Floored by understatement.
Sentimental Value is about the fraught relationship between two sisters and their estranged filmmaker father, who brings on a famous Hollywood ingenue to play a part he’d originally written for one of his daughters. The film’s real magic is in the storytelling: everyone involved elevates the already interesting premise into understated alchemy.
I don’t know how Joachim Trier says so much with what only seems like so little. Directing the script he co-wrote with Eskil Vogt,
Joachim Trier moves mountains with his deceptively light touch.
Quiet inventiveness and subversive humour trade dance partners with simmering emotions and liminal exchanges. Even the most raw scenes play as understated and honest, but never melodramatic, and often funny and charming, even as we jump between time and points of view in the transitions between scenes and even within them.
The same can be said for everyone in the cast. Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning… how is everyone is doing so much entirely within the smallest details of their performances? Each character’s dimensionality is located in the space within the writing – space each of these incredible performers fills with rich understatement. Every exchange, every look, feels like a practical effect, like baffling magic – in every single scene, throughout the film, it happens again, and again, and again. Wow.
Further Viewing
Joachim Trier, Renate Reinsve, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas sharing ideas, experiences, and intentions within the film (via Letterboxd):
One part of this (generally lovely) collection of interviews perhaps gives some insight into how Joachim Trier makes minutiae feel monumental (from 9:00, via BAFTA):
“And then you can start stacking the ideas… the hits of the album… you want Quincy Jones, you want Thriller.” Joachim Trier shares his and Eskil Vogt’s co-writing process with Mike Mills (via Criterion):
A deleted scene from Sentimental Value (via Criterion):
sihaam on “mental illness as an heirloom, thors hammer, and the power of objects” in Sentimental Value:
i saw this really informative sentimental value video on instagram, def worth the watch !!
— head RENATEzen 🧬 (@ast3roidcity_) February 7, 2026
(cr: sihaamn) pic.twitter.com/zOkFARl5qY
This recommendation for Thelma (2017) comes not from me, but i’ll be following it to discover more of Joachim Trier’s work:
Of course, my personal further viewing recommendation is Joachim Trier and Renate Reinsve’s previous collaboration, The Worst Person In The World (2021). One day I’ll get around to writing about this wonderful film – until I do, I’ll leave the trailer here as a placeholder: