'Die My Love' & Jennifer Lawrence Awards Chances; Ranking Netflix's 2026 Oscar Slate

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0:35Welcome to Screen Talk, IndieWire's weekly podcast that brings you up to speed on the latest goings on in Hollywood. I'm Anne Thompson, and I'm in Los Angeles.

0:45Ryan Lattanzio:And I'm Ryan Latonzio in New York. This week, we're going to assess Netflix's 2026 Oscar slate, which films are gaining momentum and which are losing steam. And we will look at Lynn Ramsey's latest tone poem, Die My Love. And you interviewed the two stars recently, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. I interviewed Lynn Ramsey this week. And these two actors play a mismatched couple with a young baby marooned in Montana as the young mother starts to go mad. And boy, does she go mad. And Jennifer Lawrence, as a mad woman, is an incredible thing to watch. Of course, it's postpartum depression.

1:23Ryan Lattanzio:Postpartum psychosis, even. She's wielding a knife. And she really does go wild and, you know, has an affair with Lakeith Stanfield next door and gets mad at her husband, Rob Pattinson, who's just ridiculously hapless and, you know, doesn't have a clue how to deal with her. He loves her. That much we know. This is a kind of ill-starred romance, but I think it's worth seeing just to see her. Now, there was some talk. It's interesting, Ryan. Let's talk about this. You and I were in Cannes together, and the impression that I had there was that the movie didn't open well. It didn't play well. It didn't do well.

2:05If you look at Metacritic, it's actually quite respectable. It's like 75 on Metacritic. I mean, it's not bad. And if you look at the screen grid, which is probably what we were looking at in Cannes, the jury grid, where they have critics, you know, voting for each day for each of the competition movies, it didn't do well. But it was also clearly the English language people liked it better than the forum folks did. And now, what's your sense of how they didn't put it in any festivals. They weren't going to take any chances with that. They're opening it wide. What's your sense of where it is?

2:45Ryan Lattanzio:The European critics have always been better attuned to the Lynne Ramsey sensibility, I'd say. Normally, her movies do better in Europe. So this film went to London. I don't have a sense of how it played there, but that was really the only major fall festival that it went to after Cannes. There were rumors that the movie was being recut, but I did speak to Lynne Ramsey about this. They're minor. What really the issue was is that, well, so they shot the movie in October, 2024. And the can deadline, what is that? That's got to be like early April or no, it's got to be March even. It was late. It was late.

3:17Ryan Lattanzio:She made that clear in your interview. Yeah. And so they had about five days to do the sound mix. And so what she really did was pull back on some of that, which she felt was too broad, too broad strokes in the can screening. And she said there are some better takes of the same scenes that are swapped in. I've now seen the movie twice with enough time in between that the differences were imperceptible to me. Some of the aimlessness of the movie, though, I think retains in the same version. But talking to Lynn Ramsey, who was really wonderful, she was such a sweet woman. I mean, she she creates these really disturbing fucked up movies.

3:54Ryan Lattanzio:But like there is not like a sweeter person that I've talked to in a while. And then we have these two performances from Pattinson and Lawrence. Lawrence is, I think, a candidate for best actress this year. Assuming the movie continues to get some good reviews, you know, we're talking about a whole new set of critics weighing in on it for the opening. My guess is that they will be mixed. One, you know, some will like it and some will not. But she's not going to get there, I don't think. It's just not going to happen that she's already won once. She's been nominated three other times. She's an extraordinary actress, but her heyday, she had that amazing run back, you know, where she did Winter's Bone and she did Silver Linings Playbook and she did The Joy.

4:48She had her David O. Russell movies and she did, what's the other, there's one more that is one of the great ones that she did.

4:56Ryan Lattanzio:American Hustle? Yeah, that's it. The other David O. Russell. And so she had a great run, but she hasn't been matching the level of excellence. I loved her. Now, you saw Causeway. You must have seen that. She was fantastic in that. Extraordinary. And so I think her people recognize that that's the level of performance she needs to aim for. And that's what this Scorsese figured out, that this would be a great role for her after he read the book and he presented this idea to her. and she developed it at her production company. And I think it is a great role for her. And she picked out Lynn Ramsey.

5:35They went for a poet, she said. That's what she wanted. The only woman, the only filmmaker who could be described as a poet, she said. So that was why she went with Ramsey. I'm not sure. You love Ramsey. I'm hit or miss with her.

5:52Ryan Lattanzio:Well, similar to Chloe Zhao, when Ramsey got this book on her desk, she didn't know how to parse it and also weighed whether or not to actually take it on. And it took a while to coax her into doing it. And Jennifer Lawrence was instrumental in that. What this movie reminds about Jennifer Lawrence, who as a contemporary comparison, I think Natalie Portman's kind of similar. She's not an actress who disappears into anything. She's more of a she brings a lot of presence to a role as like a classic movie star does where, you know, this is Jennifer Lawrence. she's not trying to make you forget that, I would say.

