You will not find a more emotionally intelligent film this year than Sentimental Value. Writer/director Jocahim Trier's follow-up to his decade-defining film The Worst Person in the World produces each tear, gasp, and laugh at exactly the right moment. Yet, it's never manipulative, always proudly wearing its heart on its sleeve. By the time the credits start rolling, you’ll have been on a journey with not just these characters, but also with yourself.

That's a lot of praise right off the bat, so let's back up to the very beginning. An unseen narrator, voiced by Bente Børsum, welcomes us to a house in Oslo. Both the walls and the family inside are fracturing, with two sisters caught in the middle of their parents' rapidly impending divorce. The oldest, Nora, wonders if the house feels happiness as children run through the halls, and pain as doors are slammed and objects are broken. Those squeaks and creaks become powerfully identifiable, becoming long-term storage for memories created within these confines.

Decades pass, and the matriarch of the family has died. This leaves the house to an adult Nora (Renate Reinsve) and her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleas). Neither of them wants to live there, so they must reconcile with letting go of a piece of their past. Their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) reappears in their lives, looking to make amends. His version of an olive branch is to offer Nora, now a successful actress on the stage, the lead role in the new film he will direct. She doesn't contemplate saying yes, flatly refusing to enter into a situation where he has power over her. So the part is handed to an American star named Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who makes a strong impression on Gustav after praising his early films at a career retrospective.

Trier and co-writer Eskil Vogt's script does an excellent job at examining the past, present, and future dynamics of this quartet. Gustav's film is very much based on his upbringing with his mother in that same house during World War II. She eventually committed suicide, something that Gustav has never been able to explain. Some of those feelings have been passed along to Nora, who constantly flips out before each performance and emotionally shuts down in her apartment. And when Rachel cuts and dyes her hair to look exactly like Nora, it's clear that Gustav sees those similarities as well. Comparisons to Ingmar Bergman's long-held fascination with identity are fully warranted.

Even with all these serious themes, this is not a dour film. It's actually quite funny, with plenty of jabs at these characters and the industries they have planted themselves in. Gustav hasn't made anything of worth in almost twenty years, which is why, despite his fervent attitude of still being a serious auteur, he must beg Netflix to finance the film. He buys his eight-year-old grandson DVDs of Irreversible and The Piano Teacher for his birthday, telling him that those two films will teach him all that he needs to know about women. Trier maintains this balance with the help of editor Olivier Bugge Coutté, flawlessly buoying between the light and the dark.

Each of the four actors is an absolute delight to watch, with Oscar nominations surely deserved. Returning as Trier's lead after The Worst Person in the World, Reinsve continues her rise to becoming the best actress working today, combining tactility and grace with unparalleled ease. Skarsgård always keeps his prickly son-of-a-bitch character on the right side of our feelings, slowly revealing the pain behind his attitude. Fanning's role could have easily been a caricature, a selfish American looking to use this family's pain for her own professional gain. But that's far from the truth, as she also has feelings of regret and personal expectations that she wants to live up to. I'm saving the best for last, which is Lilleas as the daughter/sister who is caught in the middle of all of this, and who must reconcile her present motherhood with her family's history.

Without making a single direct piece of commentary, Sentimental Value may be the best case study on why AI can't be the driving force of a film. Despite all of her good intentions and training, Rachel isn't the right person for the part in Gustav's film because she hasn't experienced the emotions that the role entails. The same logic applies to Trier and his film, as something this rich could only be created by someone who has experienced the agony and ecstasy of life.