Sentimental Value: A Review - Of Fathers and Daughters

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!!THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. A fantastic film that boasts as superb a cast and performances as I’ve seen in years.

Sentimental Value, written and directed by Joachim Trier, tells the story of two adult sisters, Nora and Agnes, as they reunite with their estranged filmmaker father after the death of their mother.

The film, which is mostly in Norwegian with English subtitles, hit screens back on Christmas Day and is now available to stream on Hulu, which is where I watched it. (Speaking of Hulu – they are on a great run with their film catalogue this year with It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent and now Sentimental Value.)

Sentimental Value is a distinctly European film in tone, theme and style, which more mainstream viewers might find a bit impenetrable. But if given the chance, the film is most definitely worthy if for no other reason than it features a bevy of top-notch acting talent – Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgard, giving awards-worthy performances. In fact, the film, which won the Best International Feature Film Oscar, also received nominations for Best Actress (Reinsve), Best Supporting Actress (Lilleaas and Fanning), and Best Supporting actor (Skarsgard).

The plot of the film is that Nora (Renata Reinsve) and her younger sister, Agnes, (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) are hosting the funeral for their recently deceased psychotherapist mother when their estranged father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard), unexpectedly arrives.

Gustav is an acclaimed filmmaker and his career is, like his life, fading. Nora, a stage and tv actress, and Agnes, a historian and young mother, are resentful of Gustav having left their mother and abandoning them as children.

Gustav, played with exquisite skill and aplomb by Stellan Skarsgard, is a narcissist and manipulator who is like a hurricane blowing through people’s lives.

Nora and Agnes brace for Hurricane Gustav but do so in different ways. His relationship with each of them is very different, with Nora much more resentful and emotionally stunted, and Agnes more forgiving and open.

Gustav, seemingly out of self-interest, has come back to his familial home where the girls were raised but from which he ran, with a new script he has written, and wants Nora to star in it.

I will refrain from any other discussion about plot, except to say that from there, drama ensues…and it is a glorious, complex, insightful, and revelatory drama that is extremely compelling, and despite its European/ arthouse trappings, thoroughly satisfying.

The acting on display in Sentimental Value is as good as any you’ll see in any film this year, or in recent memory.

Renate Reinsve is electrifying as the eldest daughter Nora. I first saw Reinsve in Trier’s fantastic 2021 film, The Worst Person in the World. She is a wonderful actress who brings a vibrant inner life and sharp complexity to each of her roles. She is a beauty, but a deeply complicated and conflicted one…never easily understood or comfortable.

Reinsve has some scenes in this film, the details of which I will not divulge, that are so great it made me want to crawl out of my skin and scream in agony and ecstasy. She is a magnificent and magnetic screen presence and one of the best actresses we have working right now.

Elle Fanning plays Rachel Kemp, an American actress dripping with all the trappings of American stardom in the movie world. Fanning is fantastic as the new it-girl thrown into the disorienting storm that is Stellan Skarsgard’s Gustav. Fanning is a fascinating actress. She is at once goofy and gullible yet also sexy and smart…a lethal combination. One can imagine an actress of her versatility and presence being a force in film for decades to come.

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas plays the younger daughter Agnes, who is the most composed and least damaged of everyone involved but even she is not without issues. Lilleaas is an extraordinarily captivating screen presence who never pushes or forces things but just lets things be as they are and simply lives in the presence of it.

These three women give utterly phenomenal performances and the credit for that goes to, first of all…them for their talent, skill and commitment…but also to Joachim Trier for writing such layered and complicated characters, and for having such a deft directing touch with his cast.

As great as these women are…and goodness gracious they are great, the straw that stirs this drink is the ever-reliable Stellan Skarsgard. Skarsgard is good in everything he does, but in Sentimental Value as Gustav he brings all his skill and talent to bear and embodies his narcissistic character with a calculating charisma that is undeniable while also being repellent.

Skarsgard’s god-like Gustav is a force of nature and personality that alters the gravity field wherever he wanders and is consistently destabilizing and destructive while being blissfully unaware of the damage he does but not of the power he wields. Gustav has desperately been the center of the universe for the entirety of his adulthood, but now Father Time is rearing his ugly head and Gustav finds himself out of control and running out of time…that that dramatic clash is glorious.

Which brings us to writer/director Joachim Trier. Trier is a phenomenal filmmaker. His previous film, The Worst Person in the World, is a mesmerizing masterwork, and Sentimental Value is similar in its dramatic success.

Trier is one of those rare combinations of filmmakers that is an elite writer and an elite director of actors, and the proof of that is obvious in Sentimental Value.

Trier’s understanding of father-daughter dynamics and the intricacies of the artistic mind and spirit are astonishing, and his bravery to show those things without a safety net is equally impressive.