6:30Ryan Lattanzio:And I do think in this moment, what's being prized by Academy voters is more of a kind of performance that's more unexpected, where you perhaps do vanish more into the role, just given some kind of recent winners. And someone like Jesse Buckley, who I think for a lot of people in the Academy is still a kind of discovery, who seems to be a front runner in this race this year. And by no means - I think the Academy knows who Jesse Buckley is. Maybe the public doesn't. The public, sure. The Academy knows. No, so let me list the best actress contenders that she has to beat. So there's Buckley, who's going to win.

7:10We know that now. I mean, for Hamnett. And then we have Rose Byrne, who's going to get in there for sure. If I had legs, I would kick you. Is that the right? Is that for sure?

7:19Ryan Lattanzio:I hope so. And then I saw Wicked. So I'm going to go with Cynthia Erivo. She and Ariana Grande are as fabulous as ever in the new. As fabulous as they already were in the first one. Yes. Correct. You know, so I actually think Ariana Grande could win supporting actress this time because she's better. She's even better. And she's got more time in the second one. It leans into her story. And then Emma Stone, I think. I think Begonia is doing OK. It's holding on. It's it's it's hanging in there. And then, of course, our fave, Renata Rensve for sentimental value. So I don't see Lawrence knocking one of those actresses out.

8:01Do you?

8:02Ryan Lattanzio:No, mostly because I don't see enough voters. Probably also, i.e. the public really getting down for this movie. Unfortunately, it's it's exhausting. It's challenging. It's alienating in parts. And I'm not saying it's challenging in a way that it's I mean, it actually it is off putting. It has moments that are off putting. And certainly the Academy, as we have several actors you listed here are playing unlikable roles. So it's not really about that. But I think this is very similar to the Byrne movie. And in some ways, it's a mother going mad while she's caring for a child. So why are we so high on Rose Byrne and her movie when when we're not so high?

8:46I mean, I'm high on Jennifer Lawrence's performance. No, don't get me wrong, but I'm not. I think the movie it it's interesting Ryan that if I if I had legs I'd kick you is as difficult and and as excruciating as it could be and yet you recognize that it's delicately carefully wrought in every way it is perfect it is written well directed well acted well it doesn't miss a beat and yet this movie feels sort of out of control.

9:22Ryan Lattanzio:Yeah, which I think is the idea. And Lynne Ramsey acknowledges that this is her longest movie that she's ever made. Normally she's clocking it at a tight like 90 to 100 minutes and this is almost a full two hours. And she has admitted that there's still changes that she wants to make, but alas, that's not possible. You know, what's interesting as a both, if I had legs and Die My Love are about a quote unquote unfit mother and the sort of her reaction to circumstances that are out of her control, whether it's postpartum depression slash psychosis or in Rose Byrne's case, like a hole in her ceiling and a daughter who's very sick and whose illness she herself may be like a munch housing along in some way.

10:04Ryan Lattanzio:With the Rose Byrne character, there's no like romantic or sexual thing going on. It's totally devoid of that. Whereas a big part of Die My Love is that Robert Pattinson doesn't want to fuck Jennifer Lawrence because she's crazy. That is part of what I have trouble with. And I gave in the interview, I had a really good time, by the way, talking to the two of them. And I opted to do a text interview, which means that we were talking on Zoom from L.A. to New York. That was the day of the premiere. And they were talking to me as if it were a print interview. It wasn't video. And so that meant that I could, A, edit them, you know, when the time came, and B, that they could be a little more candid.

10:45They didn't have to worry about bites of video going out over the airwaves. And it was fun to do it that way. And I stand by it. But the idea is that I got some candid admissions from them, you know, about how scary it is to take a movie like this out. Jennifer Lawrence was like, it was like feeding a carcass to the hyenas, you know, a zebra to the hyenas to take a movie out to the public and to the critics. How difficult that is, you know, for someone after you've put all your energy into it. And they also talked about, you know, the difference between their acting styles. I mean, Pattinson was amazed that she could just show up on a day when they had an eight-page, you know, scene to do.

11:36And she did a read-through at the beginning, two of them, two read-throughs, and she knew it by heart. She reminds me, it sounds like it's a lot like what Karen Culkin used to do on Succession. People sort of marveled that he could just walk in and memorize everything on the day. And whereas Pattinson is sweating over it and memorizing his lines, and he's a Brit. He's anxious. He's worrying about it. And that was fun. He talked a little bit about Dune, which was interesting. He has a villain role in Dune 3. And he said he lost all his anxiety when he was in the desert and he was all so hot that he couldn't think and had no brain cells to function.

