@ WiLDheart

The divorce lawyer turns on the recorder and stalks quietly into the space where her client sits, apprehensive and tense. Her tone is by turns empathetic and no-nonsense as she coaxes the tearful woman to tell her side of the story. But underneath her gentle, supportive veneer, the steely, manipulative undercurrent hums.

This scene, from , is Laura Dern at her best, delivering a layered performance worthy of the Supporting Actress Oscar (and the Golden Globe, the SAG, the BAFTA) she walked home with on 10 February this year – her 54 birthday. Laura is currently riding the wave of what the media has dubbed ‘the Dernaissance’ with two major movies released in the past year: Greta Gerwig’s re-imagining of Louisa May Alcott’s also received a handful of Oscar nods.and the silkily manipulative Nora Fanshaw in .