SCREEN | Getting Along – 'His Three Daughters' Says Goodbye

"It's good that there are three of you."

High Frequency Entertainment

His Three Daughters, New York filmmaker Azazel Jacobs' powerful single-location sibling drama, is an astounding piece of character work set within the confines of a compact Manhattan apartment. Starring Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen as estranged sisters, who struggle to get along, staying together in their sick father's home as they await his imminent death from cancer.

Mostly a three-hander between the three talented actresses, how they navigate their characters' personal feelings slowly is a work of controlled chaos. Masterfully told with careful camera movements, close-ups, and framing choices, Jacobs knows how to withhold and reveal information about the sisters' complex histories with each other and their sick father (Jay O. Sanders) sublimely. Each is given the time and space to craft distinct personality traits and patterns of behaviour to inform their interpersonal rifts.

Jacob's tight exploration of grief set over the course of a few days with the sisters on top of each other in close quarters both dealing with the stresses at hand and other family concerns from afar builds the tension of waiting for death at any moment. Filmed in only seventeen days, Coon, Lyonne, and Olsen act effortlessly with the grace of seasoned performers on stage without any hints of artifice.

For anyone with complicated relationship dynamics. especially between sisters with age gaps, His Three Daughters captures an all too real depiction of those simmering complications layered by its trio of distinct character performances. It's an all-timer of a family drama with an incredible emotional payoff to its leads' pressure cooker arcs.

His Three Daughters screens at the VIFF Centre and will be available to stream on Netflix starting September 20th.


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