The Sisters Brothers (2018)

Two brothers (Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly) are employed as professional killers by a man simply known as The Commodore (Rutger Hauer). Their latest assignment is to find and torture a chemist (Riz Ahmed) to get his chemical formula for extracting gold. Based on the novel by Patrick DeWitt and directed by Jacques Audiard (RUST AND BONE), his first film in the English language. Westerns (along with musicals) are my favorite genre so I'm favorably disposed to them and tend to be lenient in my assessments. In this particular case, this western stands on its own strengths which are many. The movie brims with unorthodox (for a western) dialog if slightly anachronistic (did uneducated cowboys use words like pretentious and victimized?). But brotherly love is at the core of this western. Not the sentimental kind, these brothers are constantly at odds with each other but the bonds are unbreakable. If Reilly's performance (his best in a long time) seems to stand out more than Phoenix, it's only because we've seen Phoenix do this kind of character before. He does it impeccably but there are no surprises. As a more educated tracker, Jake Gyllenhaal's low keyed acting is surprisingly effective. There's a wonderful jazz tinged score by Alexandre Desplat that's also anachronistic but in this case it works beautifully. With Carol Kane and Rebecca Root.