to the film. The extras are interesting though a full commentary track would have been nice.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Cambridge 650BD (All Regions), using HDMI output |
| Display | Sony VPL-VW80 Projector on 110" Screen. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Pioneer SC-LX 81 7.1 |
| Speakers | Aaron ATS-5 7.1 |