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kleenexwoman · 2 years ago

Note

Ship it/Don't ship it:

Steve/Bucky

Steve/Tony

Steve/Peggy

Loki/Tony

Stucky

What made me ship it: Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan's longing glances and general chemistry. Before that, it was a side dirtybuthot ship. Taking away the inherent power imbalance really made it take off in general--people are very reluctant to ship hero/kid sidekick that openly right now--and it gave them a sense of shared history and interdependence that a Bucky who met Steve when he was bulked up wouldn't have.

What I like about it: I had a lot of crushes on my friends when I was a kid, and the idea that someone could have reciprocated that as deeply as Steve and Bucky is a nice one. It's really cozy to pair someone with their best friend growing up. And there's a lot to be said about someone who has seen you at your least appealing and still adores that version of you.

My unpopular opinion: Steve would never, ever have been the first one to make a move. He's aware that he's not a conventionally appealing partner, he sees Bucky as a brotherly type he has a guilty crush on, and he doesn't want to do the wrong thing and change things, so he's always going to repress the shit out of it until Bucky makes a clear move. I think Bucky's a lot more okay with his own feelings for Steve than Steve is with his feelings, and tbh I think Bucky sees Steve as a lot more--what are the kids calling it?--babygirl-coded. You know, when you want to act like you're someone's partner, but you're not actually together, so you just treat them kind of like it? And sometimes it can be toxic, or can be sweet and loving, depending on how self-aware you are and how well you deal with your feelings.

Steve/Tony

Why I got into it: It was one of the many, many ships surrounding Tony in the wake of the first wave of Marvel movies and before the Avengers movie. There wasn't that much good fic with Rhodey, I was the only person who liked Justin Hammer, everyone was writing Stony because they had been such good friends for so long in the comics. Nobody thought Joss was going to... Joss that.

What I like about it: JOSS WHEDON TOOK IT FROM ME. *deep breath* Okay. I like all the shit I liked before Avengers (2012) and their stupid bickering. I like the idea that Steve can help Tony get past his daddy issues by existing in the flesh as a person who stands in opposition to all the lies that Howard told Tony. And I like when Tony delights in introducing Steve to modernity and treats him to a lifestyle that boggles him. I like that they help each other heal from the past and understand the future. But I also like messy party monster Tony who can't keep it in his pants and enjoys going wild to relax and is one manic coke binge away from building a death ray, and I like clean-living, frugal Steve seeing the good in Tony past all of that.

My complicated opinion on it: My wife had this boyfriend who was a lapsed Catholic asshole. He had a lot of Catholic problems, like the whole guilt over feeling good about literally anything problem, and a stupidly rigid moral standard by which he would judge others without communicating it until he blew up about it, but he also had this whole transcendent artist's mystique that my wife really liked. He had a messiah complex, too. I mean, the people I know who thought, "Hmm, I wonder if I'm the second coming of Jesus", including myself, I could count on two hands. But this dude fucking externalized it, you know what I mean? And his girlfriend (not my wife, his live-in girlfriend) was this loud, sarcastic, ebullient bipolar alcoholic who was a lot of fun sometimes and just unstable as shit in general. She shipped Stony really hard and had framed pictures of Captain America and Iron Man as a diptych on her wall. It's hard for me not to think about them when I contemplate Stony long-term.

Steve and Peggy

1) I rarely ship the Hero and their Designated Love Interest. Often it doesn't matter, because the Love Interest is portrayed as episodic or incidental. It's really easy to ignore Napoleon Solo loving any girl, because they're all gone by the next episode. Peggy is not that. Peggy is a crucial part of Steve's MCU backstory. She shapes the world Steve wakes into. And he ultimately goes back to her at the end instead of staying with Bucky. I can't avoid Peggy and Steve; it is there, incontrovertible. I cannot discount it; I must ship around it, as it were.

