Norwegian director Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World) hits a new high watermark with this layered family drama about a father trying to reconnect with his grown daughters. In it, Stellan Skarsgård portrays Gustav Borg, a film director who prioritized his career over his family to the degree that he wound up walking out on his wife and daughters, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) and Nora (Renate Reinsve), while the girls were still young.

Years later, when their mother passes away, he shows up once again. With a screenplay in hand, he tells them he wants to shoot a new film in the house where they grew up, and he would love for Nora to take the lead role. Unready to forgive her father, she turns it down, only to discover him turning around and giving the part to an eager young Hollywood star (Elle Fanning). Whether it makes sense or not, the two sisters must navigate their complicated relationship with their father AND deal with an American star dropped right into the middle of their complex family dynamics.

Reinsve is wonderful, recalling the laid-back, lived-in, modern allure of Diane Keaton during Woody Allen’s peak years, and the combination of her performance with Skarsgård’s fills the movie with soul. As nuanced as it is empathetic, this is a story that sneaks up on you like great fiction, makes you feel you’ve lived a life with its characters, and rolls around in your head long after you’ve seen it.

(Norway, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, UK / 2025 / Directed by Joachim Trier)
R / 2 hr 13 min
In English and Norwegian with subtitles