Diane

Diane, the soulful and lovingly crafted first narrative feature from Kent Jones, is a portrait of a late middle-aged woman (Mary Kay Place, for whom the part was written) and the physical and emotional landscape of her tightly knit world of family, friends and her troubled son (Jake Lacy). Time rushes by, heartbreak and devastating loss are quickly followed by regeneration and unexpected kindnesses, and everything is haunted and colored by memory and intimations of mortality. Meanwhile, life never stops. Jones, who has played a prominent role in the world of cinema and the consciousness of its history—as writer, programmer, festival director, foundation leader, screenwriter, documentarian and decades-long collaborator with Martin Scorsese—has created something new and rare: a film that moves and pulses with the rhythm of everyday life as lived by a woman who gives all of herself to others.

“A wise, captivating and continually surprising character study… You may not encounter a more achingly human character in a movie this year. Mary Kay Place commands nearly every frame with a kind of hard-bitten luminosity… There are encounters of such unexpected, benedictory beauty that you may wonder, at first, if they’re mere visions or dreams.” – Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times