Natasha Lyonne, Carrie Coon, and Elizabeth Olsen are coming home to their respective indie roots for grieving family drama “His Three Daughters.”
The trio play the titular siblings for the Netflix film, which debuted at TIFF 2023. Coon stars as responsible sister Katie, who is tasked with carrying out her ailing father’s (Jay O. Sanders) end-of-life wishes. Olsen is her sister Christina who embraces the spiritual realm to cope with losing her dad, while Lyonne’s Rachel opts to smoke pot and disassociate.
The three estranged sisters come together once more to a New York apartment to care for their dying father and “try to mend their own broken relationship with one another,” per the official synopsis.
Azazel Jacobs writes and directs the film, which IndieWire’s Kate Erbland gave a B+ review. Jacobs’ previous features include “French Exit” and “The Lovers,” as well as the series “Sorry for Your Loss” which also starred Olsen.
“Jacobs’ stellar casting instantly belies the care that goes into the entire film, and as he allows each of his stars to further melt into their roles, ‘His Three Daughters’ doesn’t just grow, it grows more generous,” Erbland wrote. “As the sisters — the daughters — start to come together, Jacobs lulls them with a last act bit of wish fulfillment, even fantasy, perhaps delusion. Initially, this twist feels at odds with the wonderfully lived-in, deeply realistic world Jacobs and his stars have built. And yet, it also offers the greatest argument for the strength of their bond. They are different people, main characters of their own story, but they have a shared dream: one in which all of them, all four of them, can be together for one more moment. Family is forever, even if it’s fleeting.”
During a July 2024 Netflix tastemaker screening and Q&A for the film, Jacobs explained his inspiration for the personal feature.
“I’ve had experience with close people passing, and it’s only increased as I’ve gotten older, and there’s always been a fear with my own parents,” Jacobs said. “There’s a sense of how time shifted that I was really pursuing that I really hadn’t seen so much in film, how time collapses and expands when you know that something you’re dreading happening is absolutely going to happening, similarly to the way a film is going to end. I was halfway through the first draft when I realized I was just pictured [these actors in the movie].”
Jacobs was also determined to create “an environment I want to escape to” onscreen; “His Three Daughters” is filmed in 35mm by “Lady Bird” and “Frances Ha” cinematographer Sam Levy.
“Even though I was dealing with these heavy things, I wanted to be in this world. I wanted to be with these actors. I wanted to be on this set. I wanted to be able to walk to this place from my neighborhood,” he said. “Once we found that apartment, that that courtyard was exactly perfect, that we didn’t have to piece anything together, that the hallway was right, I didn’t need to second guess any of it. It was very clear all the way through, for whatever reason, with this film specifically.”
“His Three Daughters” premieres in select theaters September 6 and will stream on Netflix September 20. Check out the trailer below.
