Sentimental Value

God, I don’t even know where to start. This was not the film I thought I was going to see when I first sat down. It’s such a heavy piece of art, filled with symbolism, and I’m already excited to watch it again because I know there’s so much I missed the first time. I genuinely feel like I just watched some of the best performances of the year. Honestly, it felt like I was a fly on the wall, watching a family grieve and slowly try to find one another again. Stellan Skarsgård shows exactly why he’s one of the most respected actors working today. His performance is brutal yet deeply forgiving, full of regret but also hope. And Renate Reinsve was unbelievable. Her performance resonated with me on a deep level. She didn’t do anything flashy, but she didn’t need to. In the scenes where it’s just her, you can read every emotion so clearly that it almost feels like you’re reading her mind through her body language and subtle expressions. It’s honestly a shame she isn’t getting more recognition, because she absolutely deserves it. This is the kind of performance I’ll be thinking about for a long time. What I loved most is how deeply the film explores the father and his two daughters. So much of the emotion is communicated without anyone directly stating how they feel, you just understand them through their actions, their silence, and the way they look at each other. Watching that unfold was incredible. And that final scene… it might have made me smile more than any film moment from the past year. It felt absolutely perfect. Like I said earlier, I can’t wait to watch this again. God, what a fucking movie.