2) Peggy is more than a person in Steve's mind. Peggy is The Girl Who Saw Him. She's like his mother, she's Not Like The Other Girls, she's Home and Country and Winged Victory and Steve's North Star--and oh fuck she's shooting at Steve because the blonde woman kissed him. Oof. I love that even Hayley Atwell figured they'd have massive house-shaking fights and Steve would have to leave to "go fishing" (this IS going to be something that happens in "Every Breath That I Held For You", btw). Likewise, Steve is Peggy's Ideal Man because to her, he is LITERALLY the Ideal Man. Because she's a crypto-fascist. I want them to be so, so unhappy together. I want Steve to feel trapped and to fuck other guys on the down-low and let Peggy whale on him for spilling her tea because he feels guilty for fucking the guys. Everyone assuming the fast-healing bruises are because he stopped a mugging. Y'know? Sometimes I really enjoy reading about people in terribly unhappy relationships, and I just like watching Captain America suffer in general. Endlessly, if possible.

With Bucky the suffering must have an end, and more intense suffering means I can imagine more intense comfort. But Cap must be tortured, mentally, emotionally, endlessly. It is a fight he can never win, the Captain, and the fact that he wins individual battles against foes only serves to obscure the reality of the endlessness of the oppressive systems that he labors inside of, that he ultimately defends. God, is that what they mean by "one must imagine Sisyphus happy"? Am I having a philosophical breakthrough here? I'm starting to understand why Batroc feels so sorry for Cap upon learning that they are but fictional.

3) There is a sense of symmetry to it, a feeling that Steve ended up right where he started. It's not, as the Russos intended, an evolution from selfless to selfish. Instead, it's the story of a person being taken from a body and a time that's small and slowly killing them, finding a new world, shaping that new world to fit them... And then coming right back home, better. It's Dorothy back from Oz, Sam back in the Shire. It feels like going back into the closet. It's a heterosexual narrative, upholding the status quo you escaped from. And there's a sense of meta-narrative closetedness about it because of the sudden change in the way the cast and crew addressed the Stucky vs. Peggy ships as Endgame approached, the storyline spurred on by Disney's corporate concerns.

Wanda is the vehicle by which this change occurs; the dreams she sends to each of the Avengers seems to not just spur their fears into action but also fundamentally change their priorities as people. Wanda, scarred by Tony's bombs, sends him back to his old coping mechanisms, which result in Ultron; Wanda, seeking comfort in the heteronormative sitcoms she watched, gives Steve a sense of longing for a heteronormative and idealized past. Wanda's magic comes from her emotions, from within, instead of Strange's technical and practiced magic--stripped of her science-fictional "probabililty-altering" backstory that made her unique in her original comic appearances, she's just another Disney magical girl, souring from sad princess to wicked witch. Shave your beards, move in on Main Street, learn to square dance, and wish upon a fucking star! Her mind-altering magic represents this algorithmic Disney influence, straightening out the gays and looping the war racketeers back into constant conflict. The Celluloid Closet meets Smedley Butler.

Anyway, I would ship it the normal way a little more if Peggy was actually Cynthia Glass, the Nazi spy, and she repented of her Nazi ways and then DIED about it.

Loki/Tony

Why I started shipping it: Peer pressure!Nah, just kidding, you convinced me :P

Why I like it: I love the idea that Tony thinks he's going to get into this complex, passionate battle of wits and hearts with a centuries-old being who can rival his intellect... and he's dating the developmental equivalent of a spoiled, brilliant, and rather bullied 19-year-old with Daddy issues. Loki can spend an entire month floating around in the pool drinking pina coladas and reading fluffy romance novels. He's not plotting anything, he's just chilling out.

Unpopular Opinion: I already said I like Tony best when he's a messy party monster trying to do good. I love the idea that he's trying to be responsible and clean up his life, but he's STILL dating a teenaged heir(ess) who nearly burns down the city with one good party. I like Loki when he's fucking around, too.

#stucky #stony #steggy #frostiron

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jerkbitchidjitassbutt · 4 years ago

Text

It Was You (Part Three)

A/N: Jensen and Y/n are childhood best friends. When his agent informs him that his image could use some improvement for a role, will she help him? Or will her feelings get in the way?

Surprise! I know it’s late (at least by my standards), but ta-da! Part Three a day early!

