Diane | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Kent Jones |
Written by | Kent Jones |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Wyatt Garfield |
Edited by | Mike Selemon |
Music by | Jeremiah Bornfield |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | IFC Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 95 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $339,838 [2] |
Diane is a 2018 American drama film written and directed by Kent Jones in his narrative directorial debut. It stars Mary Kay Place in the title role, with Jake Lacy, Deirdre O'Connell, Andrea Martin, and Estelle Parsons in supporting roles. It revolves around a selfless woman whose unwavering service to others hides a lifelong secret.
The film had its world premiere at the 17th Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2018, where it won three prizes, including the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature. It was released in select theaters and on VOD on March 29, 2019, by IFC Films. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Place's performance and Jones' direction and screenplay. At the 35th Independent Spirit Awards, the film earned two nominations: Best First Feature and Best Female Lead (for Place).
Diane Rhodes is a sixtysomething widow living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts whose days are taken up through service to others. She makes a to-do list for her day, before delivering a casserole to friends, one of whom is recovering from a recent accident. She makes a brief stop to pick a teacher friend from school before delivering clean clothes to her adult son Brian. Brian, a heroin addict and alcoholic, lives in squalor with his likewise addict girlfriend Carla.
When Diane arrives at Brian's apartment, to which she has a key, she finds him passed out on the couch. She wakes him and they proceed to argue about his sobriety. He claims to be suffering from bronchitis and is angered at Diane's insinuation that he is not sober and needs to go back to the hospital where he detoxed. After she leaves, Diane visits her cousin Donna, who is in the hospital suffering from advanced cervical cancer. Donna is asleep when she arrives and Diane engages in banal conversations with the nursing staff.
The next days pass similarly, with Diane visiting Brian and Donna in succession. Brian continues to object to his mother's visits, while Donna rejects her nurses' offer of morphine and instead engages in playing gin rummy with Diane. After Donna's pain increases, Diane calls her aunt Madge, who a neighbor drives to the hospital. Donna is visibly soothed by her mother's presence.
Diane drives Madge to a family gathering with her aunts and uncles. After a tense exchange with her eldest aunt Ina, her aunt Mary tells a story about an encyclopedia salesman. Diane goes to dinner at a buffet restaurant with her best friend Bobbie. They have a conversation about how many people their age are dying.
Diane volunteers at a soup kitchen, where one of her favorite regulars, Tom, engages her in friendly conversation. Diane shows herself to have close familiarity with the layout of the kitchen and how much food should be out at any one time. When the power goes out, Diane and the other workers bring lit candles to the tables so the people can eat in peace.
During Diane's visits, Brian begins to visibly worsen. On one of her last visits, she finds him passed out in the bathroom and turns the shower on to shock him awake. She angrily tells him that he has to go back to the hospital and he lashes out verbally. Diane slaps him and leaves. At a subsequent dinner with Bobbie, she angrily states how tired she is of everyone talking about Brian, including her. Bobbie distracts her by talking about the history of the buffet restaurant they are eating at and how terrible the food is, which makes Diane laugh. When a server arrives at their table, Diane lies about how much they are enjoying the food.
While visiting Donna, Diane has an uncomfortable conversation with her about an incident in 1999 when their family was visiting Cape Cod when Diane left Brian and her husband at the family home and took off with Donna's boyfriend, Jess. Diane asks Donna if she has forgiven Diane. Donna pointedly says, "I've forgiven you, but I haven't forgotten," and tells Diane how much it hurt for her to take care of Brian while Diane left with Jess. Diane takes her coat and leaves. Diane visits Brian's apartment to find out he has disappeared. She searches for him and calls his phone to no avail. She visits on several subsequent days, but he does not reappear.
On a night where Diane works at the soup kitchen, Tom is reprimanded by another worker for attempting to go through the serving line a third time. Diane intervenes, tells Tom to get as much food as he wants, and upbraids the other worker, yelling at her about how she has no right to humiliate people just because they are poor. Bobbie pulls Diane into a side room and tells her that she must get some peace. As Diane struggles to regain her composure, Bobbie gently tells her to take as much time as she needs "and come out when you're good and ready."
After once again visiting Brian's empty apartment, Diane goes to a bar where she used to be a regular. She drinks margaritas and listens to the jukebox. After she becomes visibly intoxicated, the waitress cuts her off while the bartender makes a phone call. Diane exits the bar, collapses, and begins sobbing. Her aunts and friends arrive to drive her home.
Diane receives a call that Donna is dying and rushes to the hospital. As she enters the room to see her family quietly watching Donna in her last moments, her phone rings. She realizes it is Brian and steps into the hall to answer it. When she verifies that he is fine, she goes back into the hospital room, where Donna has now died. Madge hugs Diane and tells her that Donna loved her, which makes Diane break down.
