The Big Picture

Best Picture Power Rankings and the Super-Sincerity of ‘Sentimental Value,’ With Joachim Trier! Plus: Regretting ‘Regretting You.’

November 24, 2025

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  • The imminent sale of Warner Brothers Discovery is a vital event for the future of theatrical distribution, with Paramount/Skydance being cited as the most likely acquirer. 
  • The Colleen Hoover adaptation *Regretting You* is a baffling, melodramatic success that highlights the power of hyper-niche audiences, particularly those driven by BookTok, despite its perceived poor quality by the hosts. 
  • Joachim Trier's *Sentimental Value* is emotionally moving for the hosts, particularly due to Stellan Skarsgård's performance as a director figure, though some viewers may struggle with its deliberate lack of traditional cinematic catharsis. 
  • The discussion on Joachim Trier's film *Sentimental Value* highlights a division in audience reception, with some finding profound sincerity while others perceive a lack of catharsis or emotional connection between the disparate plotlines. 
  • Joachim Trier revealed that the parallel structure of his daughters' ages mirroring the sisters in *Sentimental Value* was coincidental, though he intentionally explored the dichotomy of an artist who excels creatively but struggles to be present as a father. 
  • The hosts updated their Best Picture power rankings, placing *One Battle After Another* at number one, while noting that *Sentimental Value* is a strong contender likely to secure nominations in several categories, including Best Picture and Original Screenplay. 
  • Director Joachim Trier views emotional availability as a form of masculine strength and emphasizes the power in listening and openness over cynicism in art. 
  • Trier explains that creating characters outside of oneself, regardless of gender, relies on deep understanding achieved through observation and sensitivity, exemplified by casting Renate Reinsve and Lille Oss as sisters in 'Sentimental Value.' 
  • The filming of 'Sentimental Value' involved creating a detailed studio replica of the main house to shoot historical sequences, leading to a profound, time-travel-like experience for the homeowner, whose house was used for the contemporary scenes. 