Read Part One here, and part two here.

A holiday (Christmas centric) Jensen x Female!Reader Best Friends to Lovers series for @spnchristmasbingo. This chapter and others will fill the square of ‘fake dating’, and this one specifically fills ‘Christmas Pajamas’. Un-beta’d, so all mistakes are mine. Header created by me with images from Google. Chapter word count: 2790

Series Warnings: angst-ish at times (if you squint), but mostly all the fluff.

I consider this an AU, as Jensen is single in this fic. This is completely a work of fiction, and I wouldn’t want his reality to be any different, this is purely for entertainment.

You pushed the image of his wink from your mind as you finished up breakfast while Jensen called Stacy and set up a meeting for the three of you. She sounded particularly excited that he had taken her advice, and more so that you were on board. You spent the rest of the morning goofing off with each other as you normally would, singing along to the radio while you cleaned up from your meal and resting a bit before your meeting. When you decided to hop in the shower, Jensen retreated to his own apartment to freshen up.

You dressed for the cold weather once again, opting for a pair of dark wash jeans and boots with thick socks underneath. You layered yourself with a sweater and your peacoat, opting for a scarf and gloves to shield yourself from the cold, but left your hair down to cover your ears as best it could.

Jensen returned to your apartment about an hour after he’d left before escorting you to his SUV in the garage to shlep you across town to Stacy’s office, where she met you with a warm smile. You’d met her plenty of times before, as Jensen considered her a friend after working with her for so many years.

“Y/n, it’s so great to see you again. You look beautiful.” She gushed, causing heat to rise to your cheeks. “And may I just say, you’re making my job a lot easier today.” She added with a breathy laugh.

She welcomed you and Jensen to take a seat opposite from her at her desk before diving right into the semantics. It was pretty simple – you and Jensen were to start posting even more on social media, even suggesting that you share some old pictures of the two of you from your childhood to reinforce your story. She was okay with Jensen’s suggestion of not announcing a relationship explicitly and said the gossip would be enough to keep up the facade of the two of you being together. Her next idea, though, made you shift a bit in your chair.

“I would love it if we could get some paparazzi shots of the two of you with some PDA at some point. Nothing explicit, of course. Maybe just some hand holding or something, you know, to get the fires going.” She proposed flippantly as she shuffled some papers on her desk.

After you shared a look with Jensen, he shrugged and simply replied, “We’ll see what we can do.”

“Alright, then. Jensen, I’m going to ask you this as this is your decision, but do you feel we need to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Y/n? Normally, I would insist, but seeing as you two are such good friends, I’m not going to.”

Jensen waved his hands, “Not necessary. I trust Y/n with my life, so there’s really no need. She’d never do anything that would warrant one.”

You reassured her as well, “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt his career, no matter what. We trust each other to handle this appropriately.”

Stacy seemed satisfied as she nodded and stood to straighten her black blazer, “Well, I think that covers my end of everything. I do think this’ll help. Granted, Jensen is an agent’s dream when it comes to image, really. He’s scandal-free and always has been, but the bachelor title can be weary in the eyes of a casting director at times, particularly for the role of a young father. I’ll keep pushing forward with communications with the producer and I’ll call you when I hear something.”

She reached over her desk as you and Jensen stood from your chairs and shook both of your hands before showing you out and wishing you a good day. As you left her office, Jensen placed his hand on the small of your back. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t done before numerous times, but when he left it there as you walked down the sidewalk to the parking area, you couldn’t help but wonder how much of it was just for show now.

....................

The next week was spent in relative normality. You and Jensen spent time together, as you always did, but now being sure to post more frequently to social media. Jared popped over early in the week before his flight back home to Texas so you could fill him in, since if anyone needed to be “in” on the charade, it was him. He’d be the first one calling Jensen if he’d heard any rumors, so he was thankful to be included and happy that it was you and not someone else. Jared understood, for the most part, and empathized with how difficult management could be at times.