Diane meets Brian at a small restaurant where he is far more put together and coherent. He tells her that he had to get help himself and that he went to a facility on Cape Cod to do so. Diane initially says that she has something to tell him, but when she is interrupted by the waitress bringing coffee, she changes her mind and tells Brian she will tell him about it later.
An indeterminate amount of time passes. Diane attends a service at a Pentecostal church, visibly uncomfortable in the open worship going on. At the front of the service, Brian, now wearing a wedding ring, assists in a trust fall exercise.
During a conversation with Jennifer, a manicurist, Diane talks about how all her aunts have died except Ina, the eldest. Jennifer discusses how she knows Diane's daughter-in-law Tally and they show mutual disapproval at the depth and fervor of Tally and Brian's faith. When Jennifer asks Diane if she is getting her nails done to attend an aunt's funeral, Diane hesitates before saying she is going to funeral of a good friend who loved getting her nails done. Bobbie's funeral is briefly shown.
Diane visits Brian and Tally to have lunch. As she brings in grocery bags and starts cooking, she hears them openly praying about her. At lunch, they begin to discuss whether Diane will join their church. She is visibly uncomfortable and tries to change the subject. As they persist, she becomes increasingly irritated and finally angry, lashing out at Brian for his selfishness. He turns the accusation back on her, reminding her of how she left him when she took off with Jess. Diane leaves.
Diane begins writing confessional poetry, seemingly inspired by the work of Emily Dickinson, which she keeps by her bedside. She has a vivid dream in which Jess appears and injects her with heroin, though a later journal entry states that Jess appeared much kinder in her dream than he was in real life. While shopping for groceries, Diane sees the former co-worker at the soup kitchen. They pointedly avoid each other. When a call from Brian comes in, Diane declines to answer.
Diane has a conversation with Ina about how she doesn't know how to cope with Brian's religiosity. Ina tells her of a friend who substituted religion for alcohol – one addiction for another. She reassures Diane that Brian will come around.
Diane is briefly seen attending Ina's funeral. When cleaning up the soup kitchen one night, Diane accidentally drops a dirty pan in the kitchen. Tom comes in to help her clean up. Diane apologizes repeatedly, but Tom insists on her sitting down while he cleans. As he does so, he tells Diane how she reminds him of one of his aunts, who apologized for everything, thinking she could never atone for some imagined sin. Diane, barely keeping tears at bay, tells him how she has caused a great deal of pain. He finishes cleaning and tells her that when she serves him food, he feels salvation.
Late one night, Brian arrives at Diane's, intoxicated. He bitterly discusses his unhappiness in his marriage and apologizes for his cruelty to his mother. When she tells him how she cannot forgive herself for leaving him, he tells her that he was never truly angry with her and that he forced himself into feeling anger toward her because he felt he should. They reconcile before Brian leaves, wryly telling Diane he has to go "back to Jesusland." Diane prepares to go to bed, turning off the light for a moment before turning it back on and pulling her to-do list out, adding more entries to it.
In the film's final scene, a visibly older Diane stands outside, filling bird feeders in the snow. As she lifts the bag of birdseed and prepares to go back inside, she pauses, her mind racing with thoughts about what she has to do. She quickly becomes confused and is unable to latch onto a single thought. She collapses into the snow as a woman offscreen calls her name and runs up to her. Diane closes her eyes.
