Father, Mother, Sister, Brother Review – An Entertaining, Resonating View of Family

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Category: Haute This Issue

Published on Tuesday, 25 November 2025 12:23

Written by Janet Walker

Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, from Mubi, recently screened at AFI Fest and presents three vignettes of families, as adult siblings try to understand their parents and their parents try to connect across estrangement and other forms of distance.

In our first vignette, "Father," we meet Jeff played by Adam Driver, and Emily, played by Mayim Bialik, driving to visit their father, played by Tom Waits. On the drive to their father's home, we see that the children now believe that have superseded their father's intelligence, and from his years, as we understand of wayward living is facing cognitive decline.  Simultaneously we see their father, "redecorating" his house, remaking it closer to the ongoing theme of disrepair that we hear the Jeff and Emily discussing, on the drive.

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The family visit, which their father has choregraphed with precision, is a requisite wellness check. While not a holiday, it is the beginning of winter, and even as the distance between the siblings and by extension their father, especially as their mother has recently passed, is clear. The visit has a cycle, happy to see you, all is well, and as it nears the end, the questions are closer to causing the memories to erupt, and initiate deflection tactics.

He puts in on, adapting to their image, complete with props, a rusted old car always needing upkeep and other home repairs, and this theme works, as we see Jeff, bringing a box of food, and slipping him cash, and seems to have taken on the role as caretaker, at least for the moment.

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In our next story, "Mother," we meet Timothea, played by Cate Blanchette, and Lilith, played by Vicky Krieps, and their mother played by Charlotte Rampling. As the sketch opens, we see a well kept and well appointed home, and a woman talking on the phone, and through the conversation we understand, her daughters are coming over for their yearly visit, a formal tea, and while she doesn't mind them around, she is comfortable with her independence, and as she sets up an appointment for the following week, we realize she is talking to her therapist.

We meet her daughters, the rebellious Lilith, who arrives early, and proceeds to push her mother's trigger's, doing everything that her mother would have, at a different time, reprimanded her for, and doesn't stop as she continues to toss out biting remarks of parental absenteeism.

Once Timothea arrives, the girls become their younger selves, and we see why they have trouble with their mother's larger than life persona. A successful novelist, she is quite happy and independent and at this time when they would expect her to be rounding the final curve in the road of life, she is happily successful and doesn't need them to take care of her. Which is disappointing to Timothea, as she appears to have stayed tethered, believing that her responsibility as a daughter included caring for her aging parent.

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In our final story, we meet Skye, played by Indya Moore, her brother Billy, played by Luka Sabbat. Two siblings who are dealing with the sudden death of their parents. Even as this story doesn't delve as deep into the reverse responsibility of a child caring for the aging parent, we see Skye wasn't ready to deal with the suddenness of her parents death.

Billy and Skye, we understand, didn't have those final moments to make things right and now only have the memories, and as we understand the memories weren't so bad. They reminisce about how their parents lived an unconventional life and have them understanding that this single life is what they have and to make the most of it. To live, laugh and love.  

We also understand, even if the death is foreseen or if it is sudden, the children still handle the business, packing up vibrant lives, discovering remnants of youth, of loves, of different days, times, seasons, and events. Barely able to realize the picture they had of their parents was only crafted after the lost moments, and for some only tolerated by the memories, hidden in locked chambers.

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Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, the winner of the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion, initially left me unfulfilled, and as I contemplated my review or even if I would review the film, I went back to the film's trailers, and I realized Father, Mother, Sister, Brother resonates with a stark truthfulness.

The casting is perfect, and each of the ensembles deliver stand out performances. As each of the scenes play out in text, subtext, gesture, and silence, and we see a throughline throughout, and possibly the tug between the film and the viewer is the closeness to realities, and commonality of emotions, needs, and beliefs.

As the film did win the prestigious Golden Lion, I expected perfection. The absence of subtitles in the French section was annoying, I felt excluded from the conversation, and the storyline. Either it was a hiccup at the AFI Fest screening, or not, and the film to me didn't deliver the level of excellence I expected.

An entertaining film about families, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, has moments of absolute brilliance, and others where it falls flat as well as laughter, and surprise. It opens December 24, 2025. See it.

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Country: US, Ireland, France.

Language: English, French (sporadic subtitles).

Runtime: 110 minutes.

Release Date: December 24, 2025.

Director: Jim Jarmusch.

Producers: Charles Gillibert, Joshua Astrachan, Carter Logan, Atilla Salih Yücer.

Executive Producer: Efe Cakarel, Niamh Fagan, Jim Jarmusch, Alex C. Lo, Dietmar Guntsche, Zane Meyer, Lorenzo Mieli, Annamaria Morelli, Elizabeth Niles, Jason Ropell, Anthony Vaccarello.

Writer: Jim Jarmusch.

Cast: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Sarah Greene, Indya Moore, Luka Sabbat.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.