The Sisters Brothers 2018

     This film is based on a novel by Canadian author Patrick Dewitt published in 2011.  The inspiration for the novel was a Time-Life book on the California Gold Rush that deWitt found at a yard sale.  This film revolves around the gold prospector Hermann Kermit Warm.  He is being pursued across 1000 miles of 1850’s Oregon desert to San Francisco by the notorious assassins Eli and Charlie Sisters.  Eli is having a personal crisis and he is beginning to doubt the longevity of his chosen career.  When they find Hermann, he might have a better job offer for them.

     I did not like this movie and I will say this in the beginning of my review.  There is a LOT of gratuitous unneeded incredible violence!!  There is terrible dialogue.  The actors speck with unemotional monotone voices and they act like robots manipulated into doing this role??  Maybe it’s because the dialogue is terrible and they know it??  Plus, it is filled with very strong language.  Does any viewer really want to spend 122 minutes in complete and utter boredom filled with unwarranted incredible violence and continual bad language??  You know what each character is going to do and how they are going to act before they start!!  Reilly spends all his time complaining.  Phoenix spends all his time placating Reilly.  Gyllenhaal spends his time maneuvering Ahmed.  1 ½* (I really did not like this movie) 

122 min, Western directed by Jacques Audiard with John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rebecca Root, Allison Tolman, Rutger Hauer, Carol Kane, Patrice Cossonneau, Zac Abbott, David Gasman, Philip Rosch, Creed Bratton, Lenuta Bala, Jochen Hagele.

Note:  Imdb 7 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 86% critic 68% audience, Roger Ebert 3* Tomris Laffly, Metacritic 78 out of 100 with 44 critics 7.4 out of 10 with 84 user scores (60 positive 23 mixed 1 negative), RollingStone 4* out of 5* Peter Travers, The Guardian 4* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, The Independent 4* out of 5* Geoffrey Macnab,  Amazon 3.1* out of 5* with 220 reviews, Common Sense Media age 17+ 4* out of 5* (positive 1*, role model 0*, violence 5*, sex 4*, language 4*, drinking, drugs, & smoking 4*).

Special Note:  Filmed in France, Spain and Romania.  The setting is supposed to be in America but no scenes were film in this county?  The Tabernas region in southern Spain is similar to the North American deserts.  Many western films and series are shot in this area.  Additional scenes were done in Spain’s northern provinces of Navaree and Aragon.  John C. Reilly optioned the film rights to the novel in 2011.  Folsom Lake is mentioned several times but it did not exist until the South Fork of the American River was dammed in 1955.  This film was a box office bomb despite receiving positive reviews from critics.  Maybe the news of this being a BAD movie traveled quickly??  The gross was $7 million against a budget of $38 million.  Earned a standing ovation at the 2018 Venice International Film Festival.  Director Jacques Audiard won the Silver Lion for Best Director and this is his first English-language film.  The Commodore has a Latin phrase on his crest.  It’s says ‘In cauda Venenum.’  This means, In the Tail There Is Poison.  The warning is to beware of danger/tread carefully!!