Ultimately, the distance between father and daughter is an ocean, and it can never be crossed…but there can be fleeting moments of understanding, glimpses across the vast divide, that reveal a deeper, more meaningful connection than most can fully, consciously, comprehend. This is the story of Sentimental Value…and it is a story that is well worth your time and effort.

If you like complex dramas made for grown-ups that feature stellar performances across the board, then Sentimental Value is for you…it most definitely was for me…as I thought it was one of the best films of the year.

©2026

Andor - Season Two: TV Review – A New Hope

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. A truly remarkable television series that is everything franchise entertainment should be, but isn’t….namely, art.

I have a confession to make…I’ve been in a very deep funk of late when it comes to film and television…a funk so deep it could be diagnosed as depression.

The truth is that I have been despairing over the abysmal state of film and television for some time now, but recently, in this age of raging sub-mediocrity in art and entertainment, that despair has manifested as intense disinterest, which is a shocking thing to admit considering watching this mind-numbingly predictable shit is how I make my living.

An example of how things have been going for me is that in recent months there have been three big prestige tv shows that have come out, White Lotus – Season Three, Severance – Season Two, and The Last of Us – Season Two.

My reaction to these shows speaks volumes to not only the state of entertainment in our current era, but more importantly to my state of mind.

When it came to HBO’s White Lotus Season Three, I skipped it completely…I had zero interest in it after suffering through seasons one and two, which I found to be painfully trite and much too try-hard-to-be-cool-and-edgy.

I enjoyed the first season of AppleTV’s Severance when it came out in 2022, but when the new season premiered this winter, I couldn’t have cared less. Out of duty I watched the first two episodes and then I bailed on the show because I simply didn’t care about anything or anyone on it. I know I was supposed to be dazzled by Severance – Season Two but it seems to me the thrill is most definitely gone, lost somewhere in its long three-year absence between season one and two.

And as for The Last of Us – Season Two…I haven’t even contemplated watching it. I watched season one and thought it was a bit “meh”, so for season two I find myself just not caring one iota no matter how much the pop culture gods demand that I do.

Which brings us to Andor – Season Two. Even though I am admittedly not a huge Star Wars guy, I loved the first season of Andor so much that I thought it was the best Star Wars series of all-time, and, dare I say it, the best Star Wars anything of all-time.

But being in my current funk, I did not watch Andor’s second season as it rolled out its episodes on Disney + three at a time per week starting on April 22, and ending on May 13. I was going to skip Andor entirely out of sheer self-deluded ambivalence but then the gods intervened…and I got sick.

I was bed-ridden with some grievous virus or something and really couldn’t do much else so I figured I’d give Andor season two a try since I had nothing else to do…and boy am I ever glad that I did.

Andor is exactly what Star Wars, or any franchise intellectual property (I’m looking at you Marvel and DC!!), should be. It is not fan service or a nostalgia delivery system, rather it is a finely crafted, dramatic, pop culture vehicle through which to illuminate the complexity and tragedy of the human experience.

The show’s creator, Tony Gilroy, who also wrote the Star Wars film Rogue One (which I think is the best Star Wars film), has constructed a rich, compelling, captivating and brilliant series that never, ever, relies on cheap gimmicks or franchise fan service, but instead creates deeply moving drama by plumbing the depths of human frailty.

To get into the plot of Andor would be a fool’s errand as it is a rich tapestry of spy thriller/political intrigue wrapped around interpersonal drama, but the basics of it are thus…the rebellion against the evil empire is in its infancy, and people on both sides of the divide must make choices that have enormous personal and political consequences.

Andor is masterfully put together by Gilroy, who weaves multiple storylines together and treats the audience like adults, never showing them everything but instead letting them infer what has happened without spoon-feeding it.

The cast of Andor is spectacular, with remarkable performances from Diego Luna (as Cassian Andor), Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, Adria Arjona, Stelland Skarsgard, Elizabeth Dulua, and most particularly Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma.

I’ve never been a huge Diego Luna fan, but he does superb work as Andor, the spy-soldier trying to navigate the paranoid world of anti-imperial rebellion and his own personal life. Adria Arjona plays Andor’s wife Bix, and she is an undeniably captivating screen presence.

Kyle Soller and Denise Gough play Syril and Dedra respectively, two ambitious Imperial bureaucrats who climb career ladders due to their moral and ethical flexible. Soller and Gough are so good in these roles it is difficult to adequately describe it. They both bring these complex characters to life exquisitely when in lesser hands they’d be nothing more than mustache-twirling villains.

Stellan Skarsgard is phenomenal as Luthen Rael, a morally dubious spy-master for the rebellion, as is Elizabeth Dulua as his “daughter”, Kleya. Skarsgard brings such skill and talent to bear to this role that it really is remarkable to behold, and Dulua is simply a revelation in her role.

