This review is part of Cinepunx’s coverage of the 2025 Vashon Island Film Festival
Filmmaker Ari Gold has been churning out bizarre little gems for a while now, including 2008’s Adventures of Power and 2018’s The Song of Sway Lake. In the year of our lord, 2025, he has produced his most unique outing yet, a love letter to San Francisco and the Beat Generation called Brother Verses Brother. Co-written by and co-starring his brother, Ethan Gold (who has scored all of his films), the film is presented as being shot in one take, is entirely improvised, and also happens to be a musical. That’s a lot for one film to carry, but Brother Verses Brother manages to succeed at it more than not, even if its shagginess does weight it down from time to time.
Playing themselves, Ari and Ethan spend a day wandering through the streets of San Francisco (where they grew up). Ari is trying to get Ethan out of his depression by finding him gigs throughout the city. Along the way, they meet Louise (Lara Louise), a Dutch musician who seems to know everyone everywhere. As they meander about, we get to know quite a bit about these two brothers, their family, and the dynamic that works both to their advantage and disadvantage. Eventually, the film turns into a quest to find out if their 99-year-old father (Beat legend Hebert Gold) is still alive. That’s about as much plot as Brother Verses Brother cares to provide.
In terms of the film being shot in one long take, we know by now that isn’t really possible. If you look hard enough, you can spot the cut points. As for the musicality of the film, Ethan Gold has always been able to craft beautiful, whimsical, and sometimes ridiculous songs. This film is no exception. Ari and Ethan have an undeniable ‘twin chemistry’ that allows for gorgeous harmonies and some real energetic numbers throughout the film, as when Ari sings a love song to Louise in an effort to keep her from going home with the guitarist from Weezer. Through the music, Gold crafts an endearing portrait of a San Francisco that was once the hub of artistic expression, and attempts to rekindle those spirits for the audience.
The improvisational nature of the film is where the picture loses steam. Neither Gold brother seems particularly adept at improv, at least not as presented here. Their conversations feel a bit repetitive and don’t really drive much in the way of narrative progression. Brother Verses Brother wears its ‘mumblecore’ on its sleeve, and maybe the film would have worked better had it been released 15-years ago. The film only finally picks up steam when the brothers begin their pilgrimage to their father’s home. This is when we finally feel the ‘stakes’ of the picture. The final 15-minutes of the film are powerful, especially when you learn their father passed away a few weeks after the film was completed. In many ways, this entire film is a love letter to a father from his two sons. On that level, it’s as memorable as any picture this year.
I expect audiences will either adore Brother Verses Brother as an act of cinematic ingenuity, or despise it as meandering piece of vanity. I fall somewhere in the middle. I appreciated the ambition of the piece, and the heart both Gold brothers brought to the work, but the slapdash nature of it all, and some bizarre dubbing and sound issues, ultimately damage the end product. I wish more attention had been spent on an actual script. The improv just doesn’t work the way I am sure they intended it to, and it’s a long time before we get to the heart of the film. I can’t not recommend this film because I admire big swings, even when they’re messy as hell. But when you know a filmmaker can write an engaging script, and they instead rely on improv skills that aren’t there, it’s bound to be somewhat disappointing.
RATING: ***/***** (currently playing the film festival circuit)
