Pop quiz, hotshot: What’s the only<\/em> awards contender that’s playing all four major fall film festivals this cycle? (No peeking at Gold Derby’s official festival scorecard<\/a> until after you answer.) <\/p>\n The film in question, of course, is Werner Herzog<\/a>‘s Bucking Fastard<\/a><\/em>, the much-loved German auteur’s first narrative feature in seven years. Starring sisters Kate and Rooney Mara<\/a> in their first-ever onscreen collaboration, the film just had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will move on to play Telluride, Toronto, and New York. <\/p>\n As in real life, the Mara siblings play a pair of sisters named Jean and Joan Holbrooke. But in a cinematic twist, the duo’s onscreen alter egos share everything<\/em>; they say the same things, wear the same things, and fall for the same man, played by Orlando Bloom. When that love triangle lands the sisters in court, they have to defend their way of life in the harsh glare of the public spotlight.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Bucking Fastard<\/em> is also in the spotlight following its Venice premiere, with the first wave of reviews signaling a mixed reaction as the film seeks a U.S. distributor brave enough to mount an awards campaign for Herzog’s latest bit of eccentric whimsy. Believe it or not, the filmmaker behind classics like Aguirre, the Wrath of God<\/em>\u00a0and Fitzcarraldo<\/em> only has one Oscar nomination to his name \u2014 a 2008 Best Documentary Feature nod for his made-in-Antarctica documentary, Encounters at the End of the World<\/em>.<\/p>\n With Venice critics reporting in, Bucking Fastard<\/em> currently has a 70-percent fresh rating<\/a> on Rotten Tomatoes and a 60 rating<\/a> on Metacritic. We’ll see if those numbers improve after more reviews wash up from Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF. Here’s a sampling of the reaction to Herzog’s wild tale of two sisters. <\/p>\n Time<\/em>‘s Stephanie Zacharek<\/a> is a fig ban… uh, big fan of Bucking Fastard<\/em> and the performances by the Mara sisters in particular. “Almost nothing in\u00a0Werner Herzog\u2019s\u00a0fractured fairytale\u00a0Bucking Fastard<\/em>… makes literal sense,” she writes. But it all makes a kind of sideways sense, especially if, before watching, you can will yourself into a Herzogian brainspace.<\/p>\n “The Mara sisters are brilliant here,” Zacharek continues. “Their eyes as hungry and haunted as those of an orphan in a Keane painting. You laugh with them, not at them. …But there\u2019s also something deeply touching about their refusal to give up on love. There\u2019s a metaphorical idea shimmering beneath the surface of\u00a0Bucking Fastard:<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s as if, through this strange and somewhat simple story, Herzog were trying to explore the things women want but don\u2019t dare demand.”<\/p>\n Indiewire’s Ryan Lattanzo<\/a> is also feeling the Fastard<\/em> vibe, writing: “[The film] ends on a note that quite literally shuts us out of the door upon the Holbrookes that\u2019s been opened, the sisters\u2019 journey toward a sense of belonging in a world other than each other\u2019s left unfinished. Why shouldn\u2019t it? The 83-year-old Herzog\u2019s wryly funny, touchingly eccentric, and uncompromisingly bats–t feature \u2014\u00a0wait<\/em>, aren\u2019t they\u00a0all\u00a0<\/em>like that? \u2014 will enchant and dismay in likely equivalent proportions.” <\/p>\n And over in Screen International, Tim Grierson<\/a> says: “The Mara sisters do a remarkable job of wearing similar facial expressions along with their matching wardrobes, although it is interesting to observe how each actor\u2019s personality occasionally asserts itself. Kate Mara<\/a>\u2019s generally warmer demeanour is faintly noticeable alongside her sister\u2019s slightly more cerebral approach, and yet the two performers feel entirely in sync as their characters share the same vocal responses and childlike manner.<\/p>\n “For an artist who has often championed outcasts and misfits,\u00a0Bucking Fastard<\/em>\u00a0is clearly besotted with these two women who have never known anything besides each other,” Grierson concludes. <\/p>\n \n![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.goldderby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kyle-chandler.jpg?w=300&h=168&crop=1\")
<\/div>\n![\"VENICE,](\"https:\/\/www.goldderby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2293349039.jpg?w=650\")
The good<\/h2>\n