Review: The Sisters Brothers


Set during the Gold Rush era, the title characters played by Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly are henchmen doing grunt work for someone known only as The Commodore (a thoroughly wasted – and wordless – Rutger Hauer). Phoenix plays the irritable and short-fused one, with Reilly his more laidback, sensible brother who would really rather not be in the killing business anymore. Nonetheless they are currently in search of a nerdy, chatty chemist named Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed) who was supposed to be delivered to the brothers by a florid bounty hunter named Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal). However, Morris has been seduced by Kermit’s promise of a guaranteed gold-finding chemical formula.



Several interesting actors are stuck in this decidedly uninteresting offbeat western from director Jacques Audiard (“A Prophet”) and his co-writer Thomas Bidegain (“A Prophet”). Based on a 2011 novel, the performances are generally fine, especially those by dependable John C. Reilly (who was apparently a fan of the novel), a flowery Jake Gyllenhaal (whose accent isn’t 100% convincing but perhaps on purpose), and an amusingly chatty Riz Ahmed. Joaquin Phoenix is solid too, I just think he seems a bit bored by it all, and so was I for great lengths. The script and pacing are not fine, and despite Ahmed and even Gyllenhaal being amusing on occasion here, the film is definitely not a comedy. The silly title and casting of both Johnny Cash (Phoenix) and Dewey Cox (Reilly) are misleading in that sense. It’s an offbeat western, and an especially slow-moving one at that. Offbeat westerns aren’t normally my thing, but this one is particularly average. It might’ve had a chance if the four main characters had met up earlier, but instead the two most interesting characters (played by Ahmed and Gyllenhaal) spend too much time on the sideline. Still, there’s moments here and there that work, and so do the performances (including a terrific cameo by veteran character actress Carol Kane in exactly the role you expect her to play by the time she turns up).



Neither good nor bad, just meh. Well-acted, but it doesn’t all add up to an especially entertaining whole. Fans of offbeat westerns may disagree, but I was a bit bored at times with this one, especially early on.



Rating: C

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more