Review: The Sisters Brothers (2018)

The Sisters Brothers (2018)

The Sisters Brothers is yet another illustration of the fickleness of the film industry. It is by all means a very good film - direction, cinematography, script, acting, and so on - however, it greatly under-performed on release and, since, has more-or-less disappeared from discussion. This really is a shame because The Sisters Brothers has all of the trappings of a classic dark comedy. I guess the one hope is that it bounces back in future years as somewhat of a cult film.

As one can guess, the film is about the Sisters brothers - two of the most infamous hired-guns around - Charlie (John C. Reilly) and Eli (Joaquin Phoenix). The film revolves around the brothers meeting up with a man, John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal) who has been tracking another man, Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), whom the brothers have been hired to kill. Along the way, the brothers run into and entangle themselves with an assortment of notable characters, dangers, and various plots, including some uniquely novel technologies for the gold rush happening at the time.

I actually read the original novel by Canadian author, Patrick deWitt, (which I highly recommend) and can say that the film adaptation adeptly holds up to the deadpan comedic and violent spirit of the book. French director, Jacques Audiard (A Prophet; Rust and Bone) helms the film and, coming from quite different genres, brings a unique tone to this classic Western story. The four leads here are four of the biggest actors working today and they each shine brightly in the film. Reilly and Phoenix in particular (as one can imagine) are exceptional and somewhat dip from new wells in this film. Reilly is funny as ever, while also having some dramatic beats along the way. Phoenix though arguably steals the show playing the darkly-grim and violent Eli. He absolutely nails the deadpan comedy of the film, as well as notably having one of the larger emotional character arcs. The film is quite reminiscent of The Coen brothers in its violent and darkly comedic nature, especially as they too have set a number of their stories in the days of the turbulent and Wild West. I highly recommend a viewing of this under-appreciated and under-seen film from last year.

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