The evening started with a performance from the Hasty Pudding troupe in honor of Bening, who came onstage donning a pinstripe suit. The performance was lighthearted, with the cast playfully roasting Bening — making a notable dig at the age-gap between her and her husband, Warren Beatty. Bening was also tasked with completing several activities onstage such as giving a cast member her signature short haircut, paying homage to some of her past projects (such as “American Beauty” and “The Seagull”) and fighting with her “doppleganger” to win an “Oscar.”

The performance ended with Bening being awarded an “Oscar” and the coveted, prestigious golden Hasty Pudding pot. In her acceptance speech, Bening thanked no one — stating, “I did it all myself with no one’s help.”

In line with the spirit of Bening’s new film, “NYAD,” she noted that “a strong woman is a flawed woman, a woman with vulnerabilities,” and that “there isn’t a point at which a woman stops evolving.”

Bening isn’t the first member of her family to snag a pudding Pot – her sister-in-law, Shirley MacLaine, won back in 1963 after her performance in the Robert Wise film “Two for the Seesaw.” Her husband Warren Beatty won HP Man of the Year in 1975. 

Bening also extended some (serious) advice to her younger self, encouraging young people in the film industry today, to “stay true to what inspires you — maintain a certain amount of privacy… keep something of yourself to yourself, and the people that you love and the people that you trust.” 

Going forward, Bening plans to keep pushing herself — and not just with the athletic challenges she undertook with creating “NYAD.” She also reflected on her experiences at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco after attending community college, expressing her enduring passion for theater and thanks to her ACT instructors. “So much of acting is just receiving,” she said, “taking in what is happening.”

Some films, such as Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde” (2022), have raised questions about the ethics of the biopic film. How do we make these films in a manner that is tasteful, truthful, and respectful to the film’s subject and story? Others, such as “I, Tonya” (2017), have been the target of both acclaim and criticism as a result of their chosen subjects. Who deserves for their story to be told and should we be further platforming figures as controversial as Tonya Harding? Hollywood still seems to be figuring out the answers to these questions.

But in honor of the upcoming biopics focused on Ronnie Spector, Bob Dylan and Madonna, here are six biopics we think Hollywood should make:

John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands:

Frequent collaborators throughout the course of their 35-year marriage, actress Gena Rowlands and actor/director John Cassavetes created some of the most influential works of independent American cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. In a similar vein as Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans,” a biopic focused on this pair could present an opportunity to explore their dynamic style of filmmaking in parallel to their personal stories. 

Gordon Parks: 

Another eminent artist of the 20th century, Gordon Parks’ journey from his childhood in segregated Kansas to his life as an established artist in New York City is a story that demonstrates the radical changes which occurred in the worlds of photography and Hollywood throughout his lifetime, many of which he brought about himself. 

Parks’ self-taught photography, which could serve as a unique medium to accompany a biographical film, depicted everything from the reality of a segregated American society to the opulence of mid-20th century fashion. It would be especially fascinating to focus on the making of Parks’ film “Shaft,” which cemented him as one of the co-creators of the blaxploitation genre. 

Joan Didion:

With Joan Didion lies a unique chance to hone in on one of her numerous essays (or books). Cradle to grave approaches to a biographical film can certainly be effective, but by working off of Didion’s own journalistic work, filmmakers could juxtapose Didion’s own subjective view with the — still, subjective — perspective of their own. “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” Didion’s first book and collection of essays, documents the countercultures of 1960s America in addition to her own developments as an individual, could be a great framework for a brief yet impactful film.

Cass Elliot:

Cass Elliot made quite an impact on the music industry in her short life. But the industry she loved and gave so much of herself to didn’t love her back. 

During her time in the music industry, Elliot was subjected to constant fatphobia from the media. Elliot had tried to lose weight many times throughout her life, and she decided to try again towards the end of her life. When she began pursuing a solo career in music, she was on a dangerously unhealthy diet. The extreme diet she was on put extra stress on her heart, which ultimately caused her death. Despite the facts, however, the media spread around a vile rumor that Elliot died from choking on a ham sandwich,  a fatphobic urban-legend that implies that Elliot’s diet and love for food was so robust and uncontrollable that it killed her. 

Cass Elliot was a star whose legacy is still defined by the fatphobia she faced during her life. Her story is yet another case of women not being given autonomy over their identities and their bodies. But her story could be redefined to represent the identity of a talented musician that Elliot wanted for herself if adapted by the right filmmaker.

