LFF 2025: Father Mother Sister Brother & Wake Up Dead Man
Starry ensembles from Jim Jarmusch and Rian Johnson.
Father Mother Sister Brother
A subtle triptych on weighty bonds
Plot in a nutshell
Three short films, all interconnected thematically and through motifs, dealing with family bonds. Two siblings visit their estranged Father, two sisters have annual afternoon tea with their Mother, and a Sister and Brother, twins, help clear out their parents’ flat in Paris.
Father Mother Sister Brother is an oddity of a movie that walks a fine line between subtle and slight. Nothing much of anything happens in terms of narrative substance or character depth. The plot never thickens, nothing ever really boils over, no one has a mental breakdown or riveting monologue. It’s as if Jarmusch is experimenting with the idea of purposefully telling his three short stories in the most anti-cinematic way possible. No wonder everyone at Venice mouthed a collective WTF? when it won the Golden Lion.
This surprising win will be a part of this film’s history forever, which is both a gift and a curse, and really weird when you see how far detached it is from any showmanship or artistic bravado. Fans of Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett and the rest of the fantastic ensemble are in for a disappointment if they’re expecting acting fireworks. Everyone - apart from perhaps Tom Waits, who is magnificently coy as the Father - is at their most stripped down and minimalist.
The film isn’t loud, it’s quiet. It’s more of a comfort watch with a few morals tucked in, imperceptibly. A quirky, easy-to-recommend, sometimes funny, often times awkward, mostly loving portrait of what makes families tick. The insecurities that we hide from our siblings, the airs we put on for our children, the quiet judgements, the micro-traumas we carry with us from our childhood, examining what it’s like to be around family you wouldn’t choose to have if you had the choice, and what it’s like needing to be with the family you’d never replace even if you could.
Jarmusch does pull a few cinematic tricks here and there, using visual motifs, symbols and phrases that appear in all three otherwise unrelated family portraits, just to remind us of how relatable the messiness of family relationships is in our random universe on Earth.
When is Father Mother Sister Brother getting released?
No set UK dates yet.
Wake Up Dead Man
Third installment of the ‘Knives Out’ detective films
Plot in a nutshell
Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is needed in a small parish town after a local priest dies in a miraculous way. When Father Jud (Josh O’Connor), the new priest in town with a tricky past, becomes the prime suspect, it’s up to him and Blanc to uncover the real killer among a local group of devout parishioners.
As a bit of a skeptic of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out franchise, I walked into Wake Up Dead Man with low expectations and ended up having a pretty great time. It won’t be topping any of my Top 10 lists (I doubt it will even make my Top 10 at LFF list, let alone the year) but, much like the Jarmusch film albeit for different reasons, it will likely be one of the easiest films to recommend to casual non-cinephile friends and family from the festival.
Josh O’Connor is spectacular as Father Jud, who could be Rian Johnson’s greatest written character. Fully fleshed out, even if a bit of a trope, his struggle with his faith and the people around him is palpable enough to make you really root for him. One surprisingly moving scene featuring Father Jud, crucial to his arc as a character, is so gracefully dealt with that it adds an unexpected shade of seriousness and depth to the tone, which ends up doing the film a massive favor.
What makes Wake Up Dead Man ultimately work (apart from O’Connor, Josh Brolin and Glenn Close standing out with memorable performances) is how it moulds the topical “cult of personality” theme with the double-edged sword of religion. True piety is pitted against the temptation of the apple, and what it means to be a real believer is put to the test. The whodunit plot devices and the crime itself all gets a little goofy and far fetched, but the final message lands like a charm. Johnson of course can’t help himself and gets a little political, but at least here (unlike in the mediocre and obvious Glass Onion) he’s a bit more subtle about it.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention a confession scene featuring Brolin and O’Connor that’s worth the price of admission alone. Absolute top contender for funniest scene of the year!
When is Wake Up Dead Man getting released?
It’s in UK cinemas on November 26 before streaming everywhere on Netflix starting December 12.