Neither a nostalgic throwback to traditional westerns nor a revisionist antiwestern, this advances a positive view of camaraderie between individualist western types while subtly critiquing the unfettered capitalist system in which they operate.

| Mar 4, 2020

Erudite, visceral and chuckle-worthy, this western is based on Patrick deWitt's novel and starts out as the story of two gun-toting, chalk-and-cheese brothers, only to become more mysterious.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 7, 2019

Images of the Oregon trail's deserted beauty invoke the genre's cinematic history, but these aren't John Ford's stoic, taciturn cowboys.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 7, 2019

The Sisters Brothers hovers unconvincingly between tones.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 5, 2019

It's a measure of the four exceptional central performances (from Reilly, Phoenix, Gyllenhaal and Ahmed) that the film remains so engaging in spite of its narrative digressions and moments of very bleak violence.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 5, 2019

The level of production is above what kind of film it is.

| Apr 5, 2019

This pleasingly talky movie rides roughshod over the Clint Eastwood model of the taciturn gunslinger. Eli and Charlie are total chatterboxes; they don't shut up

| Apr 4, 2019

This is a one-last-hurrah cowboy film with a warm sense of humour and a number of unexpected quirks, including two delightful performances from Riz Ahmed and Jake Gyllenhaal.

| Apr 4, 2019

It's an extraordinary film.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 3, 2019

An eccentric, funny yarn filled with eccentric, funny characters, Audiard's oater deftly twists Western tropes, sending its charming, ramshackle heroes scurrying from one bizarre incident to the next.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2019

Reilly carries the film, with a performance that's elegantly caught between Eli's loyalty and his desire to be free of his crazy kinsman.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 7, 2019

"The Sisters Brothers" often feels like a journey in search of a destination.

| Original Score: C | Oct 12, 2018

For every revelation woven into the action, there's a bit of obvious philosophizing to remind you of the real point here. (It sure ain't the gunplay, though the way the six-guns spit sparks is fun to look at.)

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 5, 2018

Equal parts comedy, drama, love story and horror story, the saga simply refuses to be easily lassoed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 4, 2018

The movie works, it well and truly works, because the four main characters come together in ways we could never have foreseen, and the actors themselves seem surprised at the twists the story takes and where their characters fall on the curve.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 3, 2018

Audiard has made an atmospheric Western in which the four lead actors portray their characters with remarkable subtlety.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 3, 2018

It aerates what's already been well-trod, offering an alternately pitiless and tenderhearted lens on such hardy themes as character, filial loyalty and American progress at its most naive and voraciously destructive.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 3, 2018

...not precious about challenging tropes, and like so many Westerns, fundamentally about change ... How do men who make their living out of such brutality evolve - or not?

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 30, 2018

For the first three-quarters of The Sisters Brothers, the offbeat adventures and the fine performances are more than enough to carry the day - but then the wheels come off.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 28, 2018

The tonal shifts in The Sisters Brothers seem more like the result of indecision than design... The cast is strong, though, and demonstrates yet again how good acting can carry audiences through movies that otherwise would not be worth the trip.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 28, 2018