Shorts: ‘Shadow Brother Sunday’ Confronts Brotherly Love and Familial Frustration

When the camera is on Alden Ehrenreich’s face during Shadow Brother Sunday, you can almost smell the sweat. Whether it’s the gaze from his family or us the viewer, his character, Cole, can feel the eyes on him, and his refusal to remove his large, worn jacket isn’t help to dispel his perspiration or lessen his anxiety. In an impressive and ground directorial debut, Ehrenreich explores how a family’s praise of a younger son adds weight onto the heart of the eldest son. Shadow Brother Sunday‘s sneaky emotions flourish when you least expect.

Cole is a stranger inside his parents’ house as they await the arrival of his younger brother, Jacob (played by Nick Robinson), a rising film star. The home feels like a nightmare for anyone who has the slightest bit of anxiety as family members run about and knock into each other, their excitement for Jacob’s arrival getting the better of them. Cole’s financial woes are pressing on him so much that he is considering an act of betrayal: the paparazzi are promising a large sum of money is Cole can steal his brother’s laptop.

The only moments of shared peace come when Cole finds Jacob in his old room. Quietness and calm is something that both of these young men value, but Cole’s desperation for cash might break something between them. This short scene–the only one Ehrenreich and Robinson share together–feels valuable and constructed with care. Cole and Jacob are more alike than the other might be able to admit or realize as they both seek solitude to center themselves. Jacob might have frustrations with his family, but Cole’s lack of direction causes more vocal ire.

Ehrenreich, with his scraggly, unruly beard, plays a man drowning by his own hand, and I guarantee that you have a Cole in your life. He has been given so many chances yet his life knows almost no calm, but Jacob offers a kind of brotherly serenity. As a director, Ehrenreich locks the camera in on his own character to make us feel that sweat even more. Even when Cole steps out for a smoke break early on, we never lose the sense that he never feels fully alone. Was Cole a kid whose parents never trusted him? Was he a troublemaker that never felt the harshness of the consequences for his own actions and now he flounders as an adult? Ehrenreich does not shy away from the profound sadness of characters who are either too scared or unaware to ask for help.

Shadow Brother Sunday is deftly directed with climbing tension and strong performances. If this is how Ehrenreich kicks off his directorial career, we are in great hands.