‘FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER’ review: Adam Driver, Indya Moore, and Jim Jarmusch reteam for a sublime family dramedy

Nobody makes a relaxing movie like Jim Jarmusch. From his first feature film Permanent vacation From here on out, the American writer/director has weaved his affinity for intimate settings and observational humor with various flourishes. Only lovers remain alive gave us vampires lounging in a rotten Detroit. The dead don’t die offered to ghouls with the energy and desires of an all-night party, hungry for coffee and chardonnay (and brains). NOW, FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER features the familiar family setting – one that is authentically awkward, funny and tragic.

Organized into three vignettes, Jarmusch’s latest film perfectly illustrates how families are all different. And the same. Its incredibly rich cast includes Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Sarah Greene, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat. Together, they construct short but strong stories of three families in moments both mundane and pivotal, creating a captivating portrait of love, messy and profound.

Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik and Tom Waits give an original kickoff.

“Father” is the first of three chapters in the film. In a small New Jersey town, brother and sister Jeff (Driver) and Emily (Bialik) go to visit their father (Waits), and they are anything but impatient. Stiff in wool blazers, V-neck cardigans, slacks and a long skirt, they are dressed as if they were heading to a business meeting rather than to meet up with the father they haven’t seen in two years. Arriving in front of his dilapidated house, located at the end of a very long muddy driveway, it is clear that they have no place here.

Waits, meanwhile, is dressed in worn striped pants, a hoodie and has a head of hair that hasn’t been seen with a brush or a bit of product in ages. Their father’s house is cluttered with books and laundry, as if their mother had died years before he could barely take care of himself. However, there are some clues that suggest their father (who remains anonymous) has a life outside of their understanding of him, such as the sparkling Rolex on his wrist.

During this reunion, Jarmusch’s script reveals a story, touching on death, illness, divorce and precocious grandchildren. But the film keeps us firmly in this place, in this moment, where this family is wondering how to reconnect. There is no disagreement, it is more confusion about how this father created these children.

Where they are almost perversely proper, polished and put together, it seems a weary whirlwind, embarrassed to be caught in mid-spin. The conflict they face is not one of shouting or broken plates, but of swallowed arguments and shared grief that they can’t bear to say out loud. Instead, they will be civil and stay on the surface with small talk. Yet the visual storytelling and nuanced performances that Jarmusch unites allow audiences to probe deeper than these preppy siblings can dare.

Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps compete as mother and daughters.

“Mother” follows “Father,” transporting the film to Dublin, where a novelist (Rampling) hosts his two adult daughters for their annual afternoon tea. Where this matriarch is intimidatingly intelligent and chic, her daughters are a study in contrast. Timothea, or Tim for short (Blanchett), is a pencil-pushing mouse who fidgets and worries but always at a low volume, for fear of disturbing. Little sister Lilith (Krieps) is a free spirit with pink hair, a comically laid-back attitude, and a penchant for lying about big hits to impress her mother.

There is no radical division between this trio. Like the “Father” family, they went their separate ways, seemingly content with having their own lives. But in this household, their proximity practically itch. Lilith searches for ways to shave her sister, sparking a youthful sibling rivalry that forces Tim to retreat. But these intrusions and these escapes are all intended to make people nice. The drama of these moments is in how we can see their desire to connect and their fear of connecting, all in a furtive glance, a muffled laugh, or a licked bite of pastry.

Hilariously introduced as the most annoying person in this film, Blanchett nonetheless exudes a quiet anxiety, delivering pains with every passive aggression from Krieps’ provocateur. Then Rampling adds a prickly, prickly veneer that is very funny. For example, when all three realize they are wearing red (a tailored dress, a modest turtleneck, a fancy frayed sweater), the mother declares it “embarrassing,” pushing her daughters to adopt opinions that throw them into worthy opposition.

It is in such small moments that Jarmusch allows his audience to determine the meaning of these scenes and this collection of stories. But where the first two parts of this triptych speak of relatively tense relationships, the finale paints a warm portrait of an almost supernatural closeness.

Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat are a revelation as twins.

In all three vignettes, Jarmusch Laces shared elements, such as red clothing, a Rolex watch, awkward toasts with soft drinks, images of young skateboarders riding carefree and in slow motion, and an iteration of the idiom “Bob is your uncle.” But in this chapter, he breaks the pattern of a family of three. In the Paris-set film “Sister Brother,” Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat play twins inspecting what remains of their childhood home following the death of their parents.

It’s been weeks since their parents died, so the sense of loss isn’t as acute. Instead, the twins can enjoy the comfort of each other’s company. Like Jeff and Emily, they share an aesthetic. But it’s far from preppy; instead, they favor leather jackets and streetwear with an aspirational cool feel. Whether they’re chatting in the car, having coffee, or looking at childhood photos, they’re comfortable. While the other families have all shown a need to support each other, these twins have a bond so deep that it predates birth. They swear that even over oceans, they can sense when the other is getting sick or high.

While each of Jarmusch’s family units FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER This sounds familiar, Moore and Sabbat are so convincing in their chemistry and connection that I began to wonder if they were actually twins. (They’re not.) This radiant love for each other softens the sharp, heartbreak aspects of their story, because unlike the characters in other chapters, they are not alone together. They are together even when they are alone, because they truly see each other and don’t shy away from such honesty and vulnerability.

After the press screening at the New York Film Festival, Jarmusch said during a question-and-answer session that he didn’t make this film with a message in mind. To suggest that there is a single-minded message would be to misrepresent the gentle development of each section of this film. However, seen as a whole, I found FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER breathtaking in what he has to say about family. On some level, this is a reminder that every family is different and the same. We are all connected by a set of experiences, large and small, that are so common that they might be overlooked without a filmmaker’s attention. But beyond that, FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER is a cool, rich, wonderful celebration of family love, which binds and defines us – but not entirely.

Part of the beauty of this film is where Jarmusch leaves each story. He was rarely one to draw definitive conclusions. And here he essentially offers not a day, but a few hours in the lives of people related by blood, and — what else? We get a window into their lives and a glimpse into how they see themselves. Then their story continues without us. Where will they go? What will they experience? It’s a mystery the film won’t dwell on, but we can.

In this, FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER invites us not only to see ourselves in these families for better or worse, but to imagine what might exist in the lives of our loved ones once the door is closed and the visit is over.

FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER is now in theaters.

UPDATED: December 18, 2025, 2:05 p.m. EST “FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER” had its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival. This review, originally published on October 3, 2025, has been updated to include theatrical release information.