‘Sentimental Value’ Review: Can Filmmaking Heal a Broken Family?

November 4, 2025

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Pictured: Plenty of sentimental value (CREDIT: Christian Belgaux/NEON) 

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning, Anders Danielsen Lie, Cory Michael Smith, Catherine Cohen, Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud, Øyvind Hesjedal Loven

Director: Joachim Trier

Running Time: 133 Minutes

Rating: R for Language, Brief Nudity, and Suicide References

Release Date: November 7, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Let’s just say, theater actress Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) doesn’t exactly have the best relationship with her filmmaker father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). Unfortunately for her, he’s determined to make his way back into her life following the death of her mother. She at least has an ally when it comes to family affairs in the form of her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), though Agnes has plenty on her own plate with her husband and young son. So Nora will just have to make her own decisions when Gustav tries to cast her in the lead role of his new movie that he wants to film in the family house. It’s inspired by the life of his mother, who was tortured by the Nazis during World War II and eventually killed herself. Nora doesn’t really have any interest in collaborating with her dad, so instead he casts the super-famous American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning). But he’s still pretty deadset on having his daughters be an integral part of the process as he tries to fix their broken relationships.

What Made an Impression?: Fresh Despite the Familiarity: How many movies have I seen about families repairing their dysfunction, or about people making movies, or about people making movies while repairing their dysfunctions? Well, I see a lot of movies, and those subjects come up a lot in this medium, so the answer is undoubtedly: more than a few. Sentimental Value is certainly operating in deeply familiar territory, but it doesn’t feel like the same-old, same-old. Perhaps we can credit that to the deeply felt performances, the thoroughly plugged-in chemistry (especially between Reinsve and Skarsgård),the  sensitive direction from Joachim Trier, or some combination of all of the above. Whatever the formula is, it works.
Dangerous, But Ultimately Comforting: In case it wasn’t clear already, there’s a lot of trauma and anxiety in this family. And it hangs heaviest on Nora. So much so that you fear that another terrible tragedy could be looming. Indeed, Trier structures the story in such a way that you sense the tension of potential disaster inviting itself into the house just as things kick into the final gear. But then, we come in for a safe landing. It all adds up to a simultaneously invigorating and calming cinematic reward.

Sentimental Value is Recommended If You Like: Old home movies, Genealogy research, Film screening Q&A’s

Grade: 4 out of 5 Daughters

It’s ‘The Worst Person in the World’ – Bang! You Hear Me? In the World!

February 2, 2022

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The Worst Person in the World (CREDIT: Oslo Pictures/NEON)

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner, Helene Bjøreby, Vidar Sandem

Director: Joachim Trier

Running Time: 121 Minutes

Rating: R for Some Sex and a Wild Drug Trip

Release Date: February 4, 2022 (New York & LA)/February 11, 2022 (Additional Cities)

While watching a movie called The Worst Person in the World, I can’t help but wonder: would I  like to be The Worst Person in the World? Or maybe I could just settle for The Worst Person in the Neighborhood. But also, let’s backtrack, because who exactly is this titular Worst Person? Presumably it’s the main character, medical student-turned-psychology student-turned-photographer Julie (Renate Reinsve). But she seems perfectly fine to me! Maybe this is “worst” in the sense of Eric Andre declaring “Bird Up!” “the worst show on television” or a certain psychedelic rock band naming their best-of album The Worst of Jefferson Airplane. Whatever the explanation, this isn’t a mystery that actually needs to be solved. Whether worst, best, or somewhere in between, Julie’s story is plenty compelling.

If we must think of Julie as The Worst, then perhaps we can call out her insistent refusal to conform to everyone’s expectations of her. In particular, her boyfriend Aksel’s (Anders Danielsen Lie) demands can be quite constricting. He’s a comic book writer-artist whose popular anthropomorphic character Bobcat likes to get unbound and frisky. I guess he’s the Scandinavian Fritz the Cat. (In case the cast names hadn’t clued you in, this is a Norwegian film.) Aksel insists that Bobcat is fun and transgressive, while his critics hold him up as the epitome of misogyny. Julie’s not much of a fan either, but the bigger conflict in their relationship is that Aksel just doesn’t really listen to her or see her for who she really is. Eventually, she leaves him for another guy named Eivind, and there is definitely a spark there. Everything just feels more natural with him. But eventually, that fizzles out as well, and this time it’s a little more inexplicable.

So in conclusion, I don’t think I would ever want to be The Worst Person in the World, at least not the version that Julie exemplifies. It looks way too existentially fraught. But I’d be happy to be her friend!. Although maybe we all have our own Worst Person within each of us, and it’s up to us to tease out the Best Version of our Worst Selves.

Also of note: I’ve only seen one of director Joachim Trier’s other films, but I’ve heard that he has a reputation for crafting endings that make you realize that you were watching a completely different movie this whole time. That trend holds up here to a degree, though I would add that The Worst Person in the World both is and isn’t what it appears to be. It’s all about perspective.

The Worst Person in the World is Recommended If You Like: Discussions about misogyny and mansplaining, Random flights of fancy within an otherwise not-fanciful film, Harry Nilsson and Christopher Cross on the soundtrack

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Relationships

This Is a Movie Review: Thelma

November 12, 2017

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CREDIT: The Orchard

After catching the whoosh of horror newness that is Joachim Trier’s Thelma, I find myself wondering how this flick might be franchise-able. After all, that’s the way it goes with horror. The sequels come and the formula gets repeated, twisted, maybe even subverted – a whole stew of mythology enhancement. Thelma at first glance might seem too icy, and you know, too Scandinavian, for follow-ups. But maybe Norwegians are also into the sequels. I’d love to see how a foreign sensibility matches up (or doesn’t) with a business-driven trend that often enough accidentally produces some creative results. But for now, we’ve got one lean, mean psychosexual machine.

I give Thelma 3 Disappearances out of 4 Personal Lightning Bolts.