It's fitting that the first time Maddie Schwartz and Cleo Johnson, the two women at the center of the stylish new murder mystery "Lady in the Lake," lay eyes on each other, it's through a department-store display window—that engine of female desire. Maddie (Natalie Portman), a Baltimore housewife, quickly makes up her mind to buy the yellow dress modelled by Cleo (Moses Ingram), one of the store's living mannequins. Cleo's attention is caught by the rivulet of blood on Maddie's mustard-colored skirt suit. The year is 1966, and both will soon be on their way to political gatherings—Maddie to a fund-raiser for a Jewish civil-liberties group, Cleo to a rally for Marylands first Black woman state senator—though nothing as nebulous as social change can fulfill either woman's long-stifled aspirations. In a matter of days, Maddie will leave her husband (Brett Gelman) and her teen-age son, Seth (Noah Jupe), to pursue a career in journalism, and Cleo will dip her toe into a criminal underworld that quickly pulls her underwater. Afterward, in a voice-over, she expresses her resentment at having been made a supporting character in Maddie's second act: "Your writing dreams ruined your life. Now you want those same dreams to rewrite it. But why did you need to drag my dead body into it?"
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BADDIE ISSUES
\"Wicked\" and \"Gladiator II.\"
LET'S MAKE A DEAL
\"Death Becomes Her\" and \"Burnout Paradise.\"
ANTI HEROES
\"The Franchise,\" on HBO.
FELLOW-TRAVELLERS
The surprisingly sunny origins of the Frankfurt School.
NOW YOU SEE ME
John Singer Sargent's strange, slippery portraits of an art dealer's family.
PARIS FRIEND - SHUANG XUETAO
Xiaoguo had a terror of thirst, so he kept a glass of water on the table beside his hospital bed. As soon as it was empty, he asked me to refill it. I wanted to warn him that this was unhealthy - guzzling water all night long puts pressure on the kidneys, and pissing that much couldn't be good for his injury. He was tall, though, so I decided his insides could probably cope.
WILD SIDE
Is Lake Tahoe's bear boom getting out of hand?
GETTING A GRIP
Robots learn to use their hands.
WITHHOLDING SEX FROM MY WIFE
In the wake of [the] election, progressive women, who are outraged over Donald Trump's victory at the ballot box, have taken to social media with public, vengeful vows of chastity. - The Free Press.
DEADLINE EXTENSION
Old age, reborn.
