As a whole, it was a fairly run-of-the-mill awards ceremony – some tearful speeches, a sprinkling of politics, jokes about Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating life – but got the job done.
Glaser returned to host again, offering a few fun skits (a parody of the Nicole Kidman AMC ad targeting podcasts, and a mash-up for ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ and ‘Marty Supreme’ with a Fran Drescher cameo.
Yes, some of the jokes were entirely predictable, but there were some pointed jabs at CBS News (“see BS News”) and the Epstein Files.
And overall, Glaser kept the show moving (it eventually ended roughly 10 minutes late).
There were a lot of expected winners, including several trophies for ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Sinners’ and the latest for ‘Marty Supreme’s Timothée Chalamet.
But the surprises were more fun –– ‘Hamnet’ scooped the Motion Picture – Drama award, while ‘The Secret Agent’ nabbed Non-English Language Film and a more unexpected (if entirely deserved) Actor trophy for star Wagner Moura.
A lot of the TV awards for drama and comedy were similar to other shows such as the Emmys, with ‘The Pitt,’‘The Studio’ and ‘Adolescence’ all winning more hardware for their trophy cabinets.
Awards shows are usually a mix of humble and heartfelt, and ‘One Battle’s Teyana Taylor certainly got that in early with her tearful acceptance moment.
Outside of acceptance speeches, Judd Apatow killed it presenting Best Director, nodding to Nikki Glaser’s history babysitting his daughters and his “quiet boycott” of the awards after ‘Trainwreck’ lost to ‘The Martian’ in the comedy category a decade ago.
Wanda Sykes was also on top form as she presented the Stand-Up category, swiping at Bill Maher and particularly Ricky Gervais, whose award she accepted “on behalf of God and trans people.”
And Snoop Dogg was… Snoop Dogg, handing out the first Podcast award, which was won by Amy Poehler for ‘Good Hang.’
There was much praise for Macaulay Culkin, who was presenting Best Screenplay, and scored a standing ovation as he took the stage.
Julia Roberts hyped up her own stint on stage Presenting Best Motion Picture Comedy, while poor George Clooney had to note that he did not get the same reaction presenting drama, a fact reiterated by pal Don Cheadle, who showed up to gently rib him.
The Golden Globes will take place on December 8th.
Despite lots of changes behind the scenes and some serious PR airbrushing, the Golden Globes never quite retained their luster. Still, they’re a big stop on the awards circuit and the nominations were announced today by Marlon Wayans and Skye P. Marshall during a press conference held at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
And on the TV front, ‘The White Lotus’ and this year’s big small screen sensation, the one-shot drama ‘Adolescence’ have the most nominations for their side of the awards.
Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture
(L to R) Teyana Taylor as Perfidia and Sean Penn as Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Paul Thomas Anderson, ‘One Battle After Another’ Ryan Coogler, ‘Sinners’
Guillermo del Toro, ‘Frankenstein’ Jafar Panahi, ‘It Was Just an Accident’ Joachim Trier, ‘Sentimental Value’
Paul Thomas Anderson, ‘One Battle After Another’ Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, ‘Marty Supreme’
Ryan Coogler, ‘Sinners’
Jafar Panahi, ‘It Was Just an Accident’ Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier, ‘Sentimental Value’ Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell, ‘Hamnet’
Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in ‘Wicked For Good’, directed by Jon M. Chu.
“Dream as One”, ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’
“Golden”, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’
“I Lied to You”, ‘Sinners’
“No Place Like Home”, ‘Wicked: For Good’
“The Girl in the Bubble”, ‘Wicked: For Good’
“Train Dreams”, ‘Train Dreams’
(L to R) Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in ‘Sentimental Value’. Photo: Kasper Tuxen Andersen.
Easily one of the best films of the year, ‘Sentimental Value’ is Joachim Trier’s follow-up to 2021’s ‘The Worst Person in the World,’ a character study disguised as a bittersweet rom-com. ‘Sentimental Value’ is also bittersweet, but it’s no romantic comedy: instead, it dissects the complicated relationship between a narcissistic but aging filmmaker and his two daughters in the wake of their mother’s death.
