Lawrence

The first shot of director Lynne Ramsay’s stubborn and exasperating postpartum nightmare “Die My Love” would be a great opener for a horror movie. The camera lurks in the kitchen of an isolated ranch house, as still and foreboding as a ghost, while a couple named Grace and Jackson (Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson) poke around the front porch of their newly inherited property. The two take several beats to go inside, long enough that we suspect these crazy kids are making a dangerous mistake. Just look at the wallpaper. Those florals would make anyone crack.

“It’s not New York but it’s ours,” Jackson says of the rural home, left to him by his uncle who died violently upstairs in a way that Grace finds hilarious. He grew up in the area and his parents, Pam and Harry (Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte), still live nearby. Neither Jackson nor Grace say anything about their past lives back in the city, but he yearns to play drums and she once claimed to write. There’s a sense that their dreams have stalled out, either due to finances, passion or talent. So they move in, have a baby and pivot to domestic chaos.

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Lawrence and Pattinson are such a natural, overdue pairing that it’s a surprise to realize this is the first time they’ve teamed up to make the kind of polarizing, go-for-broke prestige film they both enjoy. The two stars launched into the public consciousness roughly around the same time, then followed the same trajectory from teen franchise idols to creatively ambitious A-listers and now, more recently, newish parents making a movie about miserable parents whose hopes have run aground. Lawrence has two tots under 3; Pattinson, a toddler. Their kids shouldn’t watch this movie until college.

In a dynamic montage, Ramsay sets up their boyfriend-girlfriend pair as lusty but strange. Jackson and Grace flirt by fighting like wild beasts. Nuzzling, sniffing, biting, wrestling — that’s foreplay (and she’s more into it than he is). But they can’t communicate with words. “If you’re not feeling good, maybe we should, like … talk?” Jackson says tentatively to his increasingly restless and unstable partner. Grace isn’t interested in talking, though occasionally she’s game to scream. When they fight for real, their bodies twist into spasms of outrage. And when the other one isn’t looking, each seems to power down — Lawrence’s Grace physically collapsing like an unplugged air dancer — a clue of how much energy they must privately expend to make it work.

“Die My Love,” adapted by Ramsay, Enda Walsh and Alice Birch from the 2012 novel by Argentine author Ariana Harwicz, makes parenthood feel like being handcuffed to an anchor that’s sinking into a swamp. Lawrence’s Grace needs help and the more she flails, the worse she makes things. The book is an inner monologue of poison: “How could a weak, perverse woman like me, someone who dreams of a knife in her hand, be the mother and wife of those two individuals?” the first paragraph seethes. But Ramsay rejects putting its angst into words. As with Joaquin Phoenix in “You Were Never Really Here,” she prefers characters who silently roil under their skin.

The tension in this home starts quiet — too quiet — with Grace cranking up kiddie albums by Alvin and the Chipmunks and Raffi to drown out whatever noise is happening in her head. After Jackson brings home a stray dog, the racket becomes unbearable, with sound designers Tim Burns and Paul Davies skillfully and cruelly making sure that no matter how far Grace roams, she can still hear the darned thing bark.

Lacking much perspective into Grace, we mostly see a mentally unwell woman incensed that her sexual playtime is over. She howls with the urge to mate, prowling the house in matching fancy bras and thong sets that clash with this disheveled house and its stockpile of cheap beer. Occasionally, a mysterious leather-clad biker (LaKeith Stanfield) speeds by, considering a quickie with this bored beauty.

Grace’s erotic agony is reductive and a bit ridiculous, although I think the script is also trying to imply that Grace herself is focused on the wrong problems. The film represents her depression by coating the night scenes in so much blue tint that even Picasso might suggest dialing it back. Despite cinematographer Seamus McGarvey’s efforts to put us in her headspace with lenses that make the world blur and swirl around her, you’re more afraid of Grace than for Grace, especially when the shock editing has her smashing through doors like Michael Myers.

