"Father Mother Sister Brother" Explores the Mysteries of Family Life

"That scintillating Jim Jarmusch movie, from 2019, a mashup of comedy, science fiction, horror, and apocalyptic rage amid brazen cruelty, is the kind of late masterwork that a longtime director occasionally unleashes if the stars line up. In its uninhibited inspiration, it's also the kind of special project that highlights the tragedy of other filmmakers who saw their careers truncated."

"That focus on the inner circle-the family-distinguishes "Father Mother Sister Brother" from its spectacular predecessor. "The Dead Don't Die" was set almost entirely in public: it hardly ever showed characters at home. "Father Mother Sister Brother" is, as the title suggests, a family movie that's centered on private lives and filmed largely inside characters' homes-though "home," here, is defined not as the place where one lives but as the place one has to go back to."

Jim Jarmusch shifted from a public, spectacular film to a private, family-centered three-part work after a critical and commercial failure. Father Mother Sister Brother concentrates on intimate domestic spaces and the obligations of return rather than on public spectacle. The film is episodic, with three distinct stories titled "Father," "Mother," and "Sister Brother," set in New Jersey, Dublin, and Paris. Striking repetitions in the script and meticulous visual compositions forge unity across the parts. The movie emphasizes familial resentment, obligation, and private life through restrained performances and handcrafted framing.

Read at The New Yorker