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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Prime Time: Dune (2020)

It's a bit of a running joke sometimes, but I tend to mention the fact that I've not yet read the source material in a lot of my movie reviews. Films and books are two very different mediums, of course, but knowledge of one can inform your opinion of the other, which is why I try to let people know the full context of my opinion. And it feels even more important than ever to mention it here, considering how many sci-fi fans seem to love the franchise kick-started by Frank Herbert back in 1965.

With the memory of the 1984 film still looming large in my subconscious, I kept delaying a viewing of this film for as long as I could. The cast seemed good enough, the visuals looked great, and I hadn't yet been disappointed by director Denis Villeneuve. I just couldn't bring myself to give it 2 1/2 hours of my life though. Until I could.

Timothée Chalamet plays Paul Atreides, the son of Lady Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson) and Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac). This noble family are sent to the planet Arrakis, a hostile environment that also happens to be the home of the most valuable resource in the universe, spice. Spice makes interstellar travel possible, among other things. Arrakis has some hostile native inhabitants, in the shape of both humanoids and the huge sandworms, but the House of Atreides hope to use diplomacy and respect to make the best of their situation, ignorant to the fact that they have been set up for failure. Aside from the political manoeuvring, Lady Jessica spends time helped Paul develop his power, known as "The Voice", and preparing him to fulfil his prophesied potential.

Adapted for the screen by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth, the latter two with very mixed filmographies that wouldn't necessarily lead you to think of them as first main choices for this, Dune is a dense viewing experience that admirably does enough throughout to keep viewers up to speed with the developing intrigue and treachery. It's part one of two, and that was definitely the right choice. In fact, the more of the source material that comes through in each main scene, the more you realise what a fool's errand poor David Lynch was on when he tried to pack everything into one feature back in the mid-1980s.

Packed with gorgeous visuals from start to finish, Villeneuve makes sure to once again build a completely believable and fully-formed environment for the characters to inhabit. The production design, make up, wardrobe, etc, are all absolutely stunning, and displayed beautifully by cinematographer Greig Fraser, and there's a superb Hans Zimmer score to accompany the flawless visuals.

While Chalamet plays the lead role, it's an extra delight to have the rest of the cast so stacked with great performers and familiar faces. Not that Chalamet is bad, but his character is, certainly in this first half of the tale, a bit weak and passive, for the most part. Ferguson and Isaac are effortlessly impressive though, and they have a couple of reliable advisors/warriors in the shape of Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin (both excellent, the latter disappointingly under-used). Stellan Skarsgård is almost unrecognisable, at first anyway, as the repugnant and cold-blooded Baron Harkonnen, Dave Bautista turns up just long enough to play his nephew, and there are excellent contributions from Chang Chen and Sharon Duncan-Brewster. You also have small roles for Javier Bardem and Zendaya, both playing different Arrakis natives who could end up helping our lead to fulfil his promise.

This is the kind of big-budget sci-fi that fans deserve. It feels more mature and intelligent than the usual mainstream releases, it has been crafted with a real care and attention to detail, and Villeneuve and co. have taken care to punctuate the ethereal and meditative mood with enough livelier set-pieces to ensure that the lengthy runtime doesn't feel like an unendurable slog. Many fans will have already seen this, and been won over by it, but I recommend it to anyone else who has been as hesitant as I was. It's worth your time, and I hope everything comes together for a satisfying concluding instalment.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Borg Vs. McEnroe (2017)

John McEnroe and Björn Borg are two titans of the sport of tennis. This film focuses on what was arguably their biggest, and best, match. A Wimbledon final that saw McEnroe as the main challenger for Borg, who was aiming for his fifth consecutive win there. McEnroe was hated by the crowds, his crude and abrasive manner at odds with how everyone wanted people to be behaved at Wimbledon, whereas Borg was known for his icy cool demeanour. But what would happen when these two men finally met?

Like many other sport movies, Borg Vs. McEnroe is about much more than just the sport. It is about two very different men who actually have a lot in common, shown in flashback sequences that allow viewers to see the dedication and pain it can take to reach a professional level in the sport. 

Directed by Janus Metz Pedersen, from a screenplay written by Ronnie Sandahl, there’s a hell of a lot here that is done perfectly, including (most importantly) the tennis itself. The casting feels right throughout, rather than using familiar faces just to make the whole thing an easier sell.

Having said that, I cannot think of more perfect casting than Shia LaBeouf in the role of McEnroe. Constantly simmering with anger, ready to hurl expletives at everyone around him, and generally distracting everyone from his talent with terrible behaviour and derision of those around him, surely LaBeouf saw plenty in this role that he could identify with. At the other end of the spectrum is Sverrir Gudnason, perfectly portraying the cool, perhaps a bit too stifled at times, and super-professional Borg. Stellan Skarsgård is allowed to be his usual excellent self, playing Borg’s tough and exacting coach, and others do good work, but the film rarely moves away from LaBeouf or Gudnason for too long. 

Everything is a build up to the final tennis match, and Pedersen uses every cinematic trick at his disposal to emulate the excitement and tension. The score, the editing, the physical performances, it all comes together to really throw viewers into the thick of a match that has become more important to either player than “just one more victory”.

It does help if you are interested in tennis, or either man being portrayed here, but Borg Vs. McEnroe does more than just explore what happens on the court. It tries to provide moments from two parallel lives to show how two players ended up on very similar journeys to become very different people. The final result may not be an ace, but it’s a damn good shot nonetheless. 

8/10

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Angels & Demons (2009)

The pope must die . . . in order to kickstart the proceedings of this, the second cinematic adaptation of the implausible adventures of Robert Langdon. It’s a rip-roaring “treasure hunt” through Vatican City, and holds up as an equal to the first film.

Langdon (Tom Hanks) is called to Vatican City after a plan is put in motion that involves killing potential new Popes (I cannot recall the name of the ceremony, they really should just call it Pope Idol by now) in a manner tied to the four elements, branding bodies with special writing that may signify the work of the Illuminati, and having everyone do their damnedest to track down a vial of anti-matter that has been set to explode in mere hours.

With Hanks back in the lead role, Howard back in the big chair, and Akiva Goldsman back on writing duties (this time alongside David Koepp), Angels & Demons is very much a happy reunion for people who clearly enjoyed doing such a great job of things the first time around. While you could continue to complain about to the disparity between popular entertainment and great art (and the common ground), the source material from Dan Brown certainly stands high in the former camp, and both Howard and Hanks are used to delivering to people what they want.

The only downside of this film is the female thrown alongside Langdon for this particular escapade. Ayelet Zurer plays Dr. Vittoria Vetra, but she’s really not given much to do. Compared to the other onscreen allies that Langdon has been paired with, this woman is sorely undeveloped and redundant, for the most part (which is really saying something, considering how consistently weak Brown is when it comes to visiting the same well over and over for his stock of supporting characters).

Hanks is comfortable reprising the famous symbologist, Ewan McGregor is a treat, playing someone who was close to the previous Pope, and believes the church should attempt to be even more progressive, and Stellan Skarsgård is as dependable as ever, here playing a stubborn, no-nonsense, head of the Swiss Guard.

The end may become a bit too ridiculous (which you could arguably say about all Dan Brown tales), but this feels a bit more intense than The Da Vinci Code, and makes absolutely fantastic use of the gorgeous environment of Vatican City. For slick mainstream thrills, I think this is top-notch stuff.

8/10

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