12:15So that was fun. Anyway, the point I want to make, though, is that his role is hard to fathom in this movie because he doesn't understand what's going on and he doesn't act and he isn't really what I consider to be loving and caretaking of his partner.

12:34Ryan Lattanzio:They also, they didn't use an intimacy coordinator on this movie. Isn't that interesting? She said that on the Las Culturistas podcast, they've had quite the press tour with this movie. Is that going to generate box office for a movie that Mubi paid$24 million for? I don't know, but maybe it'll draw subscribers to the streaming platform when it hits in a few months. Well, that's the goal. That's what they want. And that's the plan. And that's why they're opening it wide. You know, this is a this is not a platform. This is the they paid$24 million for top dollars for two movie stars. And so the question there is whether movie stars actually draw people to the box office.

13:11I bet they do draw them to the platform. I bet they do. But the box office is another question. If you're not in in a you know, if you're not in Twilight and you're not in Batman and you're not in Hunger Games, do you have the same clout in a movie like Good Times or The Lighthouse, which are Pattinson's great indie choices that I approve of completely, but it's not like they were big box office draws or Causeway or any of the indie movies that Lawrence has done. That's not, I don't think it's going to happen, but we'll see.

13:45Ryan Lattanzio:So, Anne, why don't we talk about the other topic we wanted to bring up today, which is how Netflix started the season with a robust Oscar slate of about seven hopefuls. And is this the year they're going to win Best Picture? I was obviously on the ground at, well, okay, there were movies that we saw at Cannes that they acquired, right? There was Yves Le Vogue and Left-Handed Girl. And then going into Venice, where I saw all those as world premieres, there was a lot of buzz around Frankenstein, Jay Kelly, and House of Dynamite. And the reactions to those the first two well i'm sorry the reactions to frankenstein and jay kelly were quite divisive whereas house of dynamite played really well there and as we've talked about on the podcast earlier now they're all these movies are like and it's sort of a whack-a-mole of like which one is in the lead position but right now it seems like um house of dynamite is as lagging behind yeah i i would suggest um back back when i went you were in venice and i was in telluride and they had a a slate of like seven movies or something like that, seven or eight movies.

14:50And, and I would say that at this stage, um, House of Dynamite and Nouvelle Vogue and Jay Kelly have, are falling back that, that they're not going to happen. I don't see the film critics coming to their rescue at the end of the year. I don't see, I mean, Nouvelle Vogue is a wonderful movie and, and so is House of dynamite. I love that movie. And I actually love Jay Kelly. I saw it a second time. It's beautifully made, and it's really fun, and George Clooney is lovely, and I think maybe Adam Sandler gets in for supporting actor, although that is a very competitive category, and there's something about, even though Adam Sandler is playing a very recognizable figure in Hollywood that I think the Academy will relate to.

15:38That is a sort of sad sack manager who gives up everything for his client. I don't know how seriously people take Adam Sandler, you know, in the end. And that's an interesting question. I think he's great in this movie, and I think he'll go through. But that is a competitive category also. And then House of Dynamite is really well directed. It's terrifying, but it has this three-act structure, and everybody complains about it. You talk to people, and they complain about how there's sort of, there's an 18-minute imminent missile strike, and so they structured the movie to go through those 18 minutes three different ways, and you learn more and more as you go, and when you get to the end, you get to the president, and somehow that's a letdown for a lot of people, Idris Elba, and I just hear it over and over again.

16:29When you hear something like this over and over again, it starts to be the meme. It starts to be what everybody thinks is true. There's a kind of repetitive nature to it. And even if you can't

16:41Ryan Lattanzio:let it, you can't let it affect you and make you start to doubt yourself. No, I love the movie, which yeah, same. But that's, that happens to a lot of people who seem to kind of like regress. Oh, I've watched it many times. Yeah. Yeah. No, there's a couple of movies out of Venice where I'm like, I really wish I could knock that B down to a B minus or a C plus. Frankenstein being one of them, but I digress. All right. So let's say House of Dynamite might get up. Maybe you'll get a few crafts in the end. That could happen. Jay Kelly could maybe get screenplay and Sandler. That's where we are, I think.

17:17And then the other one that is coming up is Frankenstein. People love this movie. It's coming up. It is doing well. It is going to be in Best Picture. It is going to get a ton, we already knew this, of Kraft nominations. But I haven't put Guillermo del Toro in Best Director yet, but it could happen. It could happen. It's tough. He's up against Jafar Panahi and...

