Review of Cyrus (2010) by Phil T — 30 May 2011

I really wanted to like this movie. It had all of the right elements to make it the breakout indie comedy film of the summer. However, the movie just didn't turn out as well as I expected. All of the performances are fine, but the film really wasn't that funny. The plot is really stretched thin and even with its short running time I grew tired of the film very early on. I especially grew tired of the constant shaky cam that added nothing to the film. it's as if the Duplass Brothers did this on purpose to just scream out "We're doing the shaky cam technique to reaffirm that this is an indie film".

It's a sweet indie comedy/drama, but just because it's sweet doesn't make it good. It had some momentum going for a while, but it loses it halfway throughout the film. Plus since it's a black comedy I thought they were going to push the bar further, but it's too tame to be a dark dramedy. The drama isn't as compelling as it should have been either. It's a valiant effort on part of the Duplass Brothers, but it just fails resonate any emotion in me at the end.