Segments

WBD Sale Bids Analysis
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(00:03:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Three initial bids for Warner Brothers Discovery were reportedly submitted by Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix.
  • Summary: The imminent sale of Warner Brothers Discovery is considered vitally important to the future of theatrical distribution. The three reported bids came from Paramount/Skydance, Comcast (Universal/Peacock), and Netflix. The hosts ranked the Paramount/Skydance merger as the most likely outcome, followed by a split sale to Comcast (HBO) and Netflix (Studio), with Netflix buying everything outright being the least likely.
Netflix Acquisition Ramifications
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(00:08:34)
  • Key Takeaway: A Netflix acquisition of Warner Brothers would likely be detrimental to theatrical releases and physical media due to Netflix’s historical preference for streaming-first windows.
  • Summary: Netflix’s historical stance, articulated by Ted Sarandos, suggests a belief that theatrical distribution is outmoded for consumers. The absorption of Warner Brothers into Netflix would likely lead to the slow erosion of theatrical windows and potentially eliminate physical media support like the Warner Archive. Previous evidence suggests Netflix prioritizes its own metrics, leading to a reduction in high-budget, filmmaker-driven projects over time.
Warner Bros. Year and Irony
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(00:16:31)
  • Key Takeaway: The irony exists that Warner Brothers has had its best major studio year by focusing on event movies and betting on talented filmmakers, yet the takeaway from management seems to be fragmentation.
  • Summary: Warner Brothers achieved success by focusing energy on a few major properties while also taking calculated bets on talented creators. The hosts find it disappointing that the perceived lesson from this success is to break the studio apart rather than utilize that wisdom. The history of Time Warner/Warner Brothers ownership shows a pattern of consolidation and mismanagement, making the current situation a continuation of that trend.
Reviewing ‘Regretting You’
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(00:17:21)
  • Key Takeaway: Regretting You functions as a Rorschach test for current entertainment trends, succeeding due to its hyper-specific melodrama appealing to a large, siloed audience.
  • Summary: The film is considered baffling and insulting to its audience and literature, yet it is a commercial success, tracking toward $50 million domestically. The movie’s structure relies on dramatic betrayals and subsequent reckonings, similar to Nicholas Sparks adaptations but often focusing on single or divorced mothers. The hosts found the film unintentionally funny due to the serious dramatic tone applied to actors like Dave Franco and Allison Williams, who are usually cast in lighter roles.
Introduction to ‘Sentimental Value’
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(00:49:06)
  • Key Takeaway: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is a family drama about estranged siblings confronting their filmmaker father after their mother’s death, utilizing a montage-driven structure similar to The Worst Person in the World.
  • Summary: The film reunites Trier with Renate Reinsve and co-stars Stellan Skarsgård as the estranged patriarch, Gustav. It focuses on the complex, often difficult, relationships between family members and the passing down of traits, particularly depression, across generations. The hosts noted that while the film is structurally sound and features incredible performances, it deliberately lacks traditional catharsis, which some viewers may find alienating.
Sentimental Value Character Analysis
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(00:56:32)
  • Key Takeaway: The character of Gustav is compelling because he embodies the complex personality type of a sensitive, egotistical, yet domineering older male filmmaker.
  • Summary: The lack of catharsis in Sentimental Value is viewed as an honest representation of being close yet apart from a loved one. Gustav, a distant filmmaker father, appeals to the host due to his rich characterization encompassing egotism, creativity, and longing. The host notes that older male directors are a particularly interesting personality type to explore in film.
Hollywood Subplot and El Fanning
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(00:57:54)
  • Key Takeaway: El Fanning’s performance in Sentimental Value elevates her character beyond a typical vacuous Hollywood vessel into a sincere artist attempting to meet an impossible artistic moment.
  • Summary: The film contains several distinct movies, including Stellan Skarsgård’s brief immersion into the Hollywood machine after meeting an American movie star played by Elle Fanning. This subplot is seen as a sharp, knowing critique of Hollywood, likely drawn from Trier’s own experiences. Fanning’s character is tasked with trying to embody the filmmaker’s daughter and meet the weight of a dark, Bergman-esque story, which she attempts to do sincerely.
Emotional Connection and House as Character
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(01:02:07)
  • Key Takeaway: The emotional resonance of Sentimental Value is primarily felt during scenes involving the other daughter, Agnes, or when the house itself is the focus, rather than the connection between Gustav and Nora.
  • Summary: The host found the connection between Stellan Skarsgård’s Hollywood adventures and Renata Reinsve’s character arc to be intellectually understood but emotionally distant until the end. A key emotional moment involved Agnes telling her father she won’t let her son be in his film due to her own childhood experience. The film is praised as a fantastic ‘house movie,’ opening with the home’s perspective via a literary narrator.
Sincerity vs. Sentimentality Debate
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(01:06:41)
  • Key Takeaway: The film’s ‘super-sincerity’ is a formal strength that some critics reject as being too much, while others find it genuinely moving, contrasting it with overt sentimentality.
  • Summary: Trier’s formal techniques, including montage and shifting between past and present, are admired for his skill as a movie designer. The film’s sincerity can be polarizing, sometimes bumping against viewers as being too much or too cute. The host argues that the film aims for sincerity, which is distinct from the ‘gloppiness’ associated with sentimentality, by exposing the hard truth beneath performances of family.
Oscar Potential and Supporting Actor Race
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(01:12:36)
  • Key Takeaway: Stellan Skarsgård is strongly positioned for a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Sentimental Value, despite the argument that his role is leading, and the film is a near-lock for a Best Picture nomination.
  • Summary: Sentimental Value is expected to be nominated for Best Picture, and Skarsgård is currently ranked first in Variety’s Supporting Actor projections, potentially favored over a lead nomination. Other potential nominations for the film include Best Director, Original Screenplay, and International Feature. The supporting actress race is noted to be competitive between Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdatter Lilius.
Best Picture Power Rankings Update
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(01:18:37)
