Jacques Audiard
The Sisters Brothers

I will be brief.

I would have titled this film “Home Sweet Home” and those who watch it till the end (but really until the end) will understand why, but it must be admitted that the title “The Sisters Brothers” is much more appealing, especially if it's a “western dark comedy” as the English Wikipedia page says, which, compared to the Italian one where I peeked, offers very little about this beautiful film but among the little, it insists on letting us know 3 or 4 things:

1. In the States the film was rated R for "violence, disturbing images, sexual content, and inappropriate language".
2. The movie is a cinematic adaptation of the novel “The Sisters Brothers” written by Canadian Patrick deWitt in 2011.
3. It was written and directed by French director Jacques Audiard (his first film in English).
4. The film premiered and was in competition at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on September 2nd, 2018 (where it almost won the Golden Lion for Best Film and had to "settle" for the Silver Lion for Best Director…)

“As usual,” you can read the plot wherever you like but not here, except for a few glimpses that are not exactly spoilered, like the fact that it includes all (or almost all) the ingredients of the westerns we are used to:

colt,

winchester,

ruffians,

saloons with whiskey and prostitutes,

various shootouts,

plus there are also:

a bear,

a (poisonous) spider,

a horse named Tub,

a toilet with chain like I think has never been seen before in a film of this genre

and gold that appears almost spontaneously in the riverbed.

This is the second film in its original language that I've watched in two days, one I saw yesterday: “The House That Jack Built” (the first one I've seen by Lars von Trier) and I have to admit, I didn't quite like it as much, whereas this one I hadn't intentionally sought out but it appeared in front of me while searching for other LVT films that I couldn't find, a sign of destiny? Who knows!

The film features two main actors: John C. Reilly (also producer) as the older brother and the legendary Joaquin Phoenix as the younger brother, plus two secondary but important actors for the role that determines the story's progression. And, of course, there are lots of other actors mostly extras with a cameo by Rutger Hauer lasting a few seconds (which even, uh, my grandfather could have done if he were still alive, R.I.P.).

Watching the film made me forget where I was (that is, in the office, uh, if my boss finds out, he’ll fire me on the spot) thanks to the human and psychological twists and personal reflections to which the brief story (which lasts a few days and nights) transports us. Inside, we find unresolved relationships with fathers, hatred, issues to settle with women, love, greed, indifference for others' lives, awareness of the need to build a better world, the will to redeem oneself, and so on. If I want to be as brief as promised at the beginning, I’d better stop here.

Ah, the soundtrack is never insistent, but it deserves to be listened to and perhaps even won some awards; it is by composer Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat who already has 40/50 films to his credit.

P.S. At a certain point, I had a premonition (as also happens in a very brief dream by Eli the elder Brother Sisters) and I thought “now you will see the sea” and it happened, I swear!