Jay-Z turned his Friday, September 4, concert in London into an impromptu celebration for his wife Beyoncé’s 45th birthday.

Jay-Z, 56, briefly halted his set to sing “Happy Birthday” to Beyoncé, who was sitting in a private box and dressed incognito in a black hoodie. Per social media footage, the Cowboy Carter singer smiled and blew her spouse a handful of air kisses from the suite.

“Happy birthday, dear B,” the rapper gushed at the end of his serenade. “She’ll kill me for that one, but whatever.”

To further celebrate the occasion, Jay-Z organized a fireworks display in Beyoncé’s honor.

“Check that s***,” he proclaimed.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z have been married since 2008, going on to welcome three children.

“Most days I try to wake up around 6 a.m., squeezing in an hour or two of work before the little ones are up,” the Cécred founder told GQ in a 2024 interview. “Parenting while working, I move forward, embracing the beauty and the chaos of it all. Our home is alive with cousins and friends, spontaneous talent shows and the clatter of dominoes.”

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are parents to Blue Ivy, 14, and twins Sir and Rumi, both 9. The superstars remain focused on giving their little ones a sense of normalcy despite their widespread fame.

“Our children can FaceTime and see their friends at any given moment. My husband and I? We used calling cards and Skype when we were falling in love,” she recalled, referring to the origins of her love story with Jay-Z. “I couldn’t afford the international hotel bills, so I literally would get international calling cards to call him.”

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Related: Beyonce, Jay-Z Fire Back at Trolls Who ‘Hate’ Them in 1st Collab in 7 Years

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are getting the last laugh. The Carters surprise-released their first collaboration in seven years, a remix of Beyoncé’s song “Morning Dew (Donk),” on Wednesday, August 5, which features a new verse that fires back at their social media trolls. “If you ain’t riding for the gang, shut the f*** up,” Jay-Z, 56, […]

Beyoncé continued at the time, “One thing I’ve worked extremely hard on is making sure my kids can have as much normalcy and privacy as possible, ensuring my personal life isn’t turned into a brand. It’s very easy for celebrities to turn our lives into performance art. I have made an extreme effort to stay true to my boundaries and protect myself and my family. No amount of money is worth my peace.”

To celebrate her 45th birthday, Beyoncé also rereleased her B-Day album after 20 years.

“I wanted the album to be big, percussive, hard, up-tempo and energized, and it was important to me that we used live instrumentation,” she said in a statement released by Parkwood. “Hip-hop was taking over at the time, but I was fighting to preserve the bridges, melodies and harmonies that have always been at the heart of R&B. The goal was to blend those two worlds through the art of sampling. I loved the minimalism of a beautiful vocal arrangement over a simple drum loop or a classic guitar like ‘Irreplaceable’ … but only if that 808 was banging underneath.”

Right now on Apple TV, the streamer’s flagship series, Ted Lasso, has finally returned to its rightful place atop the streaming charts. Back in 2023, it seemed as if Ted’s (Jason Sudeikis) time as coach at AFC Richmond came to an end, with his return to Kansas marking the perfect final note for a beloved series. However, Ted and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) have some unfinished business, officially returning across the pond to coach AFC Richmond’s new women’s’ team, The Lady Greyhounds.

Although it might not live up to the highs of the first two seasons, Ted Lasso Season 4 is a worthy return to Richmond, with the likes of Ted, Beard, Keeley Jones (Juno Temple), Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift), and Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) all back to their best. Of all the shows to hit streaming on Apple TV in 2026 so far, Ted Lasso is seemingly the biggest, even breaking an Apple TV record by earning 296.6 million viewing minutes across its August 4–5 launch window.

But as Ted Lasso continues its dominance on the streaming charts, other Apple TV favorites continue to quietly find their own success in the background. For example, the comedy-drama Shrinking has now officially surpassed the 800-day mark on the Apple TV top ten in the U.S., a huge milestone for one of the streamer’s best shows. Earlier this year, the series returned for its critically acclaimed third installment, with Jimmy (Jason Segel), Paul (Harrison Ford), and co crafting even more on-screen magic.

‘Shrinking’ Was a Big Winner at This Year’s Emmy Nominations

Shrinking‘s success has expanded well beyond the streaming charts, and, since Season 3 ended, the show has picked up an impressive ten nods from the 78th annual Primetime Emmy Award nominations. This was an improvement on the seven Season 2 nominations, with Ford, Segel, Michael Urie, and Jessica Williams all earning recognition. But the most exciting nomination went to Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox in the Guest Actor in a Comedy Series category, which was his first nomination since 2016, and an eighteenth career nod in total.