“You guys can definitely sell that chemistry you’ve always had, so I think it will work.” Jared shrugged, but you didn’t miss the implication of your shared chemistry with Jensen, causing you to take a long sip of your water as he continued. “I’m not sure how they would’ve suckered some rando into faking it with this guy.” He teased, making Jensen huff in amusement and shove him lightly.

Giggling from your seat in Jensen’s apartment, you delighted in witnessing their brotherly bickering.

Jared stood from the chair at Jensen’s island to bid his farewells, “Well, y’all let me know if I can help in any way. My flight leaves at 5, so I’ve got to run, but I’ll see you guys next week.”

Yours and Jensen’s flight back together to Austin wasn’t until a few days before Christmas and Jared wanted to get home a bit earlier. The two of you would see Jared at his Christmas party before making your way to Dallas, where your families still lived. Jared and Jensen shared a quick hug before Jared scooped you up in his arms, pulling you tightly into his chest, “Now you let me know if I need to kick his ass for anything, you hear me?” he whispered in your ear.

Another laugh escaped you as you poked his side before he gave you a quick peck on the cheek and made for the door, waving as he exited.

“Alrighty.” Jensen exclaimed, clasping his hands together after he saw Jared off, “I’ve got some plans for us tonight.”

You settled in front of him, gazing up at him with a questioning squint, “Do you now? Do I get to be privy to that information?”

“You sure do. C’mon, let’s go.”

He whisked you out of the door quickly after helping you into your coat. You walked with your arm linked in his, the gesture completely natural at this point in your lives, down the bustling streets of downtown Vancouver as you window shopped and grabbed some coffee at the café before he pulled you to your next stop, the artisanal bakery that made your favorite treats. He grabbed all the necessary ingredients to make hot chocolate and pushed you from counter to counter instructing you to grab whatever your heart desired.

“Tonight, we are cooking an amazing dinner of spaghetti – and yes, before you even ask, I’m making my grandmother’s sauce – and then, we’re getting in our most festive pj’s and having another Christmas movie marathon as we shove our faces full of cookies. Sound like a deal?”

You nudged him with your hip as the basket swung from your arm, “Ackles, you’re a man after my own heart, aren’t you?”

Grabbing a bag of chocolate covered truffles from behind you, he threw them into your basket with a grin, “I’m just trying to woo you, Y/n. Should I be so lucky.”

If only he knew.

After spending way too much on chocolate, decadent candies and other treats, you went back to your apartment to grab your Christmas pajamas that were given to you as a gift last year from Jensen’s parents. They had made the whole family dress up in matching sets for their annual Christmas eve dinner with both of your families, and it made for the most relaxed evening as you all gathered around their outdoor fire-pit for dinner instead of the formal table setting you’d experienced in so many years past as it was a tradition for both sides, with Jensen’s and your parents alternating hosting each year. The pajamas were red and had snowflakes all over them and you decided to grab your polar bear bootie slippers from your closet to bring also. You changed quickly and pulled an oversized shawl around your shoulders before creeping back down the hallway, praying that one of your neighbors didn’t peak out to see a grown woman rushing down the hall in snowflake jammies.

Letting yourself back into Jensen’s apartment, you heard a loud chuckled as soon as you shut the door. He had emerged from the short hallway that led to his bedroom wearing his pair of the same print, but he was barefoot.

“Great minds, huh?” he quipped with a wide smile, still laughing as he ventured into the kitchen.

The two of you made dinner together and ate at his island, talking about all of your family’s traditions for this time of year and gushing about how much you were looking forward to being home for the holiday. You’d head straight to Jared and Gen’s home in Austin from the airport and spend the night there so that you could attend their holiday party and drive to Dallas the next day. You were so excited to see your family, and Jensen’s. They were sort of a package deal, becoming one large family over the years. You adored his parents, and always had. His home was your escape and yours was his, and each set of parents treated the two of you as one of their own. You’d spent many nights having dinner with the Ackles’ and he had a standing invitation at your table, courtesy of both of your parents and your sister. She was fiercely protective of both of you, taking to Jensen as if he was her little brother since he was born. In fact, the shared family tradition of Christmas Eve dinner began because she was afraid that you would miss Jensen too much if you went a few days without seeing him. She threw an enormous fit one evening when you started to cry, and she had it in her mind that it was because you weren’t with your best friend. You were only three, and at the time your sister was six years old, and so the tradition came to last. You would gather together, eat, and open gifts with everyone piled into a small space to exchange. This year, they had elected to do a secret Santa and you were lucky enough to draw Jensen’s mom.

