Sentimental Value

I am sitting in my car as I write this. I just finished a 45 minute drive from where I saw this movie. The theater I saw it at was a small little indie place. The seating was rows of couches, and the movie was projected onto a screen that looks like it came right from a high school classroom. I loved it. I’m grateful that I drove so far to see this movie. It meant I got to drive back. I got time to collect my thoughts, calm down, stop crying.  I’m thinking a lot about place making these days. How we, as people, and communities, employ sensorial, religious, social experiences to turn spaces into places. Places we call home, where we can be ourselves. Places where we feel comfortable, alive. I’ve been living in Burlington, Vermont since August of 2022, when I moved in to my freshman year dorm. That was 3.5 years ago. I don’t know if I have yet turned Burlington, Vermont (the space) into Burlington, Vermont (the place). I hope this all makes sense.  This movie deals with place making in a way that was very powerful and real. The characterization of the house via both its inhabitants and anthropomorphizing the house itself was genius. For the audience, it turns it from what seems to be a rundown old building, into something full of life, love, sadness, and death.  It gives the house meaning and purpose outside of being a roof and four walls. Any building can do that.  Renate Reinsve’s Nora Borg was one of the best performances I’ve seen all year. I think that it’s hard for me to fully grasp a performance when it’s not in English (not sure if this is something I can work on but that’s not relevant right now), but I think that Reinsve did such a phenomenal job that so much was communicated via tone and body language that me not understanding the actual words didn’t matter. The way that she can just sit in silence and communicate so much was insane. I think the whole film did so well at taking advantage of moments that didn’t have dialogue. The tension, emotions, and connections that existed in these moments were so palpable and heavy.  There’s so much more I want to say. But I’m going to leave it there and keep thinking. This is the best movie I have seen this year. If you have any chance at all to see this movie, in a theater or not, take it.