Sentimental Value (2025)

I didn't realise it at the time, but I have now seen every fictional feature from director Joachim Trier. All of them are worth watching, and some of them are truly fantastic. Sentimental Value has already received a hell of a lot of praise since it was released, which had me keen to check it out, but it's ultimately not there alongside the very best from the director.

Stellan Skarsgård plays Gustav Borg, an elderly film-maker hoping to recharge his career with a personal dramatic film that explores some important events that affected his family. He wants his daughter, Nora (Renate Reinsve), to take on the main role, but she refuses. So he hires another actress, Rachel (Elle Fanning), instead. This makes things strange and awkward, of course, and the film looks set to cause a major rift between father and daughter. Well . . . it looks set to widen the rift that was already there.

A look at processing issues through art, a look at sacrifice, and a look at how difficult it can be to let things go (whether that is resentment, a dream, or even a family home), Sentimental Value is smart, strange, and thought-provoking throughout. It will work especially well for those people who think back on their own family issues (and what family doesn't have issues?), yet there's also something surprisingly optimistic and sweet about the way things develop in the third act.

Trier, who co-wrote the film with long-time collaborator Eskil Vogt, has faith in his talented cast, allowing him to show their characters as flawed, abrasive, and still grasping for answers that could have been available to them many years ago. The world of art may be unfamiliar to most viewers, but everything here is grounded in that family dynamic, first and foremost, and the core idea just makes it easier to view parallels between the main characters as introspection and reconsideration of the past is encouraged.

Skarsgård is fantastic in his role, something akin to a softer version of the many people he has played for another celebrated director, Lars von Trier, throughout his career, and Reinsve is very believable as the daughter standing against what she sees as a horrible reappropriation of their family history. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas is also very good, playing the other daughter, Agnes, who is helped to stay a step removed from the situation by the fact that she isn't in the world of acting, and Fanning is quietly impressive, as she has been in almost every role she's had throughout her career.

While I would put pretty much every other Trier film from the last decade or so ahead of this one, Sentimental Value is a very good film. It maybe lacks some edge, and I would have liked more scenes showing the fractures between father and daughter developing and growing ever-larger, but it's a delicate and intelligent way to show an attempt to heal that not many get to try. Maybe if we just found it a bit easier to let go sometimes.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: The Worst Person In The World (2021)

Having now seen a few films from director Joachim Trier (including the most excellent Thelma), it's easy to see why he already has such a sizeable fanbase. His films explore human nature in a way that is honest, dark, and also usually very witty. While The Worst Person In The World has some elements that don't quite work for me, it's generally another easy recommendation for fans of Trier's work.

Renate Reinsve plays Julie, a young woman who we see going through a number of relatively speedy changes in her life within the first main sequence of the film. She ends up in a relationship with Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), which leads to a scenario that will be sadly familiar to so many women . . . the questioning about when they're going to start a family. Julie then meets Elvind (Herbert Nordrum), someone she connects with at a party. There's no cheating, but there's definitely an instant connection and an inappropriate level of intimacy between the two. Things once again look set to change rapidly for Julie.

First of all, anyone expecting a dark comedy delivering us a character who really IS the worst person in the world will be sorely disappointed. This is a film about how people battle their way through life, and how they feel others will view them. Julie makes a number of decisions in her own best interests, but those decisions are open to dissection and criticism from others.

Trier, once again working with Eskil Vogt on the screenplay, simply allows events to unfold, keeping the viewers as close as possible to Julie in an attempt to show how her decisions are made, how we are all prone to chopping and changing our minds as we navigate these murky waters, and how nobody really ever knows what someone else is going through.

Reinsve is excellent in the lead role, just absolutely believable as an everyday woman dealing with the many small bits of bullshit that people (but mostly women, especially when it comes to the baby talk) deal with every day. Lie and Nordrum also do great work, playing the two main men in Julie’s life, the former an artist who creates “shock” comics, the latter a barista who is perhaps even less sure of his path through life than Julie.

There are one or two easy “set-pieces” that will be remembered long after the credits have rolled, but this is a film in which every scene makes a strong point. That point could be about the importance of not being dragged down by family members who no longer make any effort. It could be looking at how intimacy without physical contact can still be viewed as cheating on a loved one. It could even explore regret, and whether or not that overwhelming urge to move backward is a good thing for those who were once very much in love.

My minor criticisms come from the runtime and the structure, both of which I feel could have been trimmed and reworked better. There’s a middle section that sags a bit, and the chapter breaks feel very much like Trier was shying away from one or two other tricks he could have used.

Overall, however, this is pretty great. Everyone involved, both in front of the camera and behind it, deserves some praise, and everyone who appreciates world cinema should make this a high priority on their viewing schedule.

8/10

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Thelma (2017)

Having heard about Thelma for the past few months, I finally had the chance to see it recently, wary of the fact that so many people had given it some glowing praise, most often comparing it to a mix of Carrie and more straightforward films about teenagers transitioning into a more mature stage in their lives, exploring sexuality and figuring out how they want to be making their first impressions upon the world as full adults.

First of all, although I can see why the comparison has been made, Thelma has less in common with Carrie and more in common with the classic episode of The Twilight Zone called "It's A Good Life". You know the one. The boy who can make anything happen, leading to his parents and everyone else living in fear of him. It was also the segment directed by Joe Dante for the movie version.

Yes, Thelma feels more in line with that tale, not in the actual content but more to do with the feelings of the characters who live with the young woman at the centre of the story. And I guess I should summarise that story.

Elli Harboe is Thelma, a young woman who has lived quite a sheltered life. She is trying to acclimatise to student life while also figuring out the feelings she seems to be developing for another young woman (Anja, played by Kaya Wilkins). When things start to weigh too heavily on her mind, Thelma has seizures. She also inadvertently changes the location of various people around her, depending on who she is thinking of. And that's not good for the people who may find themselves, well, suddenly unable to be found by anyone else.

Written by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier, with the latter also directing, Thelma is a very deliberately paced film that slowly reveals some tense and horrifying moments through flashbacks that show how Thelma (played at a younger age by Grethe Eltervåg) has affected her parents (Henrik Rafaelsen and Ellen Dorrit Petersen), and why she is often treated the way she is. The style throughout is slightly removed and chilly, which suits both the way in which some view Thelma and also the way in which she seems to be observing a world around her that she suspects she may be able to completely change if she finds that's what she really wants.

The acting from all involved is excellent. Thelma (played by Harboe, or Eltervåg), is most often the focus, and both actresses play her with a wonderful mix of innocence and cool detachment, but Rafaelsen and Petersen also get to excel in scenes that show the burden they must carry throughout their lives. Wilkins does well in her role, making it easy for viewers to believe that Thelma would be drawn to the warmth and general loveliness of her character.

A rewarding viewing experience that shows general teen angst while also occasionally revealing the horrific repercussions of an unchecked supernatural power, Thelma is highly recommended for more patient fans of the horror genre, those who may enjoy something different from the norm without clamouring for a bodycount or bombastic set-pieces.

8/10

You can buy Thelma here.
Americans can watch it on Amazon here.