Archetypal View: C’mon C’mon

Jan 16

C’mon C’mon: A Study of the Shadow Magician Archetype

This is part of an ongoing series that views contemporary films through the lens of archetypal psychology and the King, Warrior, Magician, Lover model of the masculine psyche as defined by the late Jungian analyst Robert L. Moore in his book of that name. It’s an attempt by me to refresh that work by presenting more current and diverse examples of the archetypes than what are given in that excellent but somewhat outdated book.

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The recent film C’mon C’mon starring Joaquin Phoenix is a character study of a middle-aged man who displays a lack of maturity in most aspects of his life. Viewed through the prism of Robert Moore’s King, Warrior, Magician, Lover (KWML) model, we can see that he is stuck in a low level of development, most prominently in the Magician archetype.

While he has gained skills in the technology of his trade (podcast producer) he shows a lack of self-awareness, decisiveness, emotional maturity and introspection. When asked by his nephew why he’s no longer married, he answers “I don’t know…she ended it” — a perfect statement by someone caught in the passive shadow pole of the Magician.

It’s telling that his already overburdened sister continually supports him throughout the film, reflecting the tendency for immature and passive males to project the archetypal power they lack onto the women in their lives.

The young boy at first presents as a clever and charming precocious youth, signs of a developed Magician capacity, but tends to descend into that archetype’s shadow aspects of Know-It-All Trickster and Detached Manipulator, using his naive emotional intelligence to control his immature uncle.

Over the course of the film, Joaquin’s character is seemingly “initiated” into greater self-awareness and emotional expression by the young boy, a story arc that is supposed to be heart-warming and heroic, but when viewed through the archetypes of the mature masculine, reads more as a comment on the sorry state of affairs for the modern uninitiated boy-man.