You each finished up your meals and cleaned up the kitchen before plopping down on his large, u-shaped sectional that faced his entertainment center that house a huge TV and showcased his DVDs, record player and collection of albums and 45’s. You were fortunate to live in the same apartment complex as he did, though Jensen’s paychecks were obviously a bit larger than yours. He had refused to allow you to be in a separate building from him when you moved from Texas to Vancouver, so he found one that was secure enough for someone with a bit of fame but wasn’t too overpriced that you couldn’t afford it on your salary. He even offered to pay a portion of your rent to ensure he wouldn’t be too far away, but thankfully this building had worked out for both of you. It had a doorman and was as secure as it could be, so you took the one-bedroom apartment on the same floor as Jensen’s two bedroom. His was larger, but you had a better view in your opinion.

He had set up all of your bounty from the bakery on the coffee table and made a bowl of popcorn, your steaming mugs of hot chocolate nestled between all of the goods.

“C’mere.” He gestured, encouraging you to curl into his side.

He pulled his cell from underneath his leg and snapped a few photos of the two of you smiling for the camera. Then, he grabbed a handful of popcorn and held it to his mouth, taking another picture with it spilling from every corner and cascading toward his lap as you laughed at his funny expression. His eyes were wide as he made a ridiculous face, but it was always one of your favorite sides of him. He had many, to be sure, but that man could make your sides hurt with laughter at any point in time when he was simply carefree and looking to be a jokester. It was one of the many things you loved about him – his ability to make you laugh like no one else could, but he was also the sweetest man you’d ever met. You settled back into your spot underneath his arm, taking the bowl from his hands as he tossed his phone on the cushion next to him and picked up a few stray pieces of popcorn, tossing one at you. You threw it back, but he caught it and pitched it into his mouth with a victorious grin. You rolled your eyes playfully before munching on some yourself. He laid his arm around your shoulders and pulled you close, pressed his lips to your hairline and kissing you on the side of your head.

“You should’ve taken that picture… that would’ve gone over well.” You half joked.

He raised an eyebrow in your direction with an inquisitive glint, “You think? Should we do it?”

Shrugging, you nodded indifferently. Again, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary that you were doing, but it would make people talk, so he grabbed his phone once more and repeated the kiss. This time, you smiled but didn’t look directly at the camera, letting your eyes flutter closed until he pulled his mouth away. When you looked up at him through your lashes, you heard another click.

Showing you his screen, he thumbed through the few he’d taken, the last two made you suck in a sharp breath. He left his eyes and mouth slightly open and had a huge smile as his lips attached to the crown of your head, the crinkles around his eyes accentuated slightly and he was looking off into the distance. The last one he took made your heart swell. It looked like two people in love, staring into each other’s eyes. You were both smiling but giving each other such looks of adoration that even you would buy it, and you were in on the rouse.

It was easy to be with him. Your relationship was not give and take, but mutual exchange and the type of comfort you can only have after knowing someone for so many years. He knew you in a way no one else ever would, and you had been through every up and down together. When he’d left for L.A. to pursue acting, it hurt all that much more because it felt like that would all be lost. You were grateful that even after those few years, everything fell back into place as soon as you were near each other again. Success and fame hadn’t changed him, at least the him that you got to know. He was still the same man you’d always known and had matured with, the boyish charm he’d always had and the distinguished charisma that he’d grown into combining into who he was today.

He elected to post the first few photos, captioning them #matchingjammies and #nopopcornforyou @y/i/h, looking for your approval and causing you to chuckle against him before he put his phone down once again. “We’ll save the others.” he mentioned casually.

