By way of previewing what I suspect will end up being one of Netflix’s best movies of the year, I have just three names for you: Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, and Carrie Coon.
Those are the actresses who star in His Three Daughters and who bring to life this deeply affecting family drama from writer-director Azazel Jacobs that’s really the story of a pre-mourning. The women play sisters who’ve returned to their father’s home as his health is failing — because time is running out, they want to be there before the end. But as they await the inevitable, emotions become raw. Their relationships strain, and old resentments rise to the surface.
Coon plays Katie, the controlling mother of a wayward teenage daughter. Olsen’s Christina is a freer spirit who’s also a mother and now separated from her child for the first time, while Lyonne’s Rachel is a stoner who bets on sports and has never left her father’s apartment. The latter, in fact, is one of the biggest fault lines between the sisters, given that Katie and Rachel both share the same mother and also have a different worldview than Rachel.
“Continuing his astute exploration of family dynamics in close-knit spaces,” Netflix explains about His Three Daughters (which hits the streamer on Sept. 20), “Jacobs follows the siblings over the course of three volatile days, as death looms, grievances erupt, and love seeps through the cracks of a fractured home.”
Some movies grab you because of the story or the special effects. In this case, the combination of these three actresses in what’s a pretty dialog-heavy movie is a no-brainer for me. It’ll be magic to watch them explore the dynamics of a family wherein the sisters have each gone their own way in life and have now reunited in advance of collective grief. In fact, His Three Daughters has already scored a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, following its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (after which Netflix acquired the movie for a reported $7 million).
Reviewers who’ve already screened it have praised it as everything from “a major accomplishment” to “a powerful work with a smart screenplay,” grounded by three actresses who are never less than captivating throughout.
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