‘Sentimental Value’ gets at some universal truths about all families, parents, and children, and presents each of its four main characters in nuanced shades, letting us see them at their best and not so finest. While the film might be too casually paced and narratively loose for some, this is ultimately a rich, engrossing, deeply moving tale of what happens when family becomes fodder for art, and everything that spins out of that.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning in ‘Sentimental Value’. Photo: Kasper Tuxen Andersen.
Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) is a once highly-regarded filmmaker whose best years are behind him and who hasn’t been able to get a film financed for 15 years. He returns to his family home in Oslo, Norway for the funeral of his ex-wife, where he attempts to reconnect with his two daughters, actor Nora (Renate Reinsve) and her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) who has a more stable job as a historian and a husband and child.
But Gustav is also after more than just re-establishing the tattered relationship he has with the two daughters he left behind: he has written a new film – apparently an incredible script – and wants Nora to star in it. However, she wants nothing to do with the film or her father. Thanks to a fortuitous meeting, he instead enlists a young American star named Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning). With Rachel attached, Netflix comes calling – but something about the entire project feels off.
Renate Reinsve in ‘Sentimental Value’. Photo: Kasper Tuxen Andersen.
Through a string of beautifully composed scenes, Joachim Trier (working from a script he co-wrote with Eskil Vogt) slowly peels back the layers of each of these characters, revealing the multi-dimensional people at the heart of a very intimate story about how the compulsion to create art can be both healing and disruptive. We find out that Gustav’s script is about his mother, who survived Nazi atrocities only to take her own life in the very home in which he wants to film – a personal expression of anguish he’s held all these years. But the screenplay is also about his daughters, and as we find out more about them, we learn that this family has been shattered in multiple ways.
All this is eloquently and elegantly shot in gorgeous Oslo, with the Borg house at the center of the story both a place of stability and a ghost from the past. With warmth, some sly humor (mostly poking fun at the movie business), and a story that lays bare some raw emotions while not providing easy solutions, ‘Sentimental Value’ is an engrossing drama that makes one want to spend more time with the Borg family.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve in ‘Sentimental Value’. Photo: Christian Belgaux.
All four leads in this film are impeccable, starting with the great Renate Reinsve and the global treasure that is Stellan Skarsgård. Coming off ‘The Worst Person in the World’ and last year’s ‘A Different Man,’ Reinsve once again displays her ability to make the work of acting literally invisible, while fully inhabiting the character she portrays. Nora is complicated and troubled – she is an exceptional actress but has extreme anxiety attacks before going onstage – and unable to get everything in her life lined up, but also possessed of charm, wit, and an underlying darkness that is hinted at but perceptible.
As for Skarsgård, this may be the Swedish veteran’s masterpiece: Gustav is also charming, talented, and witty, but possessed of a high self-regard, a condescension toward others, and an almost childish temper. A scene in which he visits his one-time cinematographer, only to realize that the man might be too old to work anymore, is acting perfection: just with the subtle expression on his face, Skarsgård shows us both Gustav’s disappointment and fear – he’s seeing his own potential future. And underneath his still-cocky surface lies a deep grief – which he is unable to express without a camera. This is brilliant, Oscar-worthy stuff all the way.
Credit also to Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as the practical sister from whom Nora is somewhat estranged as well, but who still has a deep love for both sibling and parent, and Elle Fanning (having a heck of a fall with this and ‘Predator: Badlands’), whose Rachel Kemp exhibits depth and sensitivity that, in a lesser film, would be replaced by a simple Hollywood brat.
Final Thoughts
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in ‘Sentimental Value’. Photo: Kasper Tuxen Andersen.
Joachim Trier keeps mining everyday human relationships for maximum complexity while presenting his stories with an easygoing clarity that’s hard to not enjoy. ‘Sentimental Value’ continues that tradition, and while it’s ironically not sentimental at all, it’s still deeply moving in its understanding of how grief and sadness can be both fodder for great art and fuel for slow self-destruction.
‘Sentimental Value’ receives a score of 95 out of 100.
‘Sentimental Value’ opens in theaters on November 7th.
What is the plot of ‘Sentimental Value’?
The fractured relationship between an acclaimed director and his two estranged daughters becomes even more complicated when he decides to make a personal film about their family history.