Hurling herself into every scene, Lawrence puts her full faith in Ramsay. It’s not a trust fall so much as a trust cannonball. As good and committed as Lawrence is, there were times I wanted to rescue her from her own movie, to protect her from the fate of Faye Dunaway when “Mommie Dearest” turned another blond Oscar winner into a joke.

Yet, this is a character who hates pity and I can’t help but admire that Ramsay faces down today’s phonily upbeat and relatable motherhood discourse with this boogey-mom who keeps herself aloof. Grace treats the older women in her family like a wall of advice to be tuned out even when they’re right. “Everybody goes a little loopy the first year,” Spacek’s Pam says, offering empathy that falls on deaf ears. (Spacek delivers a lovely, endearingly layered turn.) And while Grace is so lonely she literally claws the walls, she rejects any overture of friendship, either from a perky fellow parent (Sarah Lind) or a peppy cashier (Saylor McPherson) whose attempts to start a conversation go so badly that when the poor dear asks Grace if she’s found everything she’s looking for, Grace huffs, “In life?”

Pattinson has the more recessive role but his performance is so subtle and clever that it’s worth watching closely. His Jackson is pathetic, passive and skittish around his baby’s mother, who he both longs to heal and tries to avoid. He has a few moments that play so close to comedy — say, whining to be let into the bathroom — that you wish the movie would do more to encourage our pained, guttural laughs. The punchlines are there, such as a beat after one meltdown where Jackson admits he’s getting really stressed out and Grace coolly replies, “About what?”

There’s one scene in which Grace reveals a snippet of backstory that might explain her psychology, and I think that specificity is a narrative misstep. What’s powerful about Grace is that she’s howling for all parents, even the mostly happy ones. Harwicz’s book deliberately never gave her character a name.

Even inside this movie, Grace’s anguish is universal. Yes, she wanders into the wilderness at night, but so do her in-laws Harry and Pam, for reasons of their own.There are dark vibrations emanating from almost every character, even the minor ones, although Grace is too caught up in herself to take any comfort from that. But Ramsay is comfortable suggesting that everyone feels crazy and miserable. I suspect she thinks it’s the most normal way to live.

UCLA’s defense, the biggest unknown on the team a year ago, is facing even more questions.

A slew of players moved on to the NFL. No full-time starters return. Success will depend on several players with promising pedigrees but limited college production becoming playmakers.

As he stepped off a team bus Wednesday afternoon in Costa Mesa amid the warmest day of training camp, the temperature reaching 82 degrees before warmup stretches, Key Lawrence did not appear to feel any sort of heat, literal or figurative. The transfer safety who has made previous college stops at Tennessee, Oklahoma and Mississippi was humming a tune, savoring every moment of this new opportunity.

A few hours later, after practice concluded, Lawrence teased a reporter about wearing a collared shirt given the temperature, though he said it felt pleasant to him.

“I’m from the South,” said Lawrence, a native of Nashville, “so this, it feels pretty good to me. I loved it, honestly. Everybody else was saying it was pretty hot; I was the one looking at them crazy. This is what I love.”

One of nine transfer defensive backs — including four who have made multiple previous college stops — Lawrence has emerged as an immediate standout for not only his exuberance but also his initiative in pulling everyone together.

Defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe identified Lawrence as a leader on the field and in meeting rooms, saying the redshirt senior was eager to help teammates learn what amounted to a new scheme for almost everyone on the defense. Among the returners, interior defensive linemen Devin Aupiu and Siale Taupaki each started seven games last season. Edge rusher Jacob Busic made five starts. No one else coming back made more than two starts.

But in a sign of improved depth, Aupiu, Taupaki and Busic could come off the bench this season upon the return of defensive tackles Gary Smith III and Keanu Williams from injury and the possible emergence of several edge rushers.

Once rated as the top high school prospect in Tennessee by 247Sports.com, Lawrence has amassed a sporting goods store’s worth of college helmets and jerseys. He played in 10 games as a true freshman at Tennessee in 2020, appearing on special teams and as reserve defensive back.

