January 8, 2026
FILM: FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER
DIRECTED BY: JIM JARMUSCH
STARRING: TOM WAITS, ADAM DRIVER, MAYIM BIALIK
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
How about a family film? I’m not talking about the kind where kids are cute and both parents are living happily together. No, how about one featuring families with strained or distant relationships? If you can relate to the latter than this one is for you. It’s the latest from famed director Jim Jarmusch, which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival this past summer. It’s structured as a triptych, meaning there are three separate stories in which characters are not at all connected but many of the themes and motifs are. Each reflects some of the disjointed relationships people have within their families and each has a similar bittersweet tone amid these self-induced estrangements.
The first of these is entitled “Father.” It begins with Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik playing brother and sister, Jeff and Emily, on their way to visit their father in a wooded area in New Jersey. From the first scenes, it’s clear that they haven’t seen him in a while and are a bit uncertain as to what his current status is: how does he make money and what does he do all day? Cutting to dad, played by Tom Waits, we see him curiously moving things around his modest lakeside home. When they arrive, there’s an awkwardness to their conversation suggesting they really don’t know what to say to each other. Dad tries to ask them questions but most of what they discuss remains surface-level. When asked if he is on any drugs, he rattles off just about every illicit drug that he’s not on only to realize that what they really want to know is if he’s on any prescribed medications. It’s a funny scene suggesting that dad may very well have done a lot of experimenting with drugs during his lifetime. Tom Waits is the star of this sequence and with his gruff delivery and unkempt appearance he nails exactly who this character presently is and who he might have been in the past.
The second, “Mother,” takes place in Dublin as Charlotte Rampling plays a mother waiting for the arrival of her two adult children played by Cate Blanchett as Timothea and Vicky Krieps as Lil. Mom is a writer of books that the two know little about but have clearly been successful. Her home is beautifully decorated, and she lays out afternoon tea complete with pastries and finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off. The younger women are also distant from her. While Timothea has just received a promotion at her job, Lil, with her bright pink hair seems a bit more chill regarding her current endeavors. Lil also hides the fact that she’s likely involved with the woman who drove her to her mother’s home. Again, we have an awkward conversation between the women who don’t seem to have much in common and are ready to leave much more quickly than perhaps mother would like. As in “Father” the discussions they have include many pauses as if the characters don’t really have much to say to each other.
In “Sister Brother,” adult twins Skye and Billy visit the Paris apartment of their parents who have recently died in a plane crash. The two of them are very well-connected but they know very little about their parents’ backgrounds. The mixed-race couple had a variety of addresses and identities that the twins try to piece together until they’ve had enough for a day.
Besides the fractured relationships, these stories are linked by characters who tend not to present their true selves. In “Father” dad presents the image of living with little money or resources but by the end of the sequence we find that what he is showing them isn’t the whole truth. Similarly, the women in “Mother” don’t all tell the truth about their lives and Skye and Billy only have their parents’ possessions to try to understand who they once were. Interestingly, in all cases, the characters don’t seem that interested in exploring more about their families. They don’t probe enough, perhaps due to a lack of time or again a general lack of connection or interest. While they do things for each because they are part of a family, these feel more like obligations than true signs of love.
Other motifs found in each of the stories include discussions about water (which apparently, Jim Jarmusch is obsessed with), watches that may be expensive but more likely cheap knockoffs, mirrors which reflect different sides of characters, and some pronounced differences in formal vs. casual behavior. Again, these are signs of characters not being completely honest with who they are. Between each story, there are also skateboarders that ride through the streets with a certain ease and beauty. These recurring images are a bit less clear in terms of their significance, but that might reflect the carefree joys of childhood which the adult children are now well beyond.
While the characters present false identities to each other, they are all richly drawn and beautifully portrayed by this stellar cast. I think it’s an honest film about how communication and distance can evolve in a family regardless of where you are in the world. It’s not a particularly emotional or dramatic film but one that is more realistic about characters who aren’t interested in going particularly deep with their families.
Father Mother Sister Brother opens in limited release this week, including the Music Box Theater in Chicago.