Abby Lee Miller:

Abby Lee Miller started her dance company at just fourteen years old and eventually trained dancers who made it big on Broadway and as commercial dancers in the entertainment industry. But nothing compared to the success she gained when Lifetime decided to air “Dance Moms”, a reality television series about her dance studio. 

The idea of the original Dance Moms was nothing short of genius storytelling about an American subculture so niche that it was almost ethnographic. There are some pretty notable moments and elements of the show — such as Miller’s cruelty towards her dancers, her hostile relationship with the dancers’ mothers, and even physical altercations between Miller and some of the other cast members. The show’s growing popularity enabled Miller’s behavior and her original team began dropping like flies, some of the girls even filing lawsuits against Miller for emotional distress. At her peak, it seemed like nothing could bring Miller down from the shiny throne she sat on. But in 2015, the Department of Justice indicted Miller for fraud, revealing her hiding up to $755k in income and ultimately leading to her serving a year in prison. 

A biopic that tracks Miller’s rise and fall from grace could be an interesting chance to show greed’s ability to cloud one’s ability to act in an ethical manner. It would also be a chance to explore what led to Abby Lee Miller’s harsh and abusive behaviors — a question that still has yet to be answered.

Toni Morrison:

The growing effort of American conservatives trying to erase stories that offer diverse perspectives also presents a side effect of erasing the important voices behind those perspectives. Lawmakers have introduced hundreds of new laws with the intention of censoring certain topics like race and sexuality. This has made it even more important to protect the voices behind those stories. One of the voices we need to protect and preserve for future generations is Toni Morrison. 

The Ohio native was raised in a family that deeply valued Black literature and culture. Storytelling, folklore, and singing were extremely important to her upbringing. Morrison attended both Howard University and Cornell University. She eventually went on to teach at several institutions including Princeton University and her alma mater Howard University. During her life, Morrison wrote some of the most important pieces of literature to the Black community, including The Bluest Eye (1970), Song of Solomon (1977), and Beloved (1987). But unfortunately, state lawmakers today seek to ban Morrison’s works from school libraries, robbing an entire generation of the opportunity to access one of the most important writers of our time– widening the gap that already exists in American literature. 

A biopic centered around Morrison’s growth into the gifted storyteller she was — and how she brought her ideas to life — would further immortalize both Morrison and her works.

Honorable mentions: 

• Anna-Nicole Smith
• Shirley Chisholm
• Sidney Poitier
• Grace Kelly
• Brittany Murphy
• Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe 
• David Bowie

Narratives centered around teenage girls entering into precarious relationships with older men are deeply familiar to audiences, most recently taken to psychedelic heights in Ethel Cain’s 2022 concept album “Preacher’s Daughter,” but also in the equally magnificent classics, “An Education” (2009) and “Fish Tank” (2009). “Starling Girl” follows in the footsteps of such stories, and inevitably includes a few predictable beats. Still, Parmet’s careful handling of religious trauma and predatory relationships, and how the two play off of each other, shines through. 

In tackling this concept, Parmet drew from her own experiences as well as her study of women from fundamentalist Christian communities in Arkansas, as she noted in a post-film interview at the festival. These influences are reflected in Parmet’s direction and writing, as she fixates solely on Jem’s perspective.

Scanlen, known for her chilling performance as Amma in Jean-Marc Vallée’s “Sharp Objects” and as Beth in Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” is no stranger to depicting doomed teenagedom, so it’s refreshing to see her skills brought to a character brimming with promise.

Jem’s attachment to the life she knows at home is symbolized by the tranquil natural environment of Kentucky, where the film was shot on-location. Parmet’s subtle focus on landscapes of the American south recalls Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” (2020), and how pastoral settings can represent both beauty and hardship.

A central reason that “Starling Girl” works so well is because it maintains Jem’s agency. Throughout the film, control is exerted over her, first from her family and church community, and later Owen. Parmet transgresses the conventional boundaries of similar stories – she wants the audience to feel the allure of Owen’s stashed cigarettes, to yearn for the possibilities of Jem’s life along with her, to understand how her community simultaneously imbues her with purpose and terror, and to question what it would mean for her to leave it all behind. 

There are few voices of guidance for Jem to turn to, and she finds herself torn between two destructive forces as a result. Parmet isn’t interested in scolding Jem, or bringing her story to a neat conclusion. In fact, the film’s ambiguity is what makes it soar – and by the time the end credits roll to the crooning of Emmylou Harris’ “Tennessee Rose,” it’s clear that Jem’s life extends far beyond the screen. 

