October 8, 2025
by Carla Hay
“Father Mother Sister Brother”
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States, Ireland, and France, the dramatic film “Father Mother Sister Brother” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with two African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: In this anthology film with three separate stories, various family members visit each other in reunions that have certain levels of tension.
Culture Audience: “Father Mother Sister Brother” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, and low-key independent films about families.
Viewers who know in advance that “Father Mother Sister Brother” is more of a character study than a plot-driven film will be more likely to appreciate this talkative and quirky drama. The movie has emotionally authentic depictions of family relationships. The storytelling is an uneven hodgepodge, but the talented cast’s performances are worth watching.
Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, “Father Mother Sister Brother” had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize. “Father Mother Sister Brother” had its North American premiere at the 2025 New York Film Festival. The movie was filmed on location in three separate countries for each story: the United States, Ireland, and France.
“Father”
The first story, titled “Father,” features two siblings named Jeff (played by Adam Driver) and Emily (played by Mayim Bialik) sharing a car ride on the way to visit their unnamed widowed father (played by Tom Waits) on a winter’s day somewhere in New Jersey. The siblings’ widowed father lives in isolation in a small, remote house near a lake. Jeff (whose occupation is not stated in the movie) and Emily (who works in academia) don’t see their eccentric father very often.
Jeff and Emily don’t see each other on a regular basis either, but they keep in touch by phone or email. Therefore, these family members’ conversations with each other are often awkward—a mixture of polite small talk and judgmental remarks. The death of the siblings’ mother (when this death happened s never stated in the movie) seems to have made the siblings and their father more distant from each other.
Emily has a noticeably smug attitude with Jeff because she seems to think her life is “perfect” (married with kids, good job, comfortable lifestyle), compared to the life Jeff, who divorced, has no children, and is still emotionally struggling after his divorce. In the car ride on the way to their father’s house (Jeff is driving), Emily asks Jeff where their retired father gets money because she’s not sure if he’s eligible for Social Security benefits due to his long history of “not having a real job.”
Jeff replies, “I’m not completely sure. He always seems to have projects.” It leads to Emily asking Jeff if he’s sent money to their father recently. Jeff admits that he occasionally sends money to their father byut only because their father said he needed money for emergency repairs, such a fixing the house’s well, a septic disaster, and a caved-in wall. Jeff also says that their father told Jeff that the father can barely pay his for electricity and phone bills.
Emily comments that her husband Harold doesn’t like that Jeff sends money to the siblings’ father. Jeff admits that his ex-wife Cheryl didn’t like it either. Emily remarks, “That’s probably why she divorced you.” Emily seems to immediately regret saying this hurtful comment and tells Jeff that she’s sorry.
Before the siblings arrive, their father is seen quickly trying to tdy up his cluttered house as much as he can. He gives the impression that he like to hold on to a lot of old possessions.: His furnishings are outdated, and he prefers use a beat-up looking landline phone instead of a cell phone. When the siblings are at the house, the siblings and father greet each other warmly, but the conversation is strained.
The father’s mental health is alluded to when Jeff asks if the father if he’s had any recent “episodes” like the “episode” that the father had at the funeral of the siblings’ mother. The father says no. Jeff replies, “You handled it admirably.” The father mentions that he’s not taking any medication, but he adds, “I take a drink now and then.”
Emily notices that the father is wearing a Rolex watch, but he insists that it’s a fake Rolex. The father is fixated on serving water to drink for the three of them. When the father wants to make a celebratory toast with the glasses of water, Jeff asks if water can really be used to give a toast.
“Father” is the most comedic of the three stories, mainly because of Waits’ performance, where he plays his gravelly-voiced, disheveled persona to the hilt. “Father” is also the most intriguing of the three stories because of what happens in the last five minutes. It’s enough to say that all is not what it seems with one of these family members.
“Mother”
“Mother,” the second story, takes place in the Irish capital of Dublin. It’s another scenario where two siblings meet up with an elderly parent in the parent’s home. In this situation, the three family members are an unnamed single mother (played by Charlotte Rampling), her prim daughter Timothea (played by Cate Blanchett), and Timothea’s free-spirited younger sister Lilith (played by Vicky Krieps). All three women have gathered for their annual tradition of having tea with this dignifed and formal mother in her stately, well-kept home.
It’s mentioned that the mother talks on the phone with Timothea and Lilith about once every few weeks. Timothea calls more often than Lilith. Timothea was recently appointed to a lofty position at a historical society. It’s not stated what Lilith does for a living.
Timothea and Lilith drove in separate cars to their mother’s home. Timothea was driving her car but had some car trouble and called to tell her mother why Timothea was running late. Lilith got a car ride from a woman named Jeanette (played by Sarah Greene), who is Lilith’s lover, but Lilith doesn’t want Lilith’s mother to know. Lilith asks Jeanette to pretend that Jeanette is Lilith’s Uber driver.
Jeanette seems slightly amused and not offended, which is an indication that she and Lilith haven’t been dating each other for very long or have the type of casual relationship that Jeanette doesn’t care if Lilith’s mother is deceived about the true nature of the relationship. Later, Lilith tells her mother that she’s been dating a man named Richard but doesn’t want to marry him. “I’m not sure I want to be tied to a man,” says Lillith.
Unfortunately, “Mother” is the weakest of the three stories because it mostly shows a dull conversation between the mother, Lilith and Timothea. This is a family who also doesn’t talk about whatever issues they have—at least not in this visit. And so, viewers can only speculate why Lilith is lying about Jeanette to Lilith’s mother. The “Mother” story is the least interesting of the three because it reveals very little about the characters by the time this story ends.
“Sister Brother”
“Sister Brother,” the third story in the movie, is the most sentimental and sweet-natured. It takes place in the French capital of Paris and shows twins Billy (played by Luka Sabbat) and Skye (played by Indya Moore) going to the apartment where their recently deceased mother used to live and sorting through her possessions. The conversations between Billy and Skye also start off with polite small talk, but their discussions end up going emotionally deeper than the conversations in “Father” and “Mother.”
Based on these conversations, the siblings grew up in a non-traditional family who allowed Billy and Skye to express themselves freely. The twins agree that they’re glad they didn’t grow up in a conventional household. It’s a “slice of life” story where not much happens except the siblings reminiscing about their past and talking about their current lives.
The favorite song of the twins’ mother was Classics IV’s 1967 hit “Spooky.” Annika Henderson’s cover version of “Spooky” is played in the beginning and end of “Father Mother Sister Brother,” like lovely book ends. The movie also has a throughline of scenes that feature skateboarders rushing past the main characters in each story.
The film’s cinematography by Frederick Elmes and Yorick Le Saux often features several overhead shots to draw attention to attractive locations or props. For example, in the “Mother” story, there are multiple “bird’s eye view” shots of the tea and pastries that are laid out on the table for the family gathering. The musical score by Jarmusch and Henderson is both whimsical and dreamy.
“Father Mother Sister Brother” is not the type of movie that is meant to overwhelm or dazzle viewers. The performances are good, but not outstanding. It’s an artsy “hangout” film where viewers get a brief glimpse into the lives of some unique characters and some of their family dynamics. “Father Mother Sister Brother” invites viewers to think about not just what’s said but what’s left unsaid, which is a lot more like real life than a movie that shows and tells viewers exactly what viewers should think.
MUBI will release “Father Mother Sister Brother” in select U.S. cinemas on December 24, 2025.