Shrinking Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Apple TV, with the series expected to return in early 2027. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

January 27, 2023

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Apple TV

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Chingy has seemingly had enough to say after social media users began connecting the dots between the rapper and actor Isaiah Russell-Bailey. Following the revelation that Isaiah is Chingy’s son, the conversation quickly moved into the comments, where fans had plenty of questions—and Chingy was there to answer a few of them himself.

RELATED: Actor Isaiah Russell-Bailey Shows Love To His Mom After Chingy Reveals He’s His Father (PHOTOS + VIDEOS)

Chingy Confirms Isaiah Knows He’s His Father

One commenter asked whether Isaiah Russell-Bailey knows that Chingy is his father, writing, “I’m trying to figure out does Isaiah knows Chingy is his daddy…… I’m so baffled.” Chingy responded, “Haha he does but manipulation am using kids for checks is a thing.” He also replied to another commenter who complimented his appearance and referenced him having children, writing, “Jus 4 not mad.”

The rapper’s comments come as social media continues to react to the news about his relationship to Isaiah, best known for his roles in ‘Family Reunion’ and ‘A Million Little Things.’ While commenters have speculated about the family dynamic, Chingy’s own responses appear to make clear that Isaiah knows who his father is.

Chingy Pushes Back On The Speculation

And that wasn’t all. Chingy continued responding to commenters who weighed in on his relationship with Isaiah, including one person who questioned why Isaiah had described his mother as a single mom and suggested the situation may have been intended to protect him from the entertainment industry. “Thank you, you kno these people think they kno more then the actual person they speaking on,” Chingy replied. In another exchange, he pushed back more directly, writing, “Sweetheart shut up. You don’t kno anything about my son an me. Pls speak what you kno cause you are clueless.”

Chingy also offered his perspective on why some parents may keep certain family dynamics private, writing, “Ima say this. Sum people know how to act very good even when the cameras are off.. sum people use kids for checks and manipulate the kid to dislike the father cause they want to control the situation. Hopefully you all will really innerstand that.” He followed up in another comment, writing, “An you should always kno it’s a reason behind it all. Manipulation and using kids as checks.”

Folks Have A LOT To Say

Fans quickly ran to The Shade Room’s Instagram comment section to share their thoughts on Chingy speaking out. Some felt the rapper should have kept the family situation private, while others argued that Isaiah is old enough to make his own decisions about where he stands. Meanwhile, a few commenters said they understood Chingy’s perspective and felt he had a point about the situation.

One Instagram user @mikesmithjr wrote, “I wish he would have never spoke on his son in detail in the interview. Now this all over the net.”

This Instagram user @g_tooflyy said, “I don’t care right or wrong. Never disrespecting either one of my parents publicly. Idc what they do or didn’t do they gave me Life! 💯”

And, Instagram user @mztanyadevon37 shared, “At the end of the day if a father is present and doing his part, there wouldn’t even be a negative narrative.”

Meanwhile, Instagram user @since_we_being_honest commented, “Idk as you get older you realize what parent was there 😕”

While Instagram user @prissychriss claimed, “Chingy he on Disney I don’t think they worried about your ‘right thur’ check from 2003″

Lastly, Instagram user @digitalgirl7 said, “He’s right. Lots of mothers manipulate kids against their dads. Far more than people think.”

RELATED: Wayment! Chingy Has The Internet Going Wild After Seemingly Debuting Fresh NEW Look (PHOTO)

From the runway to real life! Gianna Corvino, founder of The NY Archive, is bringing her collection down the catwalk and straight into your closet this New York Fashion Week.

On Thursday, Sept. 10, from 12 to 2 p.m. ET, the vintage expert is teaming up with eBay for a fashion show at her NYC showroom, where models, influencers, and tastemakers will strut their stuff in 40 hard-to-get looks that shoppers can snag within seconds.

“We’re not taking The NY Archive out of its world and putting it onto a traditional runway; we’re transforming the Archive itself into one. The entire landscape of the showroom becomes the backdrop with cheetah-print ceilings, pink shelving filled with designer pieces, our pink-and-chrome pool table, and walls lined with vintage. We’re layering in florals, runway seating, lighting, music, and a full-scale production,” Corvino tells ET.

And while an invite would certainly be cool, you won’t need one to get in on the fun. The vintage haven is hosting a live shopping experience with eBay, meaning fashion lovers everywhere can tune in, bid, and potentially take home a piece from the runway.