It wasn’t long before you’d picked your way through as many treats as you could, both satisfied that your sweet tooth had been satiated. About halfway through your second movie, you were resting your eyes once again coiled against him, comforted that everything smelled like Jensen.

It wasn’t until the credits rolled of The Grinch that he noticed you were sleeping. Your head was nestled against his chest, with your knees pulled to you tightly and the blanket tucked beneath your chin.

This time, Jensen scooped you up and carried you to his bedroom, holding you close to his chest and ignoring his spare bed down the hall. He pulled back the covers and tucked you beneath them before removing his button up pajama shirt and climbing in himself, leaving him in his pajama pants and a fitted white t-shirt.

He could have woken you up but, frankly, he didn’t want to. Something told him that he couldn’t bear to have you go home to your apartment, not just yet. He wanted another night of sleeping next to you, of holding you close and feeling you beside him. The thought caused him to wonder, even in his sleepy mind, if he could continue to pretend any longer.

To be continued...

…………………………………………………………………………………………

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago

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The Sisters Brothers

Who would have thought that Jacques Audiard, the French director of slow-burn, humanistic character studies would one day take on one of the most characteristically American of genres, the Western, with his English-language debut? While worlds apart from his socially realist “Dheepan” and “Rust and Bone,” Audiard’s “The Sisters Brothers” sports a similarly closely watched, leaned in sensitivity with its brotherly story. Adapted from Patrick deWitt’s 2011 novel (by Audiard and Thomas Bidegain) and infused with sweetness, graphic body horror (that, at times, spins a childlike icky humor) and a high body count, this alcohol-soaked Frontier road trip constantly reinvents itself at every turn in fun, witty and ultimately touching ways. Call it a revisionist or an absurdist Western if you will, but Audiard’s film feels both refreshingly new (without ever going to the extreme lengths the Zellner Brothers did with “Damsel”) and nostalgically familiar.

The backdrop is the Gold Rush, which is said to have made a Sherriff’s job much easier: if there’s trouble, you follow the gold to get to the source of the unrest. But when we meet the central brothers Eli (John C. Reilly, goofy, soulful and great at physical comedy as ever) and Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix, quietly enigmatic) one random dark night at the start of the film, there doesn’t seem to be any wealth to be pursued. With the playful last name “Sisters,” the pair of cold-blooded hit-men, without much thought about the consequences of their actions, murder a household of people in a tightly orchestrated set piece of nocturnal shootouts. The reason remains unknown—with this job and everything else, the ruthless duo answers to a much feared, mostly unseen mysterious crime boss called ‘The Commodore’ and habitually assassinates their way through the 1850s Oregon. Along the way, they bond and trivially bicker about life as casually as they kill.

But just when the soft-edged Eli starts contemplating his future and ongoing profession despite the unaffected heavy drinker Charlie’s shrugs, The Commodore sets them up for a new task. They will tail and kill a criminal called Hermann Kemit Warm (Riz Ahmed, cheekily mysterious) for reasons we would slowly piece together later—for now, he is just a thieving enemy who once betrayed their boss. Enter Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal, reuniting with Ahmed after “Nightcrawler”), a British-accented bounty hunter for hire, tasked with delivering Warm to the brothers. But then the prospect of immediate wealth turns tables for everyone involved—the brainy chemist Warm’s creamy invention that makes gold glaringly appear in water, redefines priorities at once. The two pairs, traced on parallel storylines for a while (that admittedly slows down the film’s previously absorbing rhythm), find themselves entangled in a ploy against each other. Along the way, local madams, kindly prostitutes, further the accidentally amusing events and some dead horses unfortunately enter the story, sharpening the film’s tone as an original yet studied homage to its genre.

A delightful tale of familial ties balanced well with a slick cat-and-mouse yarn, “The Sisters Brothers” owes much of its breezy charm to John C. Reilly, whose comic timing does wonders for the meatiest and most multifaceted character of the ensemble. Phoenix feels right at home in Charlie's quieter shoes, while Gyllenhaal’s familiarly on-edge persona and a mischievous turn from Ahmed impress. Reilly and Phoenix demonstrate tremendous chemistry throughout—we buy both their longtime amity and occasional callousness, especially when the script drip-feeds the brothers’ back-story into the narrative. In this bittersweet tale with a sentimental heart, and among a dangerous milieu of blood, greed and spiders (one in particular that causes the film’s biggest gross-out moment), Audiard’s characteristically sensitive touch gradually lifts familial emotions, letting them linger in the air long after the credits roll.

