Brothers
"Palm Springs" director Max Barbakow hits his sophomore slump.
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Sophomore slumps are a real thing and unfortunately one’s befallen “Palm Springs” director Max Barbakow with his second feature “Brothers” (now streaming on Prime Video). This is a double bummer as “Palm Springs” is so dearly beloved by yours truly.
Moke (Brooks Indergard) and Jady (Jonathan Aidan Cockrell) are twin brothers who come from a long line of career criminals. Their mother Cath (Jennifer Landon) abandoned them when they were 15 after a jewel heist she perpetrated with her boyfriend Glenn (Joshua Mikel) went awry and she went on the lam.
We flash forward 30 years and Moke (Josh Brolin) and Jady (Peter Dinklage) still haven’t seen Cath (Glenn Close, looking and acting so much like Catherine O’Hara I suspect the role was originally intended for her).
Jady’s just brokered a deal to get himself out of prison with crooked guard Farful (Brendan Fraser) and his not-so-distinguished father Judge Farful (the late, great M. Emmett Walsh). To make good on this pact Jady will need to retrieve the jewels Cath stole and in order to do so he’ll need the services of Moke, who’s gone on the straight and narrow by getting a fast food job and settling down with and impregnating Abby Munger-Jacobson (Taylour Paige, a good actress in a thankless role).
The biggest problem with “Brothers” is that its script by actor-turned-filmmaker Macon Blair from a story by Etan Cohen isn’t especially funny. Sure, it has the hillbilly hijinks that have marked much of Blair’s work (i.e. “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore”), but it feels more akin to the dopey dreck Cohen often dabbles in (i.e. “Holmes & Watson”). This is the sort of movie where a reliable actor like Brolin is made to jerk off an orangutan and frequent Academy Award nominee Close screams, “Eat my ass, fuckers!,” at a bunch of disgruntled golfers. I get the feeling these fellas were trying to be plucky like “Logan Lucky,” but the result is mostly sucky.
Sure, with a cast as good as the one “Brothers” is sporting (an uncredited Marisa Tomei also turns up as Jady’s prospective love interest/mark and the mother of the aforementioned orangutan) some of this shit is gonna stick, but far more of it misses the mark than hits. These performers are better than the material and certainly deserve better. So do you. Here’s wishing Barbakow better luck next time out.