Sentimental Value

2025 Ranked If The Worst Person In the World reflected the spunky, energetic chaos that is navigating life in your 20s-30s, Joachim Trier’s follow up Sentimental Value, is the more subdued, mature, and quiet navigation of familial trauma passed down through generations. It’s the difficulty of having a family member hear you, but not listen to you. It’s the painful feeling of being lost in places and around others you once felt at home with. The trauma in Sentimental Value is not what we normally see on screen. The subject matter is relatively common yes, but the way Trier navigates through it, is in a much more patient and quietly revealing way that most other films do. The information is slowly given, small details are brushed over and important information doesn’t seem like so in the moment, but the pieces all start to come together, and the puzzle of not just a broken family, but a broken family tree are revealed by the end of this just as the sublime Labi Siffre needle drop comes in. It definitely takes it’s time to lay the emotional groundwork, but Trier gently extends his hand out to yours and simply says “please trust me”. It almost seems like cheating to say that after watching The Worst Person In the World, that Renate Reinsve would shine once again in whatever future projects she takes on. Throw another collaboration with Joachim Trier into the mix and the only acceptable response to hearing that she has knocked it out of the park again is “Duh.” Renate is exceptional here, doing everything she can to tell the audience, both the real audience, and her fake one watching her on stage, so much without saying nearly anything. Nora is a character that keeps to herself, but much like the house she and her sister grew up in, the noticeable crack is her flaw, and the wall begins to come down between her and the people around her. Of course the relationship between Nora and her absent father is the relationship that is placed in the spotlight, but I actually found the relationship between Nora and her sister Agnes to be equally as important, and at times, much more interesting. There’s a scene between the two sisters, where after reading their father’s screenplay, they share that when he was gone and they were growing up, all they had were each other. Agnes clearly looks fine on the surface, but harbors the same anger and frustration as Nora does. Where Agnes has her partner and child, Nora, just like as child, only has Agnes. Nora is so desperate for a “home”, whether thats in marriage, in reconciliation with her father, with herself, with the preservation of their childhood home. It’s the same lost sense of self Julie feels in The Worst Person In the World, but from a much more mature lens. In terms of supporting actors, Sean Penn clearly has the flashier role, but do not take that as a slight against the exceptional performance from Stellan Skarsgard. The quiet, brooding nature of Skarsgard’s Gustav Borg is the same nature displayed in Reinsve’s Nora. The trauma, and the handling of it, are passed down from generation to generation. There’s moments of brilliance in Skarsgard’s performance where he quite literally is saying nothing. His entire character is the most crucial of the entire film. Sometimes words cannot work between two people trying to repair a bridge. Sometimes, it takes a piece of art to connect the two together. Here, it’s Borg’s newest screenplay in which he has written the lead part specifically for Nora. It’s his way of trying to help her forgive him for his flaws. For Nora, it’s her invitation to forgive and grow. For Gustav, it’s one elaborate apology. The house being essentially its own character is such a brilliant choice by Trier. Not only do we physically witness generations of memories within the four walls, but the progression of its interiors and exteriors. Roofs will be rebuilt, floors will be refloored, walls will be repainted. What was once a lovely looking piece of architecture can turn into the same boring gray, modern houses of new. The memories however, will still remain but it’s that “house” that Nora and many others are still searching for that realize it will no longer be there. It’s not easy to return to a home you once knew and now feel like a complete stranger in, it’s an entirely different beast when the entire house has been re-modeled, and all that you have left to cherish is a recreation on a film set. One thing I love about Joachim’s films is how natural the modern day world feels. Laptops and phones are unabashedly a part of his films, Netflix is name-dropped, it all could be very easily eye-rolling, but Trier weaves it together in a way that feels so natural. It a part of our lives, but none of it is absolutely necessary, and Trier understands that perfectly. To me, I feel the same way about this as I did last year’s I Saw the TV Glow. A perfect, sincere film that has reached me at just the perfect place and just the perfect time. It scratches that very specific itch I've been craving and touches that incredibly deep and personal spot within myself that I absolutely needed in this moment. Sentimental Value is a universal film. There is always a difficult family member to talk to. If not, a difficult sibling, friend, lovee, etc. it’s the process of listening, not just hearing, and the utilization of things other than words to try and repair what has been broken for generations. I have much more thoughts on this film but the review would be so long that you could use it as a blanket, so I’ll just say that Sentimental Value is one of the best films of the year without question, and Trier’s best by a mile.