This review was originally filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9th.

from All Content https://ift.tt/2wYucSD

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago

Text

The Sisters Brothers

Who would have thought that Jacques Audiard, the French director of slow-burn, humanistic character studies would one day take on one of the most characteristically American of genres, the Western, with his English-language debut? While worlds apart from his socially realist “Dheepan” and “Rust and Bone,” Audiard’s “The Sisters Brothers” sports a similarly closely watched, leaned in sensitivity with the brotherly story it gently tears through. Adapted from Patrick Dewitt’s 2011 novel (by Audiard and Thomas Bidegain) and infused with sweetness, graphic body horror (that, at times, spins a childlike icky humor) and a high body count, this alcohol-soaked Frontier road trip constantly reinvents itself at every turn in fun, witty and ultimately touching ways. Call it a revisionist or an absurdist Western if you will, but Audiard’s film feels both refreshingly new (without ever going to the extreme lengths the Zellner Brothers did with “Damsel”) and nostalgically familiar.

The backdrop is the Gold Rush, which is said to have made a Sherriff’s job much easier: if there’s trouble, you follow the gold to get to the source of the unrest. But when we meet with the central brothers Eli (John C. Reilly, goofy, soulful and great at physical comedy as ever) and Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix, quietly enigmatic) one random dark night at the start of the film, there doesn’t seem to be any wealth to be pursued. With the playful last name “Sisters”, the pair of cold-blooded hit-men, without much thought about the consequences of their actions, murders a household of people in a tightly orchestrated set piece of nocturnal shootouts. The reason remains unknown—with this job and everything else, the ruthless duo answers to a much feared, mostly unseen mysterious crime boss called ‘The Commodore’ and habitually assassinates their way through the 1850s Oregon. Along the way, they bond and trivially bicker about life as casually as they kill.

But just when the soft-edged Eli starts contemplating his future and ongoing profession despite the unaffected heavy drinker Charlie’s shrugs, The Commodore sets them up for a new task. They would tail and kill a criminal called Hermann Kemit Warm (Riz Ahmed, cheekily mysterious) for reasons we would slowly piece together later—for now, he is just a thieving enemy who once betrayed their boss. Enter Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal, reuniting with Ahmed after “Nightcrawler”), a British-accented bounty hunter for hire, tasked with delivering Warm to the brothers. But then the prospect of immediate wealth turns tables for everyone involved—the brainy chemist Warm’s creamy, liquid invention that makes gold glaringly appear in water, redefines priorities at once. The two pairs, traced on parallel storylines for a while (that admittedly slows down the film’s until-then absorbing rhythm), find themselves entangled in a complex ploy against each other. Along the way, local madams, kindly prostitutes, further accidentally amusing state of affairs and unfortunately, some dead horses enter the story, sharpening the film’s tone as an original and studied homage to its genre.

A delightful tale of familial ties balanced well with a slick cat-and-mouse yarn, “The Sisters Brothers” owes much of its breezy charm to John C. Reilly, whose comic timing does wonders for the meatiest and most multifaceted character of the ensemble. Phoenix feels right at home in the quieter shoes of Charlie, while Gyllenhaal’s familiarly on-edge persona and a mischievous turn from Ahmed impress. Reilly and Phoenix demonstrate tremendous chemistry throughout—we buy both their longtime amity and occasional callousness, especially when the script drip-feeds the brothers’ back-story into the narrative. In this bittersweet tale with a sentimental heart, buried within a dangerous milieu of blood, greed and spiders (one in particular that causes the film’s biggest gross-out moment), Audiard’s characteristically sensitive touch gradually rises relatable familial emotions up to the surface, which sweetly linger in the air long after the credits roll.

This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival.

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