And finally, Genevieve O’Reilly gives an exquisite performance as Mon Mothma, a Galactic Senator who is a lonely dissenting voice against the Empire. O’Reilly’s performance is so internalized and subdued yet so powerful and vibrating with life that it is a joy to behold.

What strikes me about Andor is that it is so good because it feels only coincidental that it is set in the Star Wars universe. If you set the show in modern times on planet earth, it would be just as compelling and just as relevant.

In terms of relevancy, no doubt viewers could project whatever political beliefs they have onto the show and would feel seen, a crafty piece of work by the series’ creators. What is most striking to me is that the series expertly dramatizes the notion of manufacturing consent through media manipulation, and the soul-crushing, dehumanization that animates all bureaucracies…two topics quite relevant in our fallen, and falling-ever-faster-and-farther, world.

Andor’s political relevancy is much less important to me though than its dramatic potency, which is monumental. I found the second season to be deeply, incredibly moving, which is a very bizarre thing to say about a corporate franchise tv show set in a galaxy far, far away.

The reality is that Andor’s second season is so good it actually made me believe once again. Well, that’s not actually accurate, Andor didn’t give me belief in film and television again…that would be a very tall task…but it did give me something…let’s call it “hope”…or dare I say it…”A New Hope”. Hope that all is not lost. Hope that things could actually…just maybe…get better.

That hope may be misplaced and completely delusional, but for me it is real, and it is all thanks to Tony Gilroy and his masterwork, Andor. I highly recommend you check it out.

©2025

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 119 - Dune: Part Two

On this episode, Barry and I don our stillsuits and head to Arrakis to discuss Denis Villeneuve's new film, Dune: Part Two, starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya. Topics discussed include the dismal state of modern cinemas, the weak acting of Li'l Timmy and Zendaya, and the future of sci-fi movies. 

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 119 - Dune: Part Two

Thanks for listening!

©2024

Andor: TV Review - Andor shines as darkness descends on Darth Mouse and the Disney Empire

****THIS IS A SPOILERS FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. It’s a real spy drama that happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. Well crafted, and very well acted.

Andor, the most recent Star Wars live action series, finished its twelve-episode first season on Disney + this past Wednesday November 23rd.

The series, which tells the story of Cassian Andor and his introduction into the early-stages of the rebellion against the Empire, is a prequel to the film Rogue One and is set prior to the events of Star Wars: A New Hope.

To say I was reticent going into watching Andor would be a massive understatement. You can’t really blame me. The previous two Star Wars series, The Book of Boba Fett and Obi Wan Kenobi, were both utterly atrocious. These series, most specifically Obi Wan Kenobi, were so bad as to be embarrassing, so one can understand why any fan would expect the worst when it came to Andor.

But then I tentatively waded into the series and was at first relieved, and then surprised and finally excited. Andor may very well be the best Star Wars series thus far – at the very least it’s equal to The Mandalorian, and the reason for that is because an actual professional, Tony Gilroy, whose career includes writing the Bourne trilogy and writing/directing Michael Clayton, created the series…and it shows.

Andor is certainly the most sophisticated Star Wars series to date. It’s a real show about a growing, underground rebellion that just happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. You could set the story in modern-day Iran, China, US or Israel and you wouldn’t have to change all that much.

The acting in Andor is the best there’s ever been in any Star Wars story, be it movie or tv series. The cast across the board are truly phenomenal.

I’m not much of a Diego Luna fan, but he’s fantastic in Andor as the lead. His performance is contained yet kinetic. Luna reveals just enough, but never too much, of Andor, and it makes for compelling viewing.

Genevieve O’Reilly is spectacular as Mon Mothma, an Imperial Senator from Chandrila trying to thread the needle of her public image, personal politics and family life. O’Reilly is so good in the role, and Mon Mothma is such a fascinating character, that I was yearning for a series about her alone.

Stellan Skarsgard is also brilliant as Luthen Rael, a key figure in the rebellion who no one can seem to pin down. Skarsgard shines in the role because Rael, like the actor playing him, must constantly change the masks he wears and along with them his behavior. Skarsgard is a great actor, and having him bring his considerable talent and skill to a Star Wars series indicates how seriously the creators of the series took the story.

The rest of the cast, in big roles and small, are uniformly terrific, and it elevates Andor beyond the usual Star Wars fare and turns it into a legitimate spy drama.

For example, Rupert Vansittart plays Chief Hyne, a small supporting character, and in one small scene he is so good as to be astonishing. This is what happens when you cast skilled actors…everything gets elevated.

The overall aesthetic, most notably the set design, is also top notch. Each set feels real and not like some set on a studio backlot. Visually, everything has a visceral, tangible feel to it, and creates an atmosphere reminiscent of major science fiction like Blade Runner.

