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…

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Gotham Awards Revue: "Familiar Touch"

by Nick Taylor

First, let me express how happy I am that, at least from my filmgoing corner, the Gotham nominations have encouraged more people to watch some of their lower-profile selections. The number of folks I’ve seen log Familiar Touch and Lurker and East of Wall on Letterboxd this past week has been extremely heartening. Hell, I never would’ve prioritized Familiar Touch without Nick Davis’s glowing review, I finally got our own Cláudio Alves to watch it last night, and now everyone who’s going to see it after today will obviously have done so because of me, so trust the power of good word-of-mouth reception! If anything I should have had Sarah Friedland’s film on my radar after she won the Someone to Watch award at the most recent Indie Spirits. Oh, and the three prizes the film won in the Orizzonti selection of last year’s Venice Film Festival.  

Friedland’s clearly got a great pedigree even before factoring in the Best Feature and Breakthrough Director nominations from the Gothams. Luckily for those of us who’ve caught up to Familiar Touch, this adulation is fully deserved, and the crafty, intelligent film is proof enough of her talent . . . .

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2025 Gotham Award Nominees

by Nick Taylor

With yesterday's announcement from the Gotham Awards, our very first nominees of the 2025 awards season have arrived. Setting aside my inherent disdain for the big-budget American films now allowed to compete alongside genuine independent cinema across the world, this looks like a pretty neat set of films! Let's dive into the nominees, and as always, share somoe verbose opinions despite not seeing all these features . . . .

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Review: Nia DaCosta reinvents Ibsen with "Hedda"

by Cláudio Alves

You might be excused for believing Nia DaCosta has decided to reinvent Hedda Gabler as some sort of retro-styled procedural when her newfangled Ibsen adaptation opens with the familiar noirish scenario of detectives inquiring about a night of revelry, mystery, and violence. Tessa Thompson certainly looks the part of a midcentury femme fatale, all performative insouciance and bedecked in the glamour of a 1950s dressing gown, demure enough to look appropriate yet belying an informality that could read as indecent. It's all a show with Hedda as the director, playwright, and star. Indeed, she's so luminous it's like staring straight at the sun and flirting with blindness. She's the dawn of a new day, and those around her are night, perishing by her light…

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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...

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