Critics reviews

Less of a portrait of familial dysfunction and more a dispatch from the front lines of a household at war with itself, Ramon Zürcher’s “The Sparrow in the Chimney” is a film dipped in venom, often funny and deeply unsettling...

The Sparrow in the Chimney is a bold and thoughtful conclusion to the animal trilogy, offering a layered examination of family life that traverses psychoanalytical and formalistic terrain.

There’s no denying the stiffness of some of the most overtly symbolic images... But there’s something so sincere about the Zürchers’ approach that makes even the most hamfisted flourishes imply the expressions of a fully uncensored, unbridled vision. With its deep, bold dives into the nightmarish and the surreal, The Sparrow in the Chimney is that rare film that feels like a catharsis for protagonist and director both

The Sparrow in the Chimney is a frustrating synthesis of their previous two films... Part of what I liked most about Strange Little Cat was the ways it generated surprise from both its framing and unexpected structure, low on overt incident but subtly discombobulating; that the Zürchers’ subsequent films have leaned into greater degrees of melodramatic hyperbole isn’t where I want them to go.

It’s hard to imagine a better ending to the Zürchers’ trilogy, as they’ve realized a credo that more commercial filmmakers have always known: subtlety is no match for an explosion.

The third film in the Zürchers’ “animal trilogy,” “The Sparrow and the Chimney” marries that same detached observational quality and fey sense of the absurd to a more elaborately fleshed-out narrative, crackling with melodramatic danger and intensity of feeling.

Tense, ominous, and stuffed with psychosexual insinuation almost to the point of absurdity, The Sparrow in the Chimney has much in common thematically with writer-director Ramon Zürcher’s previous feature, The Girl and the Spider, which he co-directed with his twin brother, Silvan Zürcher. His third feature, on which Silvan Zürcher served as first assistant director, is a similarly elliptical chamber piece demonstrating a fascination with the conflicts and desires that simmer beneath mundane or sedate social surfaces, though here an expanded canvas allows him to occasionally loosen up and paint with slightly broader strokes.

Filled with a sense of dread that won’t be uncommon to some in how they approach their own family reunions, “The Sparrow in the Chimney” offers the same sense of relief when it’s all over, not only because of the wrenching drama it depicts, but the fresh air of its singular storytelling.

The final part of Zurcher brothers’ ‘animal trilogy’ exploring human togetherness is in keeping with its predecessors... while also being considerably more ambitious. An often drily comic psychodrama that sings with tension, it ups the ante – and special effects budget – as Swiss writer/director Ramon and his twin, producer Silvan, continue to chart the psychological and, potentially, physical injuries that can stem from abrasive familial relationships.

Darkly humorous, but extraordinarily bleak in a way that can be truly uncomfortable and profoundly disquieting, Zürcher’s work here reminds us of the dark and sinister side of human nature, demonstrating how the most animalistic and barbaric intentions are sometimes held by those in the most sophisticated and cultured of situations.