Dern doesn't have much use for the #dernaissance hashtag that originated as shorthand for the cosmic concatenation, circa 2017-18, of Big Little Lies, Star Wars and Twin Peaks.

Behind each moment is a steady, probing intelligence holding it together, so that what would otherwise come off as camp or hysterical is in fact grounded, layered, strange, human and almost unbearably vulnerable. Her facial elasticity is connected to a bigger physical elasticity and towering presence, and both spring from some deeper emotional gymnastics. Her eyes do 100 tiny calculations at once, her mouth flipping up and down and finally opening wide, wider than it should be physically possible to make a mouth, mirroring the elevator doors that she drags apart with her bare hands.Īs grotesque as Dern can make herself, the effect is never just horror and never just comedy. The mascara drips under her eyes, the lines on her forehead pop, and as two women gossip about her at the sink, the expression morphs into a grimace that carries her on a frantic rage storm through the office.

Laura Dern: 'I can, in the same year, be the same age and playing a very sexualised character, a very maternal character, a very heroic character, a bitch, and there's nothing saying, 'Oh, now that you're this age, we're gonna define you,'' Credit: Erik Madigan Heck/Trunk Archive/Snappermeida

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