Sissy Spacek

In Die My Love (2025), Sissy Spacek’s Pam has a couple of scenes of plain sense, and they make a welcome interruption. Lynne Ramsay’s film is loud, forceful and often striking, but keeps us too far outside Grace’s head. We felt relieved by Pam’s directness; Ramsay’s treatment of Grace’s distress had made us grateful for someone speaking plainly. As Jackson’s mother, Spacek gives the film something it needs without making a grand occasion of her presence. We rate her for that economy, though these brief contributions cannot stop the second hour from repeating the first.

The early breakthroughs were Badlands (1973), playing Holly Sargis for Terrence Malick, and Carrie (1976), as the telekinetic Carrie White. Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) gave her a different task: she played Loretta Lynn across decades and did her own singing. Her roles became more selective during the 1980s and 1990s, with Rose in David Lynch’s The Straight Story (1999) among the supporting parts. In the Bedroom (2001) brought her prominently back as Ruth Fowler in a family tragedy. These are substantial changes of part, but the ability to convey strong feeling with little outward display remains a recognisable strength.

Spacek’s expressive eyes can do much of the work while the rest of her stays still. That restraint matters because it makes complicated feeling understandable without spelling out each change of mood. Her comment on choosing roles is worth remembering: “I need some part of it that frightens me.”

In Dying for Sex (2025), she plays Gail, though our recommendation rests chiefly with Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. Their portrayal of Molly and Nikki’s friendship gives the series its warmth, and makes the writing’s occasional self-satisfaction about its frankness easier to forgive. We would rather see her take that risk than be employed simply to lend a production some reassuring good sense.