Film Review: “Father Mother Sister Brother”

Familial tensions abound in Jarmusch’s newest

Jeff (Adam Driver) and  Emily (Mayim Bialik) pay a visit to their father.

Six years after his much acclaimed sardonic zombie film The Dead Don’t Die, writer/director Jim Jarmusch is back with a low-key follow up that may only appeal to his faithful fans. Father Mother Sister Brother isn’t an extended narrative, but actually three short films in one. The triptych shares thematic and odd, amusing plot elements, but no characters. Taken as a whole, the film is an entertaining but somewhat forgettable look at the often strained relationship between family members.

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Film Review: “Old”

Shyamalan’s latest underwhelms

Charles (Rufus Sewell) isn’t having the best time of it, and neither are we watching him.

M. Night Shyamalan was nominated for writing and directing Oscars for the inarguably brilliant The Sixth Sense over 20 years ago, and he’s been trying to replicate that success ever since. Unfortunately, each of his offerings since then, aside from 2002’s box office victory Signs, has been met with high hopes and then dashed expectations. His newest film, Old, is a similar disappointment. “Disappointing” is actually too kind a word for this picture; unwatchable and laughable are probably more accurate descriptors.
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Film Review: Phantom Thread

It looks great, sounds great, and contains great performances, and that should be enough, right?

Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps in Phantom Thread

There are six words that gets the blood of every movie nerd pumping: Paul Thomas Anderson are three of them, and Daniel Day-Lewis are the other three. The other time these two worked together, they created the modern masterpiece There Will be Blood. Now they return, sans milkshakes, for what Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis claims will be his last acting job. Whether this retirement sticks is anyone’s guess, but is it worth catching him on the screen one last time?

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