Kent Jones took decades and multiple drafts to complete the screenplay for Diane, [3] which was inspired by the women in his family. [4] Jones said about his approach to making his first narrative film:
There are a lot of ways to talk about why I made my first narrative feature at the age that I did, but one of those ways is to say that everything that I valued in cinema — everything that I valued in the original movies I loved — it was all about the kind of attention that you can bring to filmmaking. It had nothing to do with preconceived ideas. It was just about the work and a direct response to it. [5]
The film was produced by Luca Borghese, Ben Howe, Caroline Kaplan, and Oren Moverman, while Martin Scorsese, Julia Lebedev, Leonid Lebedev, and Eddie Vaisman served as executive producers. [6] Principal photography took place in Kingston, New York, [7] [8] and lasted 20 days in early 2017. [3] [9] [10] [11]
Diane had its world premiere at the 17th Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2018, [1] [12] [13] and was then screened at several film festivals. In August 2018, IFC Films acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. [14] It was given a limited theatrical release on March 29, 2019, and was simultaneously released on video on demand. [6]
Diane made $27,043 from three theaters in its opening weekend, an average of $9,014 per venue. [15] [16] The film ultimately grossed $339,838 in the United States. [2] [17]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 93% of 100 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10.The website's consensus reads: "A small-scale drama rich with meaning, Diane offers audiences an uncommonly empathetic and wise look at life — and stellar work from Mary Kay Place in the title role." [18] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [19]
Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "a wise, captivating and continually surprising character study" and commented, "Place commands nearly every frame with a kind of hard-bitten luminosity." [20]
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times stated, "Diane amounts to an act of cinematic bravery, not just in its choice of tough-sell material, but in the patience with which Jones tends it. Parts of his story don't quite work; but by examining a life from the angle of its final destination, the movie offers a rich and tender study of a woman hollowed out by remorse." [21]
Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and remarked, "Thanks to Place's down-to-earth, unaffected performance and the filmmaker's own sensitivity, Diane grows in scope and sensibility, taking on the epic dimensions of time and the unbreakable ties that bind." [22]
Owen Gleiberman of Variety noted, "Diane is the most accomplished dramatic feature I've seen at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's a tender, wrenching, and beautifully made movie." Gleiberman also wrote, "Place's performance has a forlorn gravity, but it's also full of spirit and pluck, and an anger you don't want to get in the way of" and "the film's ending is majestic." [23]
David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of "B+" and opined, "The film acquires the hallucinatory feeling of life itself. It grows even more elliptical and dreamlike, as Jones shifts our focus from the known to the unknown, from the life of the body to the life of the spirit." [24]
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter stated, "Although the drama appears to be veering toward devastating tragedy, it makes a graceful turn instead in a more contemplative, interior direction, reflecting on time and memory." [25]
David Edelstein of New York Magazine commented, "Trying to forestall our loneliness is what connects us. That's not a depressing conclusion — it's the beginning of a design for living. In its mundane way, Diane gives you a glimpse of the sublime." [26]
Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and wrote, "Kent has assembled a superb group of character actors here, who tell lived-in stories with extraordinary sensitivity and grace. […] Place is a marvel, showing us the longing Diane can barely acknowledge to herself." [27]
Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actress | Mary Kay Place | Nominated | |
Gotham Independent Film Awards | Audience Award | Kent Jones, Luca Borghese, Ben Howe, Caroline Kaplan, Oren Moverman | Nominated | |
Breakthrough Director Award | Kent Jones | Nominated | ||
Best Actress | Mary Kay Place | Nominated | ||
Independent Spirit Awards | Best Female Lead | Nominated | ||
Best First Feature | Kent Jones, Luca Borghese, Ben Howe, Caroline Kaplan, Oren Overman | Nominated | ||
IndieWire Critics Poll | Best Lead Actress | Mary Kay Place | Nominated | |
Locarno Film Festival | Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention | Kent Jones | Won | |
Best Film | Nominated | |||
Los Angeles Film Critics Awards | Best Actress | Mary Kay Place | Won | |
National Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actress | Won | ||
Tribeca Film Festival | Best Cinematography | Wyatt Garfield | Won | |
Best Narrative Feature | Kent Jones | Won | ||
Best Screenplay | Won | |||
Women Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actress | Mary Kay Place | Nominated |
Where's Charley? is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by George Abbott. The story was based on the 1892 play Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas. The musical debuted on Broadway in 1948 and was revived on Broadway and in the West End. Ray Bolger starred, and sang the popular song "Once In Love With Amy".
Mary Kay Place is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a role that won her the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series. Her numerous film appearances include Private Benjamin (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Captain Ron (1992) and Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 drama The Rainmaker. Place also recorded three studio albums for Columbia Records, one in the Haggers persona, which included the Top Ten country music hit "Baby Boy". For her performance in Diane (2018), Place won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.
Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent are fictional characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. They are the adoptive parents of Superman, and live in the rural town of Smallville, Kansas. In most versions of Superman's origin story, Jonathan and Martha find Kal-El as an infant after he crash-lands on Earth following the destruction of his home planet, Krypton. They adopt him shortly thereafter, renaming him Clark Kent, "Clark" being Martha's maiden name.
Mahogany is a 1975 American romantic drama film directed by Berry Gordy and produced by Motown Productions. The Motown founder Gordy took over the film direction after British filmmaker Tony Richardson was dismissed from the film. Mahogany stars Diana Ross as Tracy Chambers, a struggling fashion design student who rises to become a popular fashion designer in Rome. It was released on October 8, 1975. The soundtrack included the single "Theme from Mahogany", which peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1976.
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2002 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of Lower Manhattan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Until 2020, the festival was known as the Tribeca Film Festival.
Rashida Leah Jones is an American actress and filmmaker. She is best known for her roles as Louisa Fenn on the Fox drama series Boston Public (2000–2002), as Karen Filippelli on the NBC comedy series The Office, as Ann Perkins on the NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), and as the eponymous lead role in the TBS comedy series Angie Tribeca (2016–2019).