“Guests will come in as the live gets started and we’ll move into the first runway of 20 looks, ending with a big finale. Then, we’ll have an intermission, turn over the room for a new group of guests, and come back with another 20 looks and another show,” she explains.

“We’re taking something that’s historically been incredibly exclusive and asking what happens when you open it up and let people actually participate. … There will be this incredibly intimate Fashion Week experience happening inside our showroom, but you don’t need an invitation or a front-row seat to be part of it.”

So, consider your couch the hottest spot in the house.

As for what fashion fans can expect to see, Corvino is looking to the women who already know and love The NY Archive for inspiration.

“The looks are reflective of the girls who actually come into The NY Archive and the vendors who are part of our collective,” she notes.

“I really wanted the styling to feel like an extension of the women who already exist within our world.”

And it’s a pretty chic universe to be part of. The NY Archive has attracted celeb fans including Tate McRae, PinkPantheress, Lily Rabe, Iris Apatow, and more.

“There are some really extraordinary pieces including archival Cavalli, full mink coats, intricately beaded Blumarine dresses, and Moschino runway pieces. … You’ll see Cavalli, Blumarine, Moschino, Dior, Prada, Miu Miu, Manolo Blahnik and so many others,” she adds.

Translation: Prepare to want everything.

“There’s glamour, maximalism, humor, and moments that are a little unexpected. Some girls are incredibly polished, some are sexier, some are more eccentric. … It’s not just finding a beautiful dress. It’s finding the dress that works for that girl, with the right shoe, the right accessories, and making the entire look make sense. … I want every look to feel like you could imagine the woman wearing it and want to know where she’s going afterward.”

But if you spot something you love? Don’t spend too long thinking about it.

“Because it’s vintage, there often isn’t another one. Once somebody buys it, it’s theirs. That gives the runway this energy that you just don’t have when you’re watching a collection that won’t hit stores for another six months,” she shares.

And some lucky shoppers could even score a major fashion find for less than a cup of coffee.

“We’re doing special drops, which start at $1 throughout the Live. … A girl can walk down the runway in an incredible archival look and someone watching on eBay Live can buy that exact piece in that exact moment.”

Talk about instant gratification.

For Corvino, though, the real appeal goes beyond scoring a designer item. It’s about finding something that feels entirely your own.

“People are craving individuality again. We’re exposed to so much fashion now and trends move so quickly that it’s very easy for everyone to end up wearing some variation of the same thing. There’s something incredibly satisfying about finding a piece that you aren’t going to see on ten other people.”

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Natalie Portman and her boyfriend, Tanguy Destable, have reportedly welcomed their first baby together.

People reported on Saturday, September 5, that Portman, 45, quietly gave birth in August. Further details have not been immediately shared. Us reached out to a rep for the actress for comment.

Portman’s newest addition joins her two older children with ex-husband Benjamin Millepied, to whom she was married from 2012 to 2024. The pair previously welcomed son Aleph in June 2011 and daughter Amalia in February 2017.

Portman revealed in April that she was pregnant with her and Destable’s first baby together.

Related: Celebrity Babies of 2026: Stars Who Welcomed Kids

Many stars grew their families in 2026. Ushering in the year, Becca Kufrin, Justin Theroux, MLB player Freddie Freeman, TikTok star Allison Kuch and NFL star Baker Mayfield all welcomed little ones into their respective families in April, followed by Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden in May. That month also brought new arrivals to Stephen […]

“Tanguy and I are very excited,” she told Harper’s Bazaar at the time. “I’m just very grateful. I know it’s such a privilege and a miracle. I grew up hearing about how hard it is to get pregnant. I have so many people I love who’ve had such a hard time with it that I want to be respectful around that as well. It’s such a beautiful, joyous thing, and it’s also not an easy thing.”

She added, “I know how lucky it is. I’m very aware, and I’m very grateful. I have deep appreciation and gratitude.”

Portman’s pregnancy news came more than a year after Us confirmed her relationship with Destable.

“Natalie and Tanguy have been seeing each other for a few months,” a source exclusively told Us in March 2025, noting that their romance hadn’t been going on “too long, but they are having a great time together.”

According to the insider, Destable is “very outgoing and boisterous” and “really into” Portman, whom he first crossed paths with because the two share a “few mutual friends.”

“Natalie is very happy with Tanguy,” a second source told Us at the time.

The following month, Portman offered rare insight into her life as a mother of two.

“My kids are always a source of excitement because you just see them develop into the individuals they are,” she told Jenna Ortega in an Interview magazine profile published in April 2025. “And also, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my friends, with their kids and my kids; that’s pretty fun.”

Portman also addressed how she found “