It’s often said that there’s no right or wrong way to grieve the loss of a loved one. And in His Three Daughters, the latest film from French Exit director and mumblecore maestro Azazel Jacobs — which premiered to rave reviews at TIFF last year — we’ll get to see three diverging approaches to loss as Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne, and Carrie Coon’s estranged sisters Christina, Rachel, and Katie reunite to care for their dying father (Jay O. Sanders). If the first trailer for the already-in-the-Oscars-conversation Netflix film is anything to go by, Jacobs has an emotional wringer and we’re about to be put through it and then some. Give it a watch below:
With Olsen and Coon having had their fill of blockbusters in recent years across MCU movies and the latest Ghostbusters reboot respectively, and Lyonne having left her indie beginnings for bigger roles in the likes of Poker Face and Russian Doll too, His Three Daughters looks set to offer all three actors a properly meaty character-study to get stuck into. This first look at the film, which is set over a couple of days in New York, does a great job of setting up the tension and iceberg-deep shared history between the three half-sisters. Here we glimpse snatches of live-in carer Rachel’s (Lyonne) substance issues and bubbling resentment at her seemingly more well-to-do sisters, and said sisters’ reciprocated hostility as they accuse Rachel of backing away from her responsibilities as soon as they get there. And yet, beneath the lit-fuse tension and muted palette moroseness, there’s a shared sadness between the feuding siblings that looks to offer a point of potential reconciliation and healing.
Among the ensemble for this one are Rudy Galvan, Jose Febus, Jasmine Bracey, and Joan Adepo. We’ll find out whether Olsen, Lyonne, and Coon’s sisters are able to patch things up for their old man’s sake or if there’s simply too much water under their freshly burdened bridge when His Three Daughters arrives in select cinemas on 6 September and then Netflix itself on 20 September. One thing’s for sure: tissues will be required!