The Stepford Wives is a 1975 American satirical psychological thriller film directed by Bryan Forbes. It was written by William Goldman, who based his screenplay on Ira Levin's 1972 novel of the same name. The film stars Katharine Ross as a woman who relocates with her husband and children from New York City to the Connecticut community of Stepford, where she comes to find that the women live lives of unwavering subservience to their husbands.
Poltergeist III is a 1988 American supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Gary Sherman, and starring Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen, Heather O'Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein with the latter two reprising their roles from the previous films. The third and final entry in the original Poltergeist film series, it follows young Carol Anne Freeling, who is terrorized by malicious spirits while staying in her aunt and uncle's apartment at Chicago's John Hancock Center.
Diane Jones-Konihowski, is a former Canadian pentathlete who was the 1978 Commonwealth Champion and won two gold medals at two Pan-American Games, as well as representing Canada at two Summer Olympics.
The Spencer family is a fictional family on the American soap opera General Hospital. The family was created by Douglas Marland and first introduced in 1977 when Bobbie Spencer arrived in Port Charles. Bobbie's brother, Luke debuted in 1978. Supercouple Luke and Laura Spencer are part of this family, known for their romance and many adventures. The Spencer family is characterized as an adventurous bunch, but many in the family have struggled with various types of substance abuse. They are known for their longstanding feud with the Cassadine family. The family is currently represented by: Laura, Carly, Lucas, Michael, Josslyn, Cameron, Jake, Aiden, Rocco, Charlotte, Wiley, Donna, and Amelia. The Spencers are the owners of the Haunted Star yacht, which is a staple establishment in the Port Charles community.
Prom Night is a 2008 slasher film directed by Nelson McCormick. It is the sixth and final installment of the Prom Night film series. It is a reboot film, mainly taking inspiration from the original 1980 film. The film stars an ensemble cast including Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Jessica Stroup, Dana Davis, Collins Pennie, Kelly Blatz, James Ransone, Brianne Davis, Johnathon Schaech, and Idris Elba.
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister is a 2010 British biographical historical drama film about 19th-century Yorkshire landowner Anne Lister. Made for television, the film was directed by James Kent and starred Maxine Peake as Lister. The script by Jane English drew from Lister's diaries, written in code, and decoded many years after her death. The story follows Lister's lesbian relationships and her independent lifestyle as an industrialist. The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister held its world premiere screening at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in March 2010 and was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC in May 2010.
Pure Country 2: The Gift is a 2010 American musical Western film directed by Christopher Cain. It serves as a standalone sequel to Pure Country (1992), is the second installment in the Pure Country film series, and stars country music artist Katrina Elam. The filming took place mostly in Nashville, Tennessee, and premiered in the United States on October 15, 2010.
Charley's Aunt is a 1941 American historical comedy film directed by Archie Mayo. It stars Jack Benny and Kay Francis. It was the fourth American filmed version of the 1892 stage farce of the same name by Brandon Thomas. It remained one of Benny's personal favourites among his own films.
A Night to Dismember is a 1983 American slasher horror film, produced and directed by Doris Wishman. The film stars pornographic actress Samantha Fox as a psychotic young woman, recently released from a psychiatric institution, who is driven to kill by an ancestral curse. It was the first and only foray into the horror genre for Wishman, who mainly directed and produced sexploitation films.
Jack & Diane is a 2012 American romantic horror film written and directed by Bradley Rust Gray and starring Riley Keough and Juno Temple.
5 to 7 is a 2014 American romantic film written and directed by Victor Levin and starring Anton Yelchin, Bérénice Marlohe, Olivia Thirlby, Lambert Wilson, Frank Langella, Glenn Close and Eric Stoltz. Yelchin plays Brian, a 24-year-old writer who has an affair with a 33-year-old married French woman, Arielle (Marlohe). Arielle and her middle-aged husband, Valéry (Wilson), have an agreement allowing them to have extramarital affairs as long as they are confined to the hours between 5 and 7 p.m.
Donna Ferrato is a photojournalist and activist known for her coverage of domestic violence and her documentation of the New York City neighborhood of Tribeca.
Waitress is a musical with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson. Based on the 2007 film of the same name, written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, it tells the story of Jenna Hunterson, a baker and waitress in an abusive relationship with her husband, Earl. After Jenna unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she begins an affair with her doctor, Dr. James "Jim" Pomatter. Looking for ways out of her troubles, she sees a pie baking contest and its grand prize as her chance.
Jean of the Joneses is a 2016 Canadian comedy-drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Stella Meghie. It stars Taylour Paige, Sherri Shepherd, Erica Ash, Michelle Hurst, Mamoudou Athie, François Arnaud, and Gloria Reuben. It follows a woman in her mid-twenties named Jean and her Jamaican-American family of strong-minded but fiercely loving women.