Diane Ladd (1935-2025)

by Cláudio Alves

INLAND EMPIRE (2006) David Lynch | © StudioCanal

This past Monday, cinephiles worldwide were met with the news of another painful loss. Diane Ladd died at her home surrounded by loved ones, including her daughter, Laura Dern. She was 89 and leaves behind a remarkable body of work that spans from the 1960s Roger Corman cheapies to the 2020s American indies, a panoply of TV projects dating back to the medium's genesis in the post-war era, a rich legacy on stage, and multiple memoirs. Among actressexuals and awards nuts, she's mostly known for her three Oscar nominated performances in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Wild at Heart, and Rambling Rose, the latter of which made her part of a very exclusive club of mother-daughter duos honored by the Academy. 

Let's take a look back at Ladd's career, enjoy some memories of past glory and even celebrate a couple of deep cuts worthy of attention. After all, there's no better way to honor a beloved artist than to appreciate their art…

Click to read more ...

AFI Fest: “Is This Thing On?” Deconstructs Marriage and Romance with Refreshing Honesty

by Eurocheese

On-screen marriages are often easy to summarize in film – couples who resent each other are destined to break up; if the spark is still there, they are bound to work through their issues and land a happy ending. Real life is not so simple, and the path forward is not always so clear. Alex (Will Arnett) and Tess Novak (Laura Dern) are in the middle of a split when Is This Thing On? begins, and giving the audience no initial context adds a perfect note of confusion; these characters don’t seem to understand how they’ve arrived here either! Every comment could lead to the whole relationship blowing up or could be a move towards reconciliation, but they agree that the relationship isn’t working.

Adult films don’t often offer candor when it comes to the frequency of long-term relationships breaking up. More common is the cynical sense that we understand all relationship dynamics. Screenplays are often eager to indicate, with a slight wink to the audience, where things are headed. This film wisely embraces the chaos instead...

Click to read more ...

Venice: Noah Baumbach's Awards Hopeful "Jay Kelly"

by Elisa Giudici

George Clooney and Adam Sandler in "JAY KELLY" Photo by Peter Mountain © 2025 Netflix ,Inc

When Noah Baumbach presented White Noise on Netflix, expectations were sky-high: a star-studded cast, major ambitions, and the aura of a filmmaker fresh off Marriage Story. The film’s muted reception, however, seemed to threaten his trajectory, leaving a lingering sense of failure. Jay Kelly, his latest feature, feels like a response to that setback. Not so much a radical departure, but a project with a clearer aim: to offer George Clooney and Adam Sandler two roles carefully designed for visibility, prestige, and perhaps even awards...

Click to read more ...

Mother-Daughter Duos at the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

Fernanda Montenegro in Walter Salles' I'M STILL HERE.

This past week, Fernanda Montenegro celebrated her 95th birthday. A living legend of Brazilian culture in various mediums, she is our oldest living Best Actress nominee. Montenegro is back on the awards trail with Walter Salles' I'm Still Here. While her late-film cameo won't excite many voters, Brazil's Best International Film submission is raking in Audience Awards at festivals worldwide and sterling reviews to match. Perhaps Sony Pictures Classics can even look away from Saoirse Ronan and Almodóvar's leading ladies for a moment, and mount a Best Actress campaign for Fernanda Torres. Her performance as Eunice Paiva is nothing short of magnificent. 

Though a longshot, Torres' nomination would be amply deserved, making her and Montenegro one of the few mother-daughter duos to score acting Oscar nominations. It's a very exclusive club that includes…

Click to read more ...

Taylor Swift, Star-Studded and "Bejewelled"

by Nathaniel R

Do we have any Swifties amongst the readers? I personally rarely thought of Swift outside of liking a few hits but with the queer-ally song "You Need To Calm Down" followed by the double pandemic punch of the Folklore and Evermore albums, the common wisdom that she was a very talented songwriter finally pierced my consciousness where pop music is but a small niche (crowded out by cinema, tv, and theatre). Her new album "Midnights," which was immediately at the top of the charts giving her the most #1 albums of any woman (though she's tied in that with Barbra Streisand), is 20 songs long so it'll take a while to sink in.

But let's talk music videos. Taylor has always loved celebrity cameos (remember "Bad Blood" and its bevy of young actresses?) and the first two Midnights videos are star-studded fun...

Click to read more ...