Sentimental Value: Between Trauma and the Sublime (opens in new tab)

When Joachim Trier made his debut in 2006 with the film Reprise, I felt as if a veil had been lifted. There was nothing wrong with Norwegian cinema before Trier’s arrival, but it always seemed to be about someone else, something else, something out there. If it depicted reality as I knew it, it did so in ways that created distance. Watching Trier’s film, it was as if that distance had been eliminated, which is strange, because if there is one thing Reprise does, it is to revel in cinematic de...