  • Key Takeaway: The updated Best Picture top five remains largely stable with One Battle After Another at number one, though Marty Supreme is projected to rise to number four, displacing Frankenstein.
  • Summary: The hosts updated their power rankings, keeping the top five mostly intact but suggesting Marty Supreme might move up to number four, driven by positive marketing and screenings. They predict Wicked for Good will fall off the list, potentially replaced by Avatar: Fire and Ash at number eight. The final projected list places One Battle After Another at one, Hamnet at two, and Sinners at three.
Joachim Trier on Writing Process
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(01:36:45)
  • Key Takeaway: Trier and his co-writer Eskil Vogt began writing Sentimental Value by discussing personal family dynamics after the success of The Worst Person in the World, consciously avoiding writing a direct response to audience expectations.
  • Summary: Trier noted that having two daughters exactly three years apart, mirroring the sisters in the film, was a coincidence that occurred after the script was finished. He found it fun to create fictional film excerpts for Gustav Borg, pushing himself to be a better director than the character he wrote. The film ultimately explores the difficult reconciliation where daughters see the wounded child within their flawed artist father.
Emotional Strength and Punk
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(01:49:38)
  • Key Takeaway: Emotional availability possesses a masculine strength, contrasting with the perceived cynicism of punk rock, which at its core emphasized DIY collaboration.
  • Summary: The speaker has moved toward a more emotionally open and tender place with age, realizing that being emotionally available holds a strength and power. This openness is harder to maintain than being absolutely sure about everything. While punk is sometimes seen as cynical, its core emphasized do-it-yourself ethos, collective experience, and a desire to create something beautiful.
Writing Female Characters
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(01:51:10)
  • Key Takeaway: Filmmaking requires creating characters outside of oneself, utilizing observation and sensitivity rather than literal access to the character’s experience.
  • Summary: Writing for women does not presuppose writing from one’s own experience; characters are created outside the self, requiring deep understanding. The director found it wonderful to work with specific actors like Renate Reinsve, with whom he can express himself freely. Creating truthful characters, regardless of gender, stems from being a good observer and sensitive to the world.
Casting Sister Chemistry
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(01:52:35)
  • Key Takeaway: The chemistry between the two lead actors in ‘Sentimental Value’ was established early, aided by their prior theatrical collaboration.
  • Summary: Renate Reinsve was attached to the film from day one, and the casting for her sister involved a long process that led to Lille Oss. Oss brought an earnest groundedness contrasting with Reinsve’s frenetic energy, creating an awesome chemistry during early tests. The actors had previously been in a theater play ten years prior, providing an existing foundation for their connection.
Filming in Childhood Home
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(01:53:54)
  • Key Takeaway: The production built a replica of the homeowner’s house in a studio to shoot historical periods, allowing the owner to experience a photorealistic recreation of his past.
  • Summary: After searching extensively, Trier secured the house he wanted, which happened to be near where he grew up, from a musician whose band he admired. The team built a studio replica of the entire house to shoot scenes spanning the 20th century, dressing the sets based on historical photos. The homeowner and his family were brought into the studio set, which featured photorealistic digital screens replicating 1930s Oslo outside the windows, moving him to tears.
Comedic Gift Scene Analysis
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(01:57:22)
  • Key Takeaway: The comedic scene involving inappropriate DVDs given to a grandson highlights the grandfather’s counterculture identity clashing with bourgeois life.
  • Summary: Gustav, a counterculture figure uncomfortable with middle-class life, attempts to connect with his nine-year-old grandson by gifting him DVDs of ‘The Piano Teacher’ and ‘Irreversible.’ The humor arises from the shock of the family, as these are clearly unsuitable films for a child. The daughter reveals they do not own a DVD player, negating the gift entirely, which Trier found meta-funny as both referenced films screened in that same Cannes theater.
Soundtrack Selection Philosophy
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(01:58:51)
  • Key Takeaway: The wide-ranging soundtrack for ‘Sentimental Value’ is curated based on personal taste, thematic resonance, and structural bookending by artists like Terry Callier and Lobby Sifre.
  • Summary: The music selection is a mixture of songs the director listens to currently or recently, often involving collaboration with co-writer Eskil Vogt. Terry Callier’s music was chosen to open the film because it balances light orchestration with a soulful, melancholic core, matching the film’s desired vibe. Lobby Sifre, a mirroring artist, bookends the film, providing an aesthetic structure justified by taste and personal connection.
Meaning of ‘Sentimental Value’
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(02:01:24)
  • Key Takeaway: The title refers to the human capacity for subjective, personal relationships with objects, extending beyond simple remembrance to core identity.
  • Summary: The phrase ‘Sentimental Value’ itself sounds like a melancholic jazz standard, which appealed to the director. He connects it to the Norwegian word ‘Afikschulzvari,’ which he learned as a child and recognized as describing something deeply human. The concept explores the subjective relationship one has to things, which is central to a family negotiating their identity.
Filmmaking Control and Process
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(02:02:30)
  • Key Takeaway: Trier values his current European setup, which grants him creative control, final cut, and a generous shooting schedule, making a Hollywood move unnecessary presently.
  • Summary: While acknowledging Hollywood’s importance in cinema history, Trier prefers his European system where he maintains creative control and can shoot at home. He enjoys a relatively long shooting schedule (60-64 days) on a budget that is not excessive, allowing him to work with preferred collaborators. His favorite part of the process is being intensely present with actors on set, though he also loves the rush of writing and the refinement of editing.
Last Great Thing Seen
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(02:05:36)
  • Key Takeaway: Paul Thomas Anderson is considered a master filmmaker whose camera work is deeply connected to a personal, soulful voice.
  • Summary: Trier names Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Licorice Pizza’ (implied by context, referred to as ‘one battle after another’ earlier) as the last great thing he saw. He admires how PTA’s camera movement and mise-en-scène are completely connected to a sense of voice and personal expression. This connection to a personal soul within the filmmaking process is what Trier values highly in cinema.