By Aydan Cantu

Jim Jarmusch is one of cinema’s most respected auteurs today. Yet, despite an acclaimed body of work, the only film of his I’ve seen is Night on Earth (1992). His latest feature, Father Mother Sister Brother is his first since 2019’s The Dead Don’t Die, and won the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival. 

Like Night on Earth, I felt Father Mother Sister Brother started incredibly, only for it to gradually decline by the end. Because this is an anthology film, I will review each segment separately. 

The film begins with Father, which stars Tom Waits, Adam Driver, and Mayim Bialik. The segment follows two siblings (Driver and Bialik) who go to visit their estranged father (Waits). 

Maybe it’s because I’m a huge fan of Driver and Waits, but I found Father the most enjoyable segment of the three. The performances from the three actors are nothing short of superb, but Bialik really surprised me. Aside from The Big Bang Theory, I really can’t name anything else I’ve seen her in on the top of my head, and to see her do drama, extremely well, and stand ground against a titan like Adam Driver blew me away. I hope her performance in Father Mother Sister Brother is the first of many future dramatic roles for her. 

The writing and direction from Jarmusch are excellent. He lets silence speak for itself, mannerisms breathe, and constantly trusts his audience. We don’t know why the siblings are estranged from their father, but as the segment develops, we start to gather the pieces together. By the time Father ended, I was in love with the film, already giving it five stars. Unfortunately, the film peaked in this segment—it was only downhill from there. 

The second segment, Mother, stars Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, and Vicky Krieps and follows a mother (Rampling) and her two daughters (Blanchett and Krieps), reuniting for their yearly get together. Despite all living in the same city of Dublin, Ireland, they only see each other once a year, which already says everything we need to know about this family’s dynamic.

I semi-enjoyed Mother, yet found it to be a significant decline from Father. While Father kept my attention from start to finish, I found Mother to be the exact opposite. I found it to be very boring and hard to pay attention to. The performances from the three leads are great, but that’s the only thing I really liked about it. 

Like the previous segment, this one isn’t flashy, but very quiet and subtle. From the opening detail that the family only sees each other once a year, despite living in the same city, the audience already knows the basic dynamic. Yet, I found it a little more difficult to follow this one. I kept wondering what was happening, and, if anything, this segment felt more like a series of vignettes than an actual segment. However, instead of improving, the film would only deteriorate. 

The final segment, Sister Brother, stars Luka Sabbat and Indya Moore as two siblings who reconnect after the sudden death of their parents. I’m not going to hold back on this segment because I absolutely hated it. I was already disinterested in the film by the time the previous segment ended, but this one put the nail in the coffin. 

Nothing was pleasing or interesting about Sister Brother. Not only did I find it boring, but the lead performances from Sabbat and especially Moore were awful. They just came off as annoying and trying to phone in their performances. I felt no depth to their characters whatsoever, and as the segment continued, the more I disliked them.  Despite a great start, Father Mother Sister Brother failed to stick the landing for me. Had the second and third segments been as great as the first one, I would easily call the movie great; however, because I found the second and third segments to be a chore to sit through, the highest rating I can give Father Mother Sister Brother is three out of five stars.