Father Mother Sister Brother

Jim Jarmusch’s Venice Golden Lion-winning “anti-action” comedy navigates the sometimes tender, sometimes awkward interactions between the bohemian generation and their adult children. This triptych features a powerhouse cast of stars including Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Charlotte Rampling, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat.

In the US, two well-heeled city siblings in their 40s travel upstate to visit their widower father. Their well-meaning concerns about his well-being occasion a gentle comedy of awkward turns of phrases and, as it turns out, complete miscalculation of their scruffy father’s existence. In Ireland, a beautifully laid-out afternoon tea is set by a glamorous mother for her visiting daughters. Here the tables are turned: she is the one probing their lives, the reality of which they keep from her, to a charmingly droll effect. And in France, two siblings come together following the sudden death of their parents in a plane crash. With grace and affection they parse the transatlantic lives of their parents, as found documents and artefacts in their now-empty Parisian flat reveal identities and existences they knew nothing of.
 
With his usual wit and cool style, Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive, IFFR 2014) offers a tenderly considerate observation of human relations across the generations. The film’s simple premise foregrounds the humour in repetitions, colour coordinations and archaic wordplay, to mesmerising effect, like a slowly blooming flower.

– Michelle Carey 

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