Cyrus, the latest movie from the Duplass brothers is strangely watchable despite its obvious flaws. That’s not to say that I recommend the movie just that it’s a watchable bad movie, but a bad movie all the same. You keep waiting for something to happen and to see the reason behind Cyrus’ behavior, but nothing comes out of it. The movie is all tease. It’s like hearing a joke and the person leaves without giving you the punch line. Cyrus is half-baked and can’t decide what it wants to be.

Cyrus begins with John (the always excellent John C. Reilly) getting invited to a party by his ex-wife (played by Catherine Keener who is underused and given nothing to do with her role). John is depressed that his ex-wife is getting remarried since he still harbors feelings for her. She tells him to meet a girl at the party; she’ll even introduce John to them. “What are you going to say [to them]? This is my ex-husband, who I left and wasn’t good enough for me, but you’ll like him,” John responds to his ex-wife’s offer.

John goes to the party under duress and the party scene is easily the best part of the film. He is truly clueless on how to pick up and interact with girls, a situation a lot of us can relate to.

John does see one girl sitting alone on the couch. She isn’t particularly attractive and the gruffly-looking John has a chance with her. She does seem open to him. “Let me be honest with you. I am really lonely and desperate to find someone. It’s not that I’m depressed or suicidal. I think I’m really awesome and I just need the chance to find someone who can get to know me and see how awesome I really am,” John tells her. This bluntness is a bit much for her to take, so she makes an excuse to get away from the couch.

At the party, John meets the beautiful Molly, who is actually the one who does the flirting, which of course surprises John, not being a man of self-confidence.

John and Molly hook up and develop a relationship and one day meets Molly’s twenty-one year old son, Cyrus (played with remarkable restraint by the usually shrill Jonah Hill). Cyrus seems to love his mother a little too much and doesn’t view her as a mother. Cyrus mentions to John that Molly is Cyrus’s best friend. Cyrus always refers to his mother by her name and by not calling her “mother” represents Cyrus’ lack of understanding of parent-child relationships.

Cyrus goes to the bathroom while his mother is still in the shower, has panic attacks during the night so his mother can come to his bed to coddles him and sleep there.

Molly does nothing to stop Cyrus’ suffocating and inappropriate love for her. She never yells at him (although she never sees any cause to) and always hugs him. She gives in to his requests for obsessive smothering and probably caused it.

When first meeting John, Cyrus acts all nice to him. He invites John to stay at their house for dinner and to spend the night there, but later reveals jealousy. Cyrus feels that John stole his mother’s love and so he retaliates by stealing John’s shoes. Cyrus tries to break up Molly and John’s relationship so he can be the only man in his mother’s life.

There are many problems with Cyrus. One is the terrible directing. The camera movements are distracting and pretentious and instead of bringing the viewer into the film, push the viewer away from it. The camera dollies back and forth without reason. During the opening scene where John’s ex-wife is walking the camera slowly zooms forward in-synch with each step John’s ex-wife takes.

There are a few scenes where the characters speak in voice-over, but instead of looking natural the camera shows the people’s face and their mouths shut while their voice-over is being said. This is distracting and takes the audience out of the film. What is the point of this “artistic” technique? It’s annoying and done arbitrarily.

I’m not against films that have jump cuts, zooms, or other unique camera movements, but these movements should have a purpose behind them. Buffalo ’66 and Breathless have artistic flourishes, but they serve a point. In Cyrus, they serve only as a distraction and as a way to appear unique instead of having the style become the substance.

Another problem with Cyrus is its indecisiveness. The film can’t decide whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama and fails at both. Cyrus isn’t moving enough as a drama and while there are a few laughs sprinkled gingerly throughout the film, there aren’t enough for a comedy.

John C. Reilly is a fabulous actor and does manage to make his character real. John comes across as earnest and his actions are believable (most of the time). John is a character the audience can identify with. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the rest of the characters. Jonah Hill doesn’t overdo his creepy momma’s boy persona, but he doesn’t really add anything interesting to him either.

Marisa Tomei, a usually reliable actress, makes Molly one-note. Molly comes across as nice and that’s about the only thing we see of her. Both Molly and John mention how meaningful their relationship is to each other and Molly even mentions that John is the first guy to stay overnight in her house since Cyrus was a little boy. It’s easy to understand why John would fall for Molly. She’s hot and he is desperate and lonely. But there is no reason given why Molly loves John so much.  She says she loves him, but the audience isn’t given a reason why. “Show, don’t tell,” is one of the most basic rules of good storytelling and instead of the Duplass bothers showing us two people in love, they have the characters tell us they are. Marisa Tomei and John C. Reilly have no on-screen chemistry together, which makes their meaningful relationship unbelievable.

Catherine Keener as Jamie, John’s ex-wife is a completely forgettable character and is given no depth to her. Catherine Keener is usually able to make her characters real and memorable, so I don’t know if it’s the fault of the Duplass brothers for underwriting her character or Catherine Keener having an off session.

Cyrus seems unsure of the direction is wants to go, especially when developing the relationship between Molly and her son. Does Cyrus want to go to bed with his mother? Is he just craving attention? Or is he just afraid to be on his own? The movie could have gone in many interesting ways, but instead goes nowhere and has the typical Hollywood ending.

Cyrus is no different from the glib mainstream films that the so-called “Indie culture” loves to pounce on. Sure, its shaky camera makes the style seem different, but being different just do stand out instead of serving a purpose serves as an exercise in self-indulgence. Add to this, a jarring tone, half-baked characters and storyline leads to an empty experience. You might not be bored while watching Cyrus, but after the movie is over you’ll wonder what the point of spending two hours and over ten dollars was for.