17:44Ryan Lattanzio:Joachim Trier. Joachim Trier. And he's up against, obviously, Paul Thomas Anderson. Paul Thomas Anderson. and Brian Kugler and Chloe Zhao. That's the group right there. That's tough competition. Maybe he doesn't get in, but we'll see. Frankenstein's doing well. And the other one that's coming up, besides the foreign ones, because I think Left-Handed Girl is great, and I think that could actually score for Taiwan. A nomination in the final five? Short list. Short list, sure. I think that Train Dreams is the one that's coming up. What do you think? I have a weird feeling about Train Dreams as coming up.

18:21Ryan Lattanzio:I really do. And this is based on nothing. It could end up, look, there's a number of these nominated Netflix movies over the years that were really more critical, succeed to steam. Things like Mudbound or The White Tiger, which those got into adapted screenplay. Even you could say May, December, which got into original screenplay. given that these guys um greg quedar and clint bentley were nominated this year for sing sing uh they are obviously familiar to the writers and that i don't know that feels like a movie that could slot into a definite screenplay but that's gonna get a writing numb yeah but but it does i don't know why it feels bigger than that to me i can't i can't parse what what this intuition i have is i went to one of these events josh haratonian is one of the pr guys here in la who has like a massive list of things that he's working on with his team.

19:11And he has good taste. He picks the right movies. Everybody wants him on their films because he's good and he remembers everything. He literally keeps track of every single Academy member and who's seen what. I mean, he would like call me and say, Ann, you haven't seen this yet. You know, he knows. So he had a screening for H is for Hawk, which was at Telluride, which didn't make much of a splash there at all. It was one of those movies that nobody went to see. But it's a lovely movie, actually, a British film, small, based on the book, on the memoir, which is a great book, which I recommend. And it has a great performance from Claire Foy.

19:53But the reason I'm bringing this up is that you talk to the Academy members at things like this. And people coming up to me and saying, oh, I love Train Dreams. so they discover it they find it they they they respond to it and you know that netflix you know netflix is going to do the work it's going to get it seen it's going to get everybody and that's something don't you think the critics could come through for joel edgerton in that case yeah

20:19Ryan Lattanzio:absolutely i mean the thing about train dreams is that it isn't really divisive there's nobody who doesn't like it i know you can't say that for any of the other ones it's a sundance movie as as the Rose Byrne movie is too. I believe that this will be a Joel Edgerton nomination for best actor. That much I'm confident of, which is a lot to suggest in a very competitive category like best actor. That's asking a lot. That's taking out someone like Jeremy Allen White. It's taking out George Clooney. It's, you know, there's a number of people that he would have to jump over to get into that category.

20:56But I think he will. I think it's the career performance. It's one of those performances that is so good and so moving. It has that extraordinary scene at the end where everybody in the audience is crying. It's like Hamnet in that way. There's a release. This poor man has suffered the tortures of the damned for his entire life, for decades, and then finally has a moment where he can express himself.

21:23Ryan Lattanzio:Well, there is a release, but this movie also, I would say, appeals to both the cynics and the hopefuls in the crowd. Just because, without spoiling anything, this character who's a logger, he has a kind of Job-like existence of just constant suffering that is wrought upon him. But he prevails anyway. But yeah, I mean, the other things that are great about this movie are the score by Aaron Dessner that's really beautiful. And it wasn't shot on film, but it was shot on an RE Alexa 35 digital camera. But it has a sort of filmic quality and still is very beautiful. All right. We'll see. We'll see what happens with that.

22:05And I think they might get a nomination for Perfect Neighbor. The only risk that I see with Perfect Neighbor, somebody said this to me earlier, and I sort of poo-pooed them because Perfect Neighbor, to me, seems to be, you know, it's a filmmaker of color. It's an extraordinary breakthrough in terms of how the film is shot with all the police cam footage, you know, edited together in a remarkable way that hasn't been done before. I think this that in the subject matter, you know, of this this white woman murdering her neighbor in Florida, just it just seems perfectly set up for a nomination. it's on Netflix and it's hugely popular and that becomes a problem in the document you can't rely on the documentary branch to do the right thing you just can't my octopus teacher that was also huge on Netflix so that was a weird year that was before Netflix became the bad guy on some level that was before they didn't get any nominations in documentary last year no even though they had some good candidates.

23:14Ryan Lattanzio:What's interesting about Perfect Neighbor, look, Netflix, in terms of nonfiction filmmaking, if you will, Netflix has become the home of these schlocky true crime documentaries that like Joe Berlinger is one of the main primary directors. He used to be good. Yeah, he does all these serial killer for hired jobs that are as thoughtful as can be. But a lot of these movies and I'm not talking about his necessarily. I just watched one about Eileen Wuornos this morning, actually blast from the past. A lot of these movies feel that they were slapped together by AI. Was that the character that Charlize Theron won for in Monster?