Jim Jarmusch, once celebrated for his youthfully hip and quirky philosophical films, but now in his seventies, continues to explore the human condition with humour and introspection in his latest work. With ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ he repeats the format of two early projects, ‘Mystery Train’ (1989) and ‘Night on Earth’ (1991), where a location or theme links separate stories.

Here, three stories set consecutively in New Jersey, Dublin, and Paris, are connected by the issues of family, ageing, death, and how grown-up siblings become distanced from their parents.

In ‘Father,’ Jarmusch veteran Tom Waits portrays an elderly widower in rural New Jersey, living in apparent poverty. His conventional, emotionally frozen children, played by a slow-witted Adam Driver and a defensive Mayim Bialik, are visiting him reluctantly. During their short stay, they engage in small talk and reveal their ignorance of his life. The father’s subtle triumph at the end underscores the irony and bittersweet humour of the scene.

In ‘Mother,’ Charlotte Rampling is flawless as a successful novelist and dominant parent, nervously awaiting her daughters for their annual tea party. The daughters, Lilith and Timothea, played endearingly by Vicky Krieps and Cate Blanchett, embody stark contrasts—one rebellious and the other super conventional. The tea party unfolds with understated tension and underlying passive aggression, highlighting the complexities of family relationships.

In ‘Sister Brother,’ twins Skye and Billy, characterised by Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat, reunite in Paris after the tragic death of their bohemian parents. Effortlessly cool, even in their grief, they navigate their parents’ empty apartment, and sift through their belongings, as they discover details of their parents’ hidden lives and bond more deeply, illustrating the possibility of healing within families.

Jarmusch’s film is a slow, poignant exploration of family dynamics, marked by his signature blend of amusing visual and verbal synchronicities. While the stories may seem simple and even trivial at times, taken together, the film invites reflection and an appreciation of its nuanced performances and subtle storytelling. It is literally greater than the sum of its parts. 8/10

Queerguru Contributing Editor Robert Malcolm  is a trained architect and interior designer who relocated from London to his home town of Edinburgh in 2019. Under the pen name of Bobby Burns he had his first novel, a gay erotic thriller called Bone Island published by Homofactus Press in 2011.