{"id":2917,"date":"2026-03-01T22:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T22:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=2917"},"modified":"2026-03-01T22:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T22:40:17","slug":"on-tom-waits-in-father-mother-sister-brother-grifter-like-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/03\/01\/on-tom-waits-in-father-mother-sister-brother-grifter-like-me\/","title":{"rendered":"On Tom Waits in “Father Mother Sister Brother”: Grifter Like Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So I came to appreciate the genius of singer\/songwriter Tom Waits much later than I should have, even if I did know the Eagles version of his song \u201cOl\u2019 55\u201d in early college years. (Waits thought their version was \u201cantiseptic\u201d and wasn\u2019t a fan. I agree. His is so much better.) In fact I thought of him as more of an actor than a singer, having seen him in Jim Jarmusch\u2019s Down by Law<\/em> (1986) and as Renfield in Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula <\/em>(1992) back in the day. Now I have a greater appreciation for his amazing body of work, both as musician and singer\/songwriter, that I consider his acting to be a minor side-gig. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But here it is 40 years after Down by Law<\/em> and Waits shines in another Jim Jarmusch film, Father Mother Sister Brother<\/em> (2025). The film is a triptych of sorts, three stories concerned with family, mainly the prickly dynamics between adult children and their aging parents. Waits plays the Father, an old, wiry-haired bespeckled man living in \u201cthe boonies,\u201d as his son (Adam Driver) and daughter (Mayim Bialik) put it. He\u2019s estranged from them but they (reluctantly and rather stiffly) come to visit. All is not what it seems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a wry humor to their interactions. His messy place in the sticks is actually a lovely home with a gorgeous view. And Waits or Father is not exactly being honest in his dealings with said offspring. Adam Driver does a great job as a somewhat staid and uptight grown-up son, who drives a Range Rover and appears to live a comfortable life in some city (I guessed New York). Driver is a terrific actor and as funny as some of the moments are, he never breaks character and plays it straight, which only makes it funnier.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As previously mentioned, the film consists of three separate stories. It takes place in three different locations (Upstate New York, Dublin, Paris), with no connection between the characters, but thematic links, motifs, and details connect them: Each features some skateboarders, a Rolex watch, color-coordinated family apparel, and the phrase \u201cBob\u2019s your Uncle.\u201d The first story is mainly comic, the second sad, and the third sweet. Although the film did get some good reviews, it didn\u2019t even come to my local theater.\u00a0Father Mother Sister Brother<\/em>\u00a0deserves much better, deserves a big audience. Jim Jarmusch is one of our greatest contemporary filmmakers. He made Johnny Depp\u2019s best film, for Chrissakes\u2014the great revisionist Western\u00a0Dead Man<\/em>\u00a0(1995).\u00a0\u00a0While flimsy thrillers like\u00a0The Housemaid<\/em>\u00a0(2025) get much attention a diamond like this gets lost in the shuffle. The world isn\u2019t fair. But we all know that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So I came to appreciate the genius of singer\/songwriter Tom Waits much later than I should have, even if I did know the Eagles version of his song \u201cOl\u2019 55\u201d in early college years. (Waits thought their version was \u201cantiseptic\u201d … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,337,336,1],"tags":[86,341,340,338,339],"class_list":["post-2917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-jim-jarmusch-films","category-tom-waits-films","category-uncategorized","tag-film","tag-jim-jarmuschs-dead-man","tag-jim-jarmuschs-down-by-law","tag-jim-jarmuschs-father-mother-sister-brother","tag-tom-waits-acting"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2922,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917\/revisions\/2922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}