FILM: FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER
DIRECTED BY: JIM JARMUSCH
STARRING: TOM WAITS, ADAM DRIVER, MAYIM BIALIK
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
How about a family film? I’m not talking about the kind where kids are cute and both parents are living happily together. No, how about one featuring families with strained or distant relationships? If you can relate to the latter than this one is for you. It’s the latest from famed director Jim Jarmusch, which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival this past summer. It’s structured as a triptych, meaning there are three separate stories in which characters are not at all connected but many of the themes and motifs are. Each reflects some of the disjointed relationships people have within their families and each has a similar bittersweet tone amid these self-induced estrangements.
The first of these is entitled “Father.” It begins with Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik playing brother and sister, Jeff and Emily, on their way to visit their father in a wooded area in New Jersey. From the first scenes, it’s clear that they haven’t seen him in a while and are a bit uncertain as to what his current status is: how does he make money and what does he do all day? Cutting to dad, played by Tom Waits, we see him curiously moving things around his modest lakeside home. When they arrive, there’s an awkwardness to their conversation suggesting they really don’t know what to say to each other. Dad tries to ask them questions but most of what they discuss remains surface-level. When asked if he is on any drugs, he rattles off just about every illicit drug that he’s not on only to realize that what they really want to know is if he’s on any prescribed medications. It’s a funny scene suggesting that dad may very well have done a lot of experimenting with drugs during his lifetime. Tom Waits is the star of this sequence and with his gruff delivery and unkempt appearance he nails exactly who this character presently is and who he might have been in the past.
The second, “Mother,” takes place in Dublin as Charlotte Rampling plays a mother waiting for the arrival of her two adult children played by Cate Blanchett as Timothea and Vicky Krieps as Lil. Mom is a writer of books that the two know little about but have clearly been successful. Her home is beautifully decorated, and she lays out afternoon tea complete with pastries and finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off. The younger women are also distant from her. While Timothea has just received a promotion at her job, Lil, with her bright pink hair seems a bit more chill regarding her current endeavors. Lil also hides the fact that she’s likely involved with the woman who drove her to her mother’s home. Again, we have an awkward conversation between the women who don’t seem to have much in common and are ready to leave much more quickly than perhaps mother would like. As in “Father” the discussions they have include many pauses as if the characters don’t really have much to say to each other.
In “Sister Brother,” adult twins Skye and Billy visit the Paris apartment of their parents who have recently died in a plane crash. The two of them are very well-connected but they know very little about their parents’ backgrounds. The mixed-race couple had a variety of addresses and identities that the twins try to piece together until they’ve had enough for a day.
Besides the fractured relationships, these stories are linked by characters who tend not to present their true selves. In “Father” dad presents the image of living with little money or resources but by the end of the sequence we find that what he is showing them isn’t the whole truth. Similarly, the women in “Mother” don’t all tell the truth about their lives and Skye and Billy only have their parents’ possessions to try to understand who they once were. Interestingly, in all cases, the characters don’t seem that interested in exploring more about their families. They don’t probe enough, perhaps due to a lack of time or again a general lack of connection or interest. While they do things for each because they are part of a family, these feel more like obligations than true signs of love.
Other motifs found in each of the stories include discussions about water (which apparently, Jim Jarmusch is obsessed with), watches that may be expensive but more likely cheap knockoffs, mirrors which reflect different sides of characters, and some pronounced differences in formal vs. casual behavior. Again, these are signs of characters not being completely honest with who they are. Between each story, there are also skateboarders that ride through the streets with a certain ease and beauty. These recurring images are a bit less clear in terms of their significance, but that might reflect the carefree joys of childhood which the adult children are now well beyond.
While the characters present false identities to each other, they are all richly drawn and beautifully portrayed by this stellar cast. I think it’s an honest film about how communication and distance can evolve in a family regardless of where you are in the world. It’s not a particularly emotional or dramatic film but one that is more realistic about characters who aren’t interested in going particularly deep with their families.
Father Mother Sister Brother opens in limited release this week, including the Music Box Theater in Chicago.