Taglines: John met the woman of his dreams. Then he met her son…
With John’s social life at a standstill and his ex-wife about to get remarried, a down on his luck divorcee finally meets the woman of his dreams, only to discover she has another man in her life – her son. Written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, the iconoclastic filmmaking team behind Sundance Film Festival favorite THE PUFFY CHAIR, CYRUS takes an insightful and funny look at love and family in contemporary Los Angeles.
Still single seven years after the breakup of his marriage, John (John C. Reilly) has all but given up on romance. But at the urging of his ex-wife and best friend Jamie (Catherine Keener), John grudgingly agrees to join her and her fiancé Tim (Matt Walsh) at a party. To his and everyone else’s surprise, he actually manages to meet someone: the gorgeous and spirited Molly (Marisa Tomei).
Their chemistry is immediate. The relationship takes off quickly but Molly is oddly reluctant to take the relationship beyond John’s house. Perplexed, he follows her home and discovers the other man in Molly’s life: her son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill). A 21-year-old new age musician, Cyrus is his mom’s best friend and shares an unconventional relationship with her.
Cyrus will go to any lengths to protect Molly and is definitely not ready to share her with anyone, especially John. Before long, the two are locked in a battle of wits for the woman they both love—and it appears only one man can be left standing when it’s over. Using the innovative improvisational techniques that have earned them critical accolades and a devoted following, Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass enter the mainstream with a touching, original story that blends humor and heartbreak, much like life itself.
Jay and Mark Duplass first came to the attention of producer Michael Costigan at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where he saw their feature debut, The Puffy Chair. Written, directed and produced by the young siblings and shot on a rock bottom budget of only $15,000, The Puffy Chair impressed Costigan with its uniquely personal style and point of view. “I remember feeling it was unlike any film I’d seen before,” says Costigan. “Mark and Jay had made a movie about relationships that was incredibly original and funny and moving.”
A semi-improvised snapshot of the waning days of a relationship, the film went on to win the Audience Award at the prestigious SXSW Film Festival. The Puffy Chair’s reputation quickly spread by word of mouth. “It was like a chain letter,” says Costigan. “A lot of people saw the movie and then told friends about it.
The producer then made a point of seeking out the Duplasses’ earlier short films SCRAPPLE, THIS IS JOHN and THE NEW BRAD. “I found out they wrote them, sometimes they starred in them and they directed them together,” says Costigan, president of Scott Free Productions and producer of films including BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and SMART PEOPLE. “That’s how they’ve always made their movies.”
Costigan met with the brothers to discuss the kind of film they would be interested in making if they had access to studio-level budgets. In CYRUS, the brothers continue to focus on the painfully funny realities of modern relationships.
The original idea was simple: make a relationship-based movie with experienced, professional actors that maintained the intimacy and autonomy of the brothers’ previous films. “We wanted to use a relatively small group of people and try to do what we do best,” says Mark Duplass. “We have always focused on the funny and the tragically comedic elements of relationships. We love that ambiguity. Is this very serious? Is this funny? You can talk about it over coffee afterwards.”
Jay adds, “What we have to offer are the truthful moments that you might not normally see in movies, but you have experienced in life. We never made an aesthetic choice to shoot cinéma vérité or documentary style, but that’s how we make movies.”
The brothers adopted a lean, documentary-style production process as well. “Our previous films could be made very cheaply because we did it all ourselves,” says Mark. “Jay held the camera and I held the boom. Our actors roamed about the space with no blocking or marks. There was a script, but the actors improvised as they went and we captured it as it happened.”
The Duplasses’ sensibility straddles the demarcation between comedy and tragedy. “Mark and I try to find those fine lines where you’re not sure if you’re supposed to laugh or be uncomfortable,” says Jay. “We get in that middle ground where people are experiencing different emotions. A reviewer once said about one of our films, ‘It’s John Cassavetes with humor.’ And that’s honestly what we’re going for—emotional rawness and truth in a relationship movie. Hopefully when you’re watching it, you’re laughing a lot but knowing that underneath it’s really about the people and what they’re going through.”
That ability to create comedy out of realistic situations and authentic emotions is what makes the brothers’ films so satisfying, says Costigan. “If the movie doesn’t feel real, then it doesn’t feel funny,” observes the producer. “All of the comedy is based in a very real, human dynamic. Even as it gets bigger and broader it stays firmly grounded. That’s the way they build their movies. And that’s what made everyone involved feel like they were creating something really special.”
Working on this larger scale was unfamiliar and initially intimidating for the brothers. “They asked me to help put together the team, which is what I love to do,” says Chrisann Verges, the film’s co-producer, whose credits include Christopher Guest’s improvisational comedy FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. “On their previous films, they had a crew of about five people. We had an early pre-production meeting with perhaps 12 people. The guys walked in and said, ‘There are more people at this table than worked on our last two films.’ We eventually had a crew of about 80.”
After operating on their own for so long, the brothers are well-versed in the requirements of each job on a movie set. “On their past films, they did everything themselves,” says Verges. “They know what the jobs are and they feel an affinity for the crew. They’re just so thankful they’re not doing it all any more. Someone else is carrying the lights this time. And they love the catering; they’re very happy someone’s cooking for them every day.”
Verges brought in a lot of fresh young faces to work on CYRUS, including director of photography Jas Shelton, production designer Annie Spitz and costume designer Roemehl Hawkins. Jay Deuby, who edited THE PUFFY CHAIR, also cut the new film. “It was wonderful to be able to introduce them to people who could help them realize their look, which is tricky, because it is a very real look. In the past, they just went into a location and shot whatever was there. In essence, we hired someone to artificially create a real look,” says Verges.
The brothers say they arrived at their unique aesthetic purely through trial and error. “Mark and I made a lot of bad movies in our early 20s,” Jay says. “We were trying to make movies we thought we should make. At a certain point, when we started letting our private conversations about the really embarrassing but funny things happening in our relationships into our movies, people started talking about them and wanting to watch them.”
Mark puts it a bit more bluntly: “Basically, once we started making fun of ourselves on screen, everything got a lot better.”
Costigan, like the rest of the cast and crew, was thrilled at the chance to be part of the Duplass brothers’ first studio-financed film. “It’s why we’re all here,” he says. “We’re such fans of their movies and we wanted to give them the opportunity to do what they do the way they do it. The bones of this story are really classic, but Mark and Jay bring their own kind of storytelling. And I hope the audience will enjoy the unique voice that the guys bring to it.”
Cyrus (2010)
Directed by: Jay and Mark Duplass
Starring: Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, Catherine Keener, John C. Reilly, Matt Walsh, Katie Aselton, Kathy Wittes, Jamie Donnelly, Tim Guinee, Newell Alexander, Steve Alterman, Mitch Carter, Caroline Neville
Screenplay by: Jay and Mark Duplass
Production Design by: Annie Spitz
Cinematography by: Jas Shelton
Film Editing by: Jay Deuby
Costume Design by: Roemehl Hawkins
Set Decoration by: Meg Everist
Music by: Michael Andrews
MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexual material.
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: June 18, 2009
