Why the gloriously stupid brothers are the hidden comedy gem of 2024

Twenty years ago, a film that Brothers would open on a blustery October Friday, gross about $15 million on opening weekend, play for about a month as a modest word-of-mouth success, and eventually hit Blockbuster shelves for high schoolers to sneak away to rent for a weekend night out with friends.

Far more Farrelly Brothers than Coen Brothers, Brothers is the kind of silly crime comedy we used to get in bulk, back when movie studios realized that people enjoyed watching funny movies in theaters with other people.

The cruel irony and/or sign of the times too Brothers is that it opened to little fanfare on Amazon Prime Video last month and has slipped out of the public consciousness as yet another film jumped onto the routine streaming search. Don’t let it be, not with the perfect Thanksgiving movie ready to fire up the grown-up members of your family you love but can’t always stand to be around.

Brothers is gloriously silly, a film so cartoonish and cheesy that it hides in some pretty relatable themes about how you can’t choose your family, but sometimes it would be nice if they chose you for once.

Comedies like this have always been unfairly pilloried for their lack of sophistication, as if aiming for the low-hanging fruit to make you belly laugh is some kind of genre crime. Brothers works perfectly as both a silly farce and an excellent showcase for normally stoic actors to flex their funny bones.

Josh Brolin, Peter Dinklage and Glenn Close aren’t typically the kind of people you see in Happy Madison-y movies, but get them in a comedy directed by Palm Springs‘ Max Barbakow and written by I don’t feel at home in this world anymore‘s Macon Blair should have been heralded as a grand arrival.

Brolin and Dinklage are irresistible together, with the former playing boring dad far better than you might expect, and the latter in a refreshingly low-life mode that we don’t usually see him in. Marisa Tomei pops up for a few crazy scenes, and it’s one of the last times we’ll see the late, great M. Emmet Walsh appear in the kind of supporting role he always thrived on.

Some NSFW language to follow.

However, the film belongs to recent Oscar winner Brendan Fraser. Fraser has always been a genius at finding his groove in any comedic setting. He is perfectly capable of playing the smartest and dumbest person in the room, often in the same scene. Here he gives what may be the most hysterical performance of his career, so wild and free in a way we haven’t seen Fraser in so, so long.

Combining the drooling menace of Rugrats“Big Boy” Pickles and the foolish persistence of a yippy puppy who can’t control his bladder, Fraser transforms himself into a Looney Tunes bug for the ages. Literally every single one of his scenes is hilarious, featuring off-kilter line deliveries and delightfully reckless physical comedy to create a go-for-broke performance that is so special.

It’s one of the great recent post-Oscar performances, one so free of any ego and so in love with its own idiocy. Fraser has great fun again in a good comedy, a wonderful sign nature really does heal.

If you just want to turn off your brain for a bit and enjoy a studio comedy with great actors and crafty creative minds behind the camera, Brothers is an oasis in the desert. We need more silly mid-budget comedies like this, the ones that don’t do anything new to make you laugh but still get the giggles in spades.