With “Palm Springs,” debut director Max Barbakow made a stormy debut that most filmmakers only dream of.

The time loop romantic comedy, in which Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as wedding guests had to relive the same day over and over again, was the hit of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Neon and Hulu acquired it in a record-breaking sale. The looming pandemic was a happy coincidence for a streaming debut, and “Palm Springs” ended up setting Hulu records when it came out over the summer. Barbakow had a genuine cultural phenomenon on his hands, becoming an established Hollywood director seemingly overnight.

How do you follow up on a one-off success like “Palm Springs”? Barbakow opted for a good old-fashioned American heist comedy. His second feature film “Brothers” (streaming now on Prime Video) stars Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage as siblings who have taken completely different paths after their difficult youth. Dinklage’s Jady Munger spent years in prison for a petty crime they committed together, while Brolin’s Moke narrowly escaped and made a new life for himself on the straight and narrow. But when converging circumstances cause both men to urgently need money, they are forced to quickly cover up years of dissatisfaction and set out to take on one final assignment that leads them to re-examine the root causes of their failure to launch .

Neither Dinklage nor Brolin play the role one would expect. Both men became household names for playing intimidating villains and tireless heroes, but in “Brothers” they star as incompetent children who struggle to get over their own mistakes. The opportunity to go against type in a silly comedy was an irresistible opportunity for Brolin and Dinklage. The latter brought Barbakow on board after developing the script with screenwriters Macon Blair and Etan Cohen.

In a recent conversation with IndieWire, Barbakow explained that his star-studded cast’s willingness to get playful (which also includes Marisa Tomei, Brendan Fraser, and Glenn Close) not only made for a fruitful collaboration, but even enriched his film’s main theme from people who hide from their own identity.

“This is a film about people trying to hide their true selves and playing off each other. “So when I have a group of experienced actors who are also playing against type in a comedy, I think the audience leans in a little bit and isn’t quite sure what to expect, which only helps the tone of the film,” said Barbakov. “Everyone took part because they were looking forward to it. From Glenn to Brendan. I mean, Josh, he has such a big heart as a person, but this guy is in my favorite movies of all time. He always plays a kind of alpha with a little overconfidence. This is so different for him and I know he really enjoyed it. It was especially fulfilling to help him figure out who this guy was.”

Brolin’s determination to shed his cocky alpha personality was tested in an important early scene. While Jady insists on taking a detour on her crime spree to visit a pen pal he “met” in prison (Tomei), Moke has to kill time alone with her pet orangutan – who turns him into a borderline sexual one Forces action that is far more intimate than anything Jady does in the bedroom.

Directing Josh Brolin in an orangutan love sequence is not the kind of situation a filmmaker expects to find themselves in, no matter how successful your first film was. Adding to the absurdity was the fact that his scene partner was played by a real motion capture actor who was a veteran of the Planet of the Apes franchise. Barbakow explained that the ridiculousness of the situation led him to accept the absurdity of the project and accept that his top actors were firmly on board.

“Devon Dalton played Samuel. She is a great motion capture actress who has appeared in all of the Planet of the Apes films. So not only are they directing Josh, but they’re also directing an orangutan playing a mo-cap actor in a suit, which makes the film even weirder, like something out of “Holy Motors,” he said. “It was very strange. It was also important to me that the scene went sideways. We really wanted to sell a moment of real connection between these two characters to earn the flip. I think it was a bizarre day for Josh for sure. But it was so fulfilling when we finally got the effects and actually scored that scene with the sounds of the orangutan to animate the facial expressions, which was an interesting possibility. I hadn’t done that before.”

From CGI primates to golf cart chases to an explosion-filled climactic sequence in a mall, “Brothers” was filled with a level of spectacle that Barbakow lacked in his smaller debut film. However, looking back, the filmmaker explained that he enjoyed the challenge of working with a larger team to bring the action-comedy script to life.

“You just try to solve every little idea, and hopefully you solve enough problems to realize the vision you have,” he said. “Everyone was so excited to realize the madness that this film was. It was really fun to figure that out.”

“Brothers” is now available to stream on Prime Video.