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Movie Review: ‘Diane’

April 5, 2019 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Mary Kay Place, 71, gets the role of a lifetime in Diane, the engine of New York Film Festival director Kent Jones’ character-driven, Martin Scorsese-produced study of a woman who has become a supporting player in her own existence. It’s a bold choice in contemporary American films, to put a postmenopausal woman on the verge of a polite nervous breakdown at a downbeat drama’s center. Because Place, best known as the single businesswoman desperate to conceive in The Big Chill, has such a warm and genuine touch, Diane’s story is one of late-day awakening rather than one long stretch of kvetch.

The script meanders through a series of modestly dramatic events as Diane drives her battered sedan from one errand to the next through frigid, rural wooded Massachusetts. The roughest comes when she visits her only son, Brian (Jake Lacy). She totes his laundry to his chilly crash pad. When he shambles out of the bedroom, he’s equally unkempt and resents his mother’s “helpful” intrusion.

Brian’s an addict, and she scans him with her gimlet eye, trying to assess if he’s using again or just tired. It’s so hard to be a mother helpless to heal her once-beautiful child. It’s clear, through script and direction, that this is a dance they’ve been doing for ages, long after Brian should have taken control of his own life. “Take a shower and get cleaned up,” she nags in frustration. The ruts in their relationship — the hopes and disappointments of a mother who has seen her beloved son relapse, and who sees before her both the boy and the cracked man he has become — are heartbreakingly rendered.

Add another wrinkle to Diane’s face.

[Click here to see my AARP interview: ‘Mary Kay Place Gets Her First Lead Role’]

The do-gooder continues on her circuit: delivering casseroles to neighbors experiencing rough times, heading to the soup kitchen to ladle stew for the less fortunate, and visiting her terminally ill cousin Donna (the incandescent Deirdre O’Connell, 67) at the hospital. The pair radiate a long, comfortable kinship that transcends blood.

Diane and Donna have spent their lives sitting across from each other, playing cards, kibitzing and advising — and avoiding addressing a personal betrayal perpetrated by Diane that continues to gnaw at her. Diane is good — warm, caring, community-spirited. But she’s not as good as she might have been if she hadn’t made one big mistake she has regretted all of her life.

Watching Donna wane, along with their close-knit family’s elders, Diane belatedly realizes that all the consoling of others will not heal what’s cracked within her. Diane gets trashed at a bar for locals. She boogies down and, seemingly, rekindles the spark that she has lost, the joy in the moment. It has been a long time since she has loved herself, if she ever did, and there’s a glimmer of hope. There’s still time for Diane to star in the movie of her life.

[This review originally appear on AARP]

Filed Under: Movies & TV Tagged With: aarp, Aging, best actress, Diane, Kent Jones, Martin Scorsese, Movie, movie reviews, Tribeca Film Festival

Bad Jobs of the Academy Rich & Famous: David O. Russell, Waiter to Martin Scorsese

February 2, 2014 By Thelma Leave a Comment

David O. Russell SBIFFDavid O. Russell, Waiters Guild of America winner? Not something you’ll be hearing soon. But among the many jobs the Oscar-nominated writer-director had before he sold his first feature was working as a Manhattan waiter and bartender.

At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Outstanding Director Tribute last Friday, a gleeful Russell told a full house – including a screaming baby and a patron with a cough Russell compared to a cat with a fur ball – about his non-illustrious past.

Russell confessed that he waited on fellow nominee Martin Scorsese at the “Goodfellas” premier at the Museum of Modern Art. He told the established director “what I really want to do is what you are doing.” Scorsese responded: “I’ll have a vodka.”

[Related: Melissa Leo’s Down-home Upstate Pre-Oscar Party for ‘The Fighter’]

When asked by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling about the rigors of the Awards Season – especially in light of riding last year’s contender “Silver Lining Playbook” as well as this year’s “American Hustle” – the former waiter with blue-collar New Jersey roots wasn’t prey to self-pity. “You should love it, or you shouldn’t be in the business,” Russell said.

Russell has yet to win an Oscar himself despite three nominations for Best Director, but he still has an impressive track record. His last three films have garnered twenty-five Oscar nominations. That has netted three wins: one each for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for “The Fighter,” and one last year for Jennifer Lawrence.

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: American Hustle, Best Director, David O. Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Martin Scorsese, Oscars, Santa Barbara International Film Festival

“Hugo”: The latest trailer

October 26, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: 3-D, Chloe Moretz, Hugo, Martin Scorsese

Oscars 2012: Best Director First Look

October 18, 2011 By Thelma 2 Comments

Alexander Payne,George Clooney,The Descendants

Payne: Running Man

And now we turn our gimlet eye to the best director category. Full disclosure: of the top five men in the race, I’ve only seen two of the movies: The Descendants and The Artist. Any women directors in the race? Oopsy!

Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Steven Spielberg, War Horse

David Fincher, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Michael Hazanavicius, The Artist

Stephen Daldry, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Other directorial contenders: Bennett Miller, Moneyball; Clint Eastwood, J. Edgar; Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris; Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life; Tomas Alfredson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Martin Scorsese, Hugo; Oren Moverman, Rampart; and George Clooney, The Ides of March.

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Alexander Payne, Best Director, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Stephen Daldry, Steven Spielberg

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