"Over roughly three decades, the Dardennes, now in their seventies, have built a filmography of such remarkable artistic, dramatic, and political consistency as to suggest a single cinematic consciousness in two bodies. With that film, the Dardenne brothers effectively extended a vow of their own to the audience, one founded on closely held principles: sharp-edged realism, keen observation, and, crucially, extraordinary speed."
"These are fractious times for the fraternal duos of filmmaking. The Coen brothers, once inseparable, have parted artistic ways-Joel with a black-and-white Shakespeare adaptation, "The Tragedy of Macbeth" (2021), and Ethan with two colorful bursts of slapstick noir, "Drive-Away Dolls" (2024) and "Honey Don't!" (2025). The Safdies are also flying solo: this past year brought us Benny's "The Smashing Machine," a lightweight but bruising portrait of a champion wrestler, and Josh's "Marty Supreme," a whiplash-inducing tale of a Ping-Pong powerhouse."
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne remain a unified filmmaking duo in their seventies. Their new drama, Young Mothers, is set in and around a Belgian maternity home where several teenage mothers seek to break cycles of poverty, addiction, and neglect. Over roughly three decades they have built a filmography marked by artistic, dramatic, and political consistency that suggests a single cinematic consciousness. Their breakthrough, La Promesse (1997), was a taut realist thriller about a teen whose conscience is stirred by a promise to a dying man. Their films are brief, typically about ninety minutes, driven by sharp-edged realism, keen observation, and extraordinary speed.
Read at The New Yorker
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