Azazel Jacobs’ HIS THREE DAUGHTERS is, like Tamara Jenkins’ THE SAVAGES, a film about the heartbreaking experience of caring for an aging parent, but even more so it is, also like the other film in the pairing, about adult siblings reuniting and renegotiating their relationships under those fraught conditions. We’re decidedly more mixed on Jacobs’ film, however, which often plays like a stage adaptation — at times that works, at others it doesn’t, and we talk through both in the first half of this discussion. Then we bring THE SAVAGES back in to consider how each film is shaped by its relative proximity to the end of life, their overlapping perspectives on professional caretakers and those who deal with death for a living, and the realism and usefulness of their pop-cultural reference points. And in Your Next Picture Show we take a brief tour of Tamara Jenkins’s short but mighty feature filmography to date. 

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE SAVAGES, HIS THREE DAUGHTERS, and anything else in the world of film by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing: Chris Sanders’ THE WILD ROBOT and Brad Bird’s THE IRON GIANT

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