The winner of the 2025 Venice Film Festival’s highest honor is a film that finds Jim Jarmusch at his most Jarmuschy. Like he did in Night on Earth and Coffee and Cigarettes, Father Mother Sister Brother is an anthology built from small, disconnected human encounters. Whether those films focused on stranger encounters, his latest has three chapters that expore the bond between siblings and the influence of their parents. Once again, Jarmusch turns his eye to the smallest details of everyday life, lingering on silences and shared meals, expressing a lot through the faintest shifts in expression or tone. He finds beauty, tenderness, and humor in the mundane, and by the time the film ends, you feel part of these families, wishing you could stay with them a little longer.
The first chapter, “Father,” set in rural America, follows Jeff and Emily (Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik) visiting their father (Tom Waits), who lives in isolation. It opens with a long car conversation between the siblings while their father prepares the house for their arrival. Even prior to their arrival at the home, we quickly get a sense of who this man is, seeing how he treats them differently depending on how much control he feels he has. He freely asks Jeff for money, while with Emily he did only once. In their actual encounter, the three actors communicate so much through small glances, and it is fascinating to watch how each subtly changes over the course of the visit. When Jeff first sees his father, he is genuinely happy, but as soon as the hole in the ceiling is mentioned his expression shifts as if he is reminded of all the pain the father has caused. It is easy to imagine that this cycle will be repeated again in the future. The chapter ends with a clever and memorable final twist involving the father.
The second story, “Mother,” unfolds in Dublin. Charlotte Rampling plays a strict matriarch with the same rigid precision she brought to Reverend Mother Mohiam in Dune, hosting her two very different daughters. Lilith (Cate Blanchett) tries desperately to impress her mother, while Timothea (Vicky Krieps), with her pink hair and clear defiance, pretends not to care what her mother thinks. Yet she hides her girlfriend from her, seating in the back of the car and lying that she arrived by Uber. Rampling’s reaction, an unreadable half smile, leaves it ambiguous whether she believes the lie or simply chooses not to confront it. Ramplin’s subtle but unmistakable sadness as the sisters start to suggest that their time is up is extremely touching.
The final and most melancholic chapter takes place in Paris, where twins Skye and Billy (Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat) revisit their late parents’ apartment to gather their last belongings. They talk about what their parents left behind, not just the objects, but the emotional residue of the home itself.
Across all three chapters Jarmusch weaves subtle echoes, a brief contemplative shot of skaters in the street, a recurring Rolex watch that shifts meaning each time it appears, and a running joke involving toasts with unusual drinks, water, coffee, anything but wine (Adam Driver asking twice if anyone can toast with water is very funny). The film is also bookended with the lovely and groovy “Spooky”, a song whose style fits the film like a glove, while its lyrics about attraction, unpredictability, and trying to read another person’s feelings mirror the film’s emotional language. When the song returns at the end it reframes everything we have seen, making us reflect on how unknowable our parents can often be.
It all comes across as honest and deeply tender. As someone who has shared similar situations and conversations with my own brother and sister about our parents, I felt deeply connected to these people, the frustration, the longing to make them proud, and the acceptance that for better or worse, so much of who we are comes from them.
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Play trailer
- Original title
- Father Mother Sister Brother
- Director
- Jim Jarmusch
- Cast
- Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Sarah Greene, Lillah Indya Moore
- Rated
- PG
- Screenwriter
- Jim Jarmusch
- Composer
- Jim Jarmusch, Anika
- Cinematography
- Yorick Le Saux, Frederick Elmes
- Editor
- Affonso Gonçalves
- Country
- Language
- English
- Box office
- $7.693 million