10/24/18 - The Sisters Brothers (2018) - 6+/10

There is a charm, contemplativeness, and saddening vulnerability to the totality of this off-beat Western effort. There is a strange mixture of adoration for the rugged lawlessness while also kicking that stereotype in the side while it soundly sleeps. The gunfights are loud hazy and brutally short while the loneliness and desperation linger. This isn’t about romanticizing the time or its killers but about the complexities of such realities, and some of the funny that comes along.

Similar to a Slow West, Meek’s Cutoff or possibly McCabe and Mrs Miller (though I have always felt a distance from that film), SB is interested in mumblecore-esque lingering and clawing existentialism. These are people with flaws and heart and courage and pain. Long gone are the nameless waste layers. They died with Unforgiven. I enjoy the slices of these varied lives and the totality of their experiences, highs and lows. This is the desolate and virgin, quietly uncertain but full of a dreamy potential.

Reilly was very good. A delicate soul but with a determination necessary to stay alive. Phoenix is always masterful. A childish dick with a heart of silver. Gyllenhaal’s affectation was off-putting but his moments of introspection and loveliness brought a verve. Riz hovers in this uncanny valley between a relatable humanity and lack of charisma that I can’t tell if it drives me crazy or I bizarrely appreciate it. I really don’t know.

The film is endearing and multi-faceted, while being fairly straightforward. I think the French eye of Audiard helped bestow a different view of what it meant to be in the American West, stripping some pretext and inspiring some kind of realism. It felt playful, enlightened, and sympathetic. It was certainly enjoyable.