After transferring to Oklahoma, he posted his best college season as a sophomore, making 47 tackles and forcing three fumbles to become an honorable mention All-Big 12 Conference selection. Two more productive seasons in which he never earned a full-time starting role were followed by a transfer to Ole Miss, where Lawrence played in four games in 2024 before utilizing a redshirt season.

Radiating energy in everything he does, even if it’s just bopping to the 1990s R&B girl group Xscape while getting off the bus, Lawrence appeared eager to make the most of this final college chance.

“If I have some juice and some guys may not some days, especially in camp, why not pour it into somebody else so it can affect myself as well?” he said. “You know what I’m saying? Just fake it ‘til I make it, if anything. But when I get off the bus, I’m just excited to do what I do. I just love what I do, man. I’m just excited.”

The 700 Club

As he recently positioned himself underneath the bar inside UCLA’s weight room, straining under the load of eight massive plates on each side, Smith’s teammates thrust their arms into the air while chanting, “Get it up! Get it up! Get it up!”

The defensive tackle complied, squatting 700 pounds. It was a personal record and the most of any Bruin.

His teammates swarmed him in celebration while flinging fake money into the air. In a possible nod to NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, someone handed Smith a piece of paper with “700” scribbled on it to hold up for a photo.

It was a milestone in the recovery of a player who missed all of last season because of a broken ankle.

“Having the guys there to celebrate that moment with me,” Smith said, “it meant a lot.”

Having dropped 20 pounds from his 6-foot-2 frame as the result of a “clean” diet, leaving him a relatively svelte 315 pounds, Smith said he felt a significant difference.

“I feel lighter on my feet, feel explosive,” he said. “I feel twitchy again, you know, I just feel good.”

Etc.

Malloe said JonJon Vaughns, JuJu Walls, Isaiah Chisom and Donavyn Pellot were the linebackers standing out early in camp. Vaughns could replace the production of star predecessor Carson Schwesinger, Malloe said, as long as he maintained the proper belief and confidence. … A day after they were not spotted participating during the limited media viewing window, offensive linemen Courtland Ford and Reuben Unije practiced as part of the second team. Ford had both hands taped and Unije both elbows taped. The first-team offensive line consisted of tackles Garrett DiGiorgio and K.D. Arnold, center Sam Yoon and guards Julian Armella and Oluwafunto Akinshilo. … UCLA’s move to early afternoon practices this week after exclusively practicing in the mornings, Malloe said, was a schedule change implemented by coach DeShaun Foster to test players’ discipline. … Malloe said Jalen Hargrove, a veteran transfer from Rice who recently signed with UCLA, had joined his new teammates and was rounding into form with conditioning work.

The fact that Shankland has not made it clear he is leaving is cause for optimism for both McInnes and Hearts supporters.

McInnes is evidently and understandably excited at the prospect of working with the 29-year-old, but will Shankland sign on the dotted line to link up with the club’s new team boss?

Hearts will hope the chance to be part of their new project, with tried-and-tested performer McInnes in the dugout and Bloom’s gravitas in the boardroom, is enough to persuade their star man.

However, uncertainty over Shankland’s future has been clouded further still as McInnes heads to Spain without him.

“I really feel Lawrence as part of a strong Hearts team can elevate himself,” McInnes said earlier this week.

“I think he’s capable of scoring 25-30 goals a season in the right team and used in the right way.

“We can offer security. We can offer building a team and being part of a team that’s trying to be successful.”

With Bloom aiming to “disrupt the pattern of domination which has been in place for far too long” in Scottish football, there is an expectation Hearts will attack the transfer market.

Right-back Christian Borchgrevink, winger Alexandros Kyziridis, striker Claudio Braga, centre-half Stuart Findlay and midfielder Oisin McEntee have already signed in the early knockings of the window, while Elton Kabangu joined permanently after last season’s loan spell.

Beyond the ambition of the McInnes-Bloom project, the prospect of playing under the immediate gaze of Scotland head coach Steve Clarke would be another perk of staying in Edinburgh for Shankland.