Movie: The Sisters Brothers (2018)****

Charlie and Eli (Joaquin Phoenix andJohn C. Reily, respectively) are two brothers and hired goons whostart this story on thin ice after a botched job they did for TheCommodore, a powerful man in the Oregon territory. Their next assignment is to work withscout, John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal), to find Hermann Kermit Warm(Riz Ahmed). A story of the search and and whathappens after they all find each other unfolds and reveals adifferent kind of western flick. 

The audience gets to experience men exploring their relationships and desires. I think all four of the starring actors bring their a-game to their characters, and we get a sense of depth, vulnerability and commonality. The introduction or first 15 minutes of this film is a fast-paced and intensifying set-up, but then it slows down to allow this man-empowerment story to unfold.

I'm going to discuss a couple of scenes. If you are squeamish about spiders or spoilers, stop reading here.

Discussing exploring emotions often happens right before bed, so there are several bedroll scenes showing Sisters brothers sleeping out in the open. In one of them a spider crawls into poor Eli's mouth. He does not wake up. He does not pass go. He collects a fever, swelling and eventually barfs up blood and baby spiders. John C. Reilly brings about a sense of brooding vulnerability as Eli Sisters, who only desires to see the schoolteacher he left behind somewhere, go home and be treated fairly. I'm assuming the spider was a vehicle to establish Eli's vulnerability, but also Charlie's loyalty to him despite their constant bickering. That's great and all, but the spider bit was gross.

Although there was interesting relationship development between the two pairs of men, the most touching of scene was between Eli and Warm who, considering the circumstances of them coming together and the brevity of their relationship, were able to sit and have a profound and enlightening exchange.

There was a random point where I was jarred out of the story: All of a sudden, Joaquin Phoenix' character is telling a story and he appears to be in a darkened room with a natural-light spotlight. It is quite weird.

Also, production values were notably good. The soundtrack, which I spent more time noticing the second time I watched this movie, was dynamic and made each scene.

This movie ended in bittersweet contentment. It was good and I'd be happy to watch this again and again. I give it four stars**** for the great acting, the compelling story and well done art production. It definitely falls on the Masterpiece end of the scale.