To be clear, not everything works perfectly. A few storylines felt forced and fell a bit flat, such as the odd relationship between Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), an ambitious supervisor of the Empire’s Security Bureau, and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), a-down-on-his-luck security inspector for a corporate entity working with the Empire.

Gough and Soller are both very good in their roles, but the arc of their characters and their relationship rang hollow and felt superfluous, and their climax is easily the weakest part of the otherwise well executed series, and it isn’t even close.

From what I understand, Andor is not generating big numbers for Disney +.  The situation is so dire that Disney is running the series on ABC in order to generate some interest in it. This is unfortunate but not surprising.

When you roll out second and third-rate garbage like The Book of Boba Fett and Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re not going to generate trust from fans, and so they don’t give a series like Andor the chance it deserves.

A great friend of mine, let’s call him Doug, is the biggest Star Wars fan I know. He’s truly a fanatic. But as Andor’s first season wore on I kept asking him if he’d watched it and he said “no”. He said he hadn’t given it a chance because he “didn’t want to be crushed with disappointment again.”

That Doug, who literally gets dressed up in costume and attends opening night of Star Wars movies, is reticent to watch a Star Wars show because he can’t take anymore soul crushing disappointment, is a sign of major problems for Disney.

I think Disney knows it too, which is why CEO Bob Chapek is out and guru Bob Iger is back in. Iger retired in 2020 and left Disney, the company he built up into a staggering entertainment powerhouse with acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox, in the hands of his one-time protégé. But now he has some serious decisions to make if he wants to pull Disney out of its current tailspin - which includes a 40% drop in stock price over the last year.

There’s been a lot of talk about how Big Dick Bob Iger will wheel and deal his way out of trouble, maybe by buying Netflix, or maybe even by selling Disney to Apple.

Buying Netflix seems improbable to me because Netflix carries massive amounts of debt and brings nothing of note to Disney, which already has a robust streaming service.

Selling to Apple makes more sense, at least financially, as it would mean a boon for Iger personally as it would attach his vast Disney holdings to Apple, a Teflon tech company that isn’t going anywhere.

But these choices would simply be a distraction for Iger from the bigger decision he must make which is, he can either double down on the creative direction Disney is going now with its numerous properties like Star Wars and Marvel, or he can dramatically change course.

Doubling down means continuing with the cultural political stuff in Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel, which is a big part of the reason Disney is in such trouble at the moment. It would basically mean Disney deciding to stay the course and do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In other words, it would be insane.

As insane as it would be, I could totally understand why it would happen. The Disney employees, like mindless cult members, truly believe in this woke stuff, and in their own righteousness. And the ruling class in the Disney executive suite live in the most isolated of bubbles that aggressively reinforces the importance of wokeness, and their own self-righteousness.

That said, Bob Iger is no moron. He has to know that his bottom line, and all of his personal stakes in Disney, are getting seriously damaged by the company’s embrace of wokeness, including denigrating and attacking fans as racist, sexist and homophobic who critique their product.

The other option is for Iger to reverse course and to go back to the middle of the road in terms of staying away from cultural politics. That’s no easy task, especially when his workforce and the social circles the executives run in, will put up serious resistance.

At this point the problem can’t be solved just by returning to making quality movies and tv shows, as evidenced by Andor being such a great series but no one tuning in. The disease of wokeness has taken deep hold and Disney is suffering from a stage four version of it, and it is killing the company by alienating customers.

Everything is trending down for Disney. The recent spate of dismal Star Wars series pre-Andor are seriously eroding fan interest. The same is true of Marvel, where the recent batch of movies aren’t just bad but underperforming at the box office…all while their budgets bloat beyond belief. Marvel tv shows are just as bad if not worse than the Star Wars shows, and they don’t pay any dividends anymore.

The reality is that the good ship Mickey Mouse was on its way to the utopia that is the Fantasy Island of Wokeness but it hit the Iceberg of Reality and is now quickly taking on water. It seems to me that bringing back Bob Iger to rearrange the deck chairs won’t solve any of the bigger problems.

Maybe I’m wrong and Iger will right the ship and Disney will be back to its robust self in no time. Or maybe Disney is doomed because it didn’t listen to Cassandras like me who were warning them early on that “get woke, go broke” was inevitable if they kept on the self-righteous path.

Regardless of all that, the truth is that building back trust from fans is a difficult thing to do and it takes years. There is no quick fix. But Andor, which is as good The Mandalorian, is a terrific first step.

Disney needs to put together a string of quality Star Wars series, and eventually Star Wars movies, in order to bring the bevy of Star Wars fans back safely into the fold. The same is also true of Marvel.

I hope they do it. I also hope you check out Andor, because it’s very well-made, and well-worth your time.

©2022