Spoilers ahead for “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and “Knives Out.”

2022 was chock-full of comedies infused with capitalist critiques, from Ruben Östlund’s shimmering “Triangle of Sadness” to Mark Mylod’s underwhelming “The Menu.” By far the most anticipated of the bunch was Rian Johnson’s return to the Benoit Blanc character, portrayed by Daniel Craig in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” released via Netflix. Johnson noted upon the movie’s Netflix release that he was wary of approaching it as a sequel to the hit “Knives Out,” starring Ana de Armas and Craig among a slew of other established stars. Still, “Knives’” novel deconstruction of the murder-mystery genre lingers in the mind, especially because “Glass Onion” marches to a similar beat — albeit a more hollow one. 

Johnson has a history of invoking genre with equal parts respect and sarcasm, most evident in his stunning directorial debut “Brick,” a noir film set at a high school in the early aughts, and later in “Knives Out,” in which a family breaks down in the wake of their patriarch’s murder. In “Glass Onion,” Craig is once again spectacular, as are his castmates, namely Janelle Monae (“Hidden Figures,” “Moonlight”) as twin sisters Andi and Helen and Madelyn Cline (“Outer Banks”) as influencer Whiskey. Jessica Henwick (“The Matrix Resurrections”) and Leslie Odom Jr. (“Hamilton”) also turn out exciting performances but are given less material to chew on. 

Similar to “The Menu,” “Glass Onion” takes shots at easy targets — a corrupt politician (Kathryn Hahn), a misogynistic Twitch streamer (Dave Bautista), and the worst-case scenario of an air-headed tech bro, a-la Elon Musk (Edward Norton). It feels good to laugh at these characters’ expense because they are caricatures, so far removed from reality that even the death of Bautista’s Duke Cody fails to intrigue. Although many of today’s wealthiest individuals appear so untouchable that they might as well be cardboard cutouts, is there anything to be gained from watching them putter around a private island for two hours?

“Glass Onion,” like its predecessor, was never intended to be a character study, but the vague friendships between our main characters fail to provide the same electric undercurrent and subtle characterization that the dysfunctional Thrombeys offered. In “Knives Out,” Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis) is monstrously privileged and largely unsympathetic, but the film efficiently explores her character through her relationship with her father and her husband’s (Don Johnson) infidelity. 

Visually, “Glass Onion” astounds as it plays with lighting, and the costume designs for Blanc and Kate Hudson’s Birdie stand out in particular. The sun-drenched set is a far cry from the mountainous Victorian Gothic where the events of “Knives Out” unfolded, but the titular sculpture is a compelling set piece among the otherwise hyper-modern, bland architecture of the island, alluding to the often uninspiring aesthetics of the hyper-wealthy. 

The final reveal of Norton’s Miles Bron as the murderer pays off in the moment, easy a shot as it is, but its impact wanes quickly. Chris Evans’ turn as the conniving Hugh Drysdale is comparatively more timeless, in part because Hugh is capable of concocting a scheme that’s both sinister and marginally intelligent. Bron’s plan, however, is written to be clumsy, and is thus unspun effortlessly by Blanc. Unlike the previous installment, the mystery is more mystifying to its characters than to the audience, and Johnson’s method of having Blanc spell out the answer is underwhelming. 

Like “Knives Out,” a good chunk of the movie is spent on exposition, piecing together the events which led “Andi” and Blanc to the Greek island. Hints pointing towards Andi’s true identity as her twin sister Helen are cleverly placed throughout the first hour, perhaps so many that the process of explaining them gets a little tedious, and the thrill of subverting the murder-mystery format is dulled the second time around. Still, Johnson’s script is tight, witty (aside from a slight lean on kitschy cameos) and expands the lore of the “Knives Out” universe, nebulous as it is. Standouts from the script include Hugh Grant’s introduction as Blanc’s exasperated domestic partner, and of course, Chekov’s painting: Bron’s genuine, on-loan “Mona Lisa” which stands like a ticking time bomb throughout the course of the film, only to be destroyed in its final minutes, cementing Bron’s legacy.

With “Glass Onion,” Rian Johnson came back bigger than ever, if nothing else, and for all its emptiness, the film never lacks the trademark charm of Johnson’s projects, even on a sweeping Netflix budget. A third “Knives Out” installment is already on the books, with the only certainty being the return of Benoit Blanc. Hopefully, Johnson takes another swing for the fences.