Page 30 - AT
P. 30

A30    PEOPLE & ARTS
              Thursday 27 sepTember 2018
             Phoenix, Reilly bond as outlaw kin in 'Sisters Brothers'




            By JAKE COYLE                                                                                                       were  essentially  the  only
            TORONTO  (AP)  —  To  play                                                                                          Americans  around.  Since
            any  brother,  by  blood  or                                                                                        talking through the roles or
            not,  of  John  C.  Reilly  is  an                                                                                  rehearsing  was  out,  they
            intimidating prospect given                                                                                         got  accustomed  to  just
            just  how  firmly  entrenched                                                                                       being  around  each  other
            Will  Ferrell  is  as  Reilly's  on-                                                                                —  living  together  at  times,
            screen sibling.                                                                                                     cooking meals.
            "Step  Brothers,"  their  2008                                                                                      "That's  how  we  found  our
            comedy  classic  that  took                                                                                         way into each other. We'd
            the  adolescent  adult  to                                                                                          just  walk  in  Spain  for hours
            absurdist  extremes,  looms                                                                                         and  hours  without  talking,"
            large.  It  did  even  for  Joa-                                                                                    says  Reilly.  "It  sounds  really
            quin Phoenix in deciding to                                                                                         weird."
            play  Reilly's  brother  in  "The                                                                                   "He's  impossible  not  to
            Sisters  Brothers,"  Jacques                                                                                        adore  and  I  did  my  best
            Audiard's Western. Phoenix                                                                                          to  make  him  dislike  me,"
            considers  "Step  Brothers"                                                                                         Phoenix  says.  "He  was  so
            one of his all-time favorites.                                                                                      committed and hard-work-
            "I knew from that movie. It's                                                                                       ing  and  detail-oriented,
            kind  of  unbelievable  how                                                                                         there was never a moment
            brilliant  he  is  in  it,"  Phoenix                                                                                where  he  just  showed  up.
            says of Reilly. "I know peo-                                                                                        Because  there  is  always,
            ple  think  of  it  as  a  broad                                                                                    no matter what you're do-
            comedy, but there's a lot of                                                                                        ing,  a  couple  days  where
            thought that went into that   In this Sept. 8, 2018 photo, Joaquin Phoenix, left, and John C. Reilly, cast members in the film "The   you're  like:  '(Forget)  this,
            character."                  Sisters Brothers," pose together for a portrait at the Adelaide Hotel during the Toronto International   when  is  lunch?'  And  he
            The  two  films,  "The  Sisters   Film Festival in Toronto.                                                         never did that."
            Brothers"  and  "Step  Broth-                                                                      Associated Press  For Reilly, "The Sisters Broth-
            ers,"  are  worlds  apart.  But                                                                                     ers"  is  ultimately  about
            they are both centered on  me pee my pants and fall  deWitt's novel of the same  voluble,  exacting  Reilly  is  transformation through hu-
            the subtle and combustible  down laughing."               name.  Phoenix  plays  the  more  prone  to  self-doubt  man connection. He views
            chemistry  of  brothers.  And  "The Sisters Brothers," the first  hotheaded and hard-drink-  and  communal  investiga-  it  as  an  "unvarnished,  un-
            for  Reilly,  both  Ferrell  and  English-language  film  for  ing Charlie Sisters, younger  tion.                  mythologized"  look  at  a
            Phoenix are two of the fun-  the French filmmaker Audi-   brother  to  the  more  level-  "It  quickly  became  appar-  West that was more diverse
            niest people he's ever met.  ard  ("A  Prophet,"  ''Dehee-  headed  and  uncertain  Eli  ent to me when we started:  than  has  often  been  cap-
            "Both," he says, "have made  pan"),  is  based  on  Patrick  (Reilly).  But  they  are  both  I don't know this guy at all,"  tured  in  films.  The  appeal
                                                                      feared  hired  guns,  who  Reilly said in an interview at  for Phoenix was — similar to
                                                                      are  dispatched  by  their  the  Toronto  International  his  crime  thriller  earlier  this
                                                                      boss,  the  Commodore,  to  Film Festival. "In fact, it's so  year  with  Lynne  Ramsay,
                                                                      track  down  a  chemist  (Riz  intense  to  be  around  him,  "You  Were  Never  Really
                                                                      Ahmed) with a radical idea  I  don't  know  if  I  can  even  Here"  —  in  deconstructing
                                                                      for gold detection.          handle it. We couldn't even  the genre.
                                                                      The movie, which Annapur-    make eye contact at first."  "Honestly,  I  don't  think  I've
                                                                      na Pictures will open in limit-  The  project  is  a  long-run-  ever seen a good Western.
                                                                      ed release Friday, is largely  ning one for Reilly, who ac-  I wouldn't even know what
                                                                      a  pair  of  two-handers  —  quired  deWitt's  manuscript  ... it was," Phoenix says. "But
                                                                      one between Phoenix and  and produced the film. He  I didn't think about this as a
                                                                      Reilly  (together  for  the  first  considers  the  six  or  seven  Western and I told Jacques
                                                                      time),  the  other  between  years  it  took  to  make  and  I  didn't  like  Westerns.  He
                                                                      Ahmed  and  Jake  Gyllen-    release  easily  his  longest  and we were trying to find
                                                                      haal (a reunion from "Night-  job  ever.  He  and  Phoenix  things that defy the expec-
                                                                      crawler"), who plays anoth-  first met through their mutu-  tations  of  what  the  genre
                                                                      er pursuer who first locates  al  friend  and  director  Paul  is." But remaining, to a cer-
                                                                      the  sought-after  chemist.  Thomas  Anderson  but  got  tain  degree,  unconscious
                                                                      Both  relationships  throb  to  know  each  other  mak-   about the larger themes is
                                                                      with  existential  quandary  ing "The Sisters Brothers."  an  essential  part  of  Phoe-
                                                                      and more immediate con-      "He  came  over  to  my  nix's approach to acting.
                                                                      frontations  with  change.  place,"    says    Phoenix.  "It's  fun  to  think  about,"  he
                                                                      Reilly's Eli, for example, en-  "Sometimes  you  just  feel  says  of  the  meanings  be-
                                                                      counters  a  tooth  brush  for  something  about  some-   hind  "The  Sisters  Brothers."
                                                                      the first time.              body. I remember when he  ''But half the time you think
                                                                      And much of the delight in  left, I was talking to my girl-  you  come  up  with  an  an-
                                                                      "The  Sisters  Brothers"  is  see-  friend (Rooney Mara) and I  swer or a reason why some-
                                                                      ing  two  very  different  per-  was like: 'He's about to do  one behaves the way they
                                                                      formers like Reilly and Phoe-  some  amazing  work.'  Just  do, it's just not real. It's fun
                                                                      nix interact and respond to  the way he talked about it."  and  you  think  you're  be-
                                                                      each  other.  Phoenix,  ruth-  The  production  was  origi-  ing  (expletive)  clever.  But
                                                                      lessly  self-deprecating,  is  a  nally  planned  for  Oregon  the truth is the best (exple-
                                                                      powerfully  instinctual  ac-  but  shifted  to  rural  Spain.  tive)  is  when  you're  like:  I
                                                                      tor  who  abhors  nothing  as  Among  the  international  don't really know why this is
                                                                      much as over-analysis. The  crew,  Reilly  and  Phoenix  happening.q
   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32