Kurt Loder Reviews The Skeleton Twins and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (Them)

In The Skeleton Twins, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader draw on their many years of professional togetherness – seven seasons ofSaturday Night Live, five previous films – to set up the familial rhythms of a pair of troubled siblings. The movie isn't a straight comedy – the title characters are sunk in despair, and only steps away from suicide. But Wiig and Hader use their comic timing to create an easy intimacy, even in scenes in which nothing funny is going on. Kurt Loder writes that it's unusual to check in with actors we've watched for so long and find them doing something fresh – in fact, giving breakthrough performances. But that's what's happening here.