The Sisters Brothers

As blockbuster cinema continues to abandon any film not tied to a lucrative intellectual property, it has increasingly been left to independent cinema to pick up the genre movie slack. Left almost entirely to anti-establishment veterans and aspiring auteurs, the western genre has particularly enjoyed a revisionist revival of late. Films as diverse as Kelly Reichardt’s naturalistic Meek’s Cutoff, Tommy Lee Jones’ bleak The Homesman and John Maclean’s slightly absurdist Slow West have brought new energy and urgency to a horseshoed genre that once seemed destined for the glue factory. Jacques Audiard’s ramshackle western The Sisters Brothers rides in the same revisionist posse, and although it doesn’t offer much to the genre that is new or unique, it still makes for thoughtful and moving adult entertainment. Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly star as the titular siblings, bickering brothers and bounty hunters practicing their deadly trade across the Oregon Territory.