Sentimental Value

Sentimental Value is the purest distillation of why movies are the greatest art form that i have seen in 2025, Joachim Trier’s latest is a powerful example of the empathy machine firing on all cylinders. The film centers on the Borg sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve, in another excellent performance) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in a star making performance), there estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård, fantastic) is a legendary filmmaker mounting his comeback and offers the lead in the project to Nora who is an actress, when she turns him down he turns his attention to American movie star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning, also absolutely terrific) as the film is mounted Nora and Agnes have to reckon with there father, the past and the family home that shaped them. Sentimental Value is about as close to perfect as modern cinema gets, a funny and thoughtful dramedy about the ties that bind and how those relationships and the environment in which those relationships are cultivated shape us and how art is a powerful tool for forgiveness and healing from trauma. Films like this are why i love film, they transcend the bounds of viewer and film to get at something real, something tactile, something all too human, we see ourselves in these people, in the walls of this home we see the walls that kept us, in art we see ourselves. Sentimental Value is the best film of 2025 and quite possibly one of the best films i have ever seen. 

I Give It 5 Stars!!!