Finding things to stream at the beginning of the year can be difficult. The rush of holiday content has come and gone, and January can sometimes be a relatively dry month. As a result, this month can also be the perfect time to catch up with things you might have missed on services like Netflix.
If you’re looking to do exactly that, we’d recommend starting with one of the most acclaimed movies of 2024. His Three Daughters tells the story of three daughters who come together as their father approaches death. The movie is set almost entirely in one New York City apartment and focuses almost completely on how the daughters each deal with both each other and their grief. Here are three reasons you should check it out in January.
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It features a trio of incredible performances
His Three Daughters is almost entirely about three sisters, two of whom are related by blood. Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne are all excellent, and their roles lean into exactly what they do well. Coon is severe and judgmental, a woman trying to keep her father’s life organized and covering up all the hurt that she feels.
Olsen is more starry-eyed, trying to make sure every one is emotionally supported, whereas Lyonne is even-keeled, and has been with her father for much longer. The emotional moments they get together are incredible, as are the ways that they jab at one another. They feel like a real family, one that’s prone to fierce arguments over nothing, but will still make sure they are all right at the end of the day.
His Three Daughters is expertly written
His Three Daughters is, in its design, a little bit stagey. The movie plays out almost entirely inside a New York apartment, and nothing truly surprising happens. A movie like that needs an immaculate script, and that’s exactly what this film has.
All of the characters feel real and expertly drawn, and their interactions with one another feel of a piece with who they are as people. The movie’s ending is the perfect combination of reality and fantasy, a potent reminder of all the things we never get to say to the people who love us, and who we loved most.
It has a real understanding of both grief and how families behave
His Three Daughters is not heavy-handed, but it has real ideas at its core. The movie’s depiction of grief, and the way it manifests in a myriad of ways across the three daughters at the story’s center, is brilliant in and of itself. What’s equally impressive, though, is the way it seems to understand the love that can unite and destroy familial bonds, even when everyone is acting with the very best intentions.
Because the movie is generous enough to give each of its characters real space to exist and be sympathetic and messy at the same time, it feels more like you’re looking in on real people living real lives, instead of something staged for your benefit.
In the end, nothing is wrapped up neatly; like life, it marches on, with all three daughters continuing to live their lives even when the film itself ends. That’s the mark of a very good movie, and that’s what His Three Daughters turns out to be.
His Three Daughters is streaming on Netflix.
