Time: 111 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Offensive language
Cast:
Tom Waits as Father
Adam Driver as Jeff
Mayim Bialik as Emily
Charlotte Rampling as Mother (Catherine Russell)
Cate Blanchett as Timothea
Vicky Krieps as Lilith
Sarah Greene as Jeanette
Indya Moore as Skye
Luka Sabbat as Billy
Director: Jim Jarmusch

I knew Father Mother Sister Brother as being Jim Jarmusch’s latest movie. I wasn’t a fan of The Dead Don’t Die, but I liked Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai from him, so I went into this one fairly open minded. I came away with mixed thoughts and I’m not sure why it was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, but I thought it was okay at least.

Father Mother Sister Brother is an anthology movie with 3 disconnected stories: “Father”, “Mother”, and “Sister/Brother”. All of them are dialogue heavy stories about complex family dynamics and relationships (with family members being disconnected in some ways), and focus on about 2-3 characters. Also, not all of the details or context are presented to the audience. When the movie began with “Father” starring Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik and Tom Waits, I admit that it didn’t start the best for me. This segment focussed on two siblings going to meet up with their estranged father. It felt a little dull and repetitive and I wasn’t invested. Of course, much of the stuff happening with characters and the full context of the history is deliberately left vague. But I just found it difficult to be engaged with the story or the characters, despite a good performance from Waits. Thankfully, it picked up significantly with “Mother” afterwards, starring Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps, focussing on two sisters meeting with their mother. Even without the full context and not everything is made clear, it felt like there was something going on with each of the three main characters and their relationships and I was invested. It still feels like you can actually know the characters on some level. With both segments having similar plots, “Mother” really was “Father” but good. Then the film concluded with “Sister Brother” which has a different approach from the others, focussing on a sister and brother (Indya Moore, Luka Sabbat) going back to their childhood home one last time. In contrast with the other two segments, the two siblings have a working connection and the disconnect is instead with their dead parents. It was a bit of a mixed bag as it was more or less a hangout story with the two of them as they talked about their parents. While the two siblings have a believable dynamic, I just didn’t find it very interesting and wasn’t invested in it. Of the three, I was really only engaged with “Mother”.

There’s a good cast assembled, even if some shine more than others. Tom Waits was the standout in “Father”, though Adam Driver does have some good back and forth with him. Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps and Cate Blanchett leave a far stronger impression in “Mother”, those three have great dynamics and say a lot with little, feeling like real people. Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat are decent enough in “Sister Brother”.

Jim Jarmusch’s direction is decent, with some good blocking and the camerawork effective enough for the dialogue scenes, simplistic, but effective and letting actors just do their things. Perhaps it’s a weird thing to note, but in the scenes in which actors are filmed inside cars, the backgrounds look green screened. It was genuinely distracting.

Father Mother Sister Brother is a mixed bag of an anthology film and difficult to connect with, but it’s generally well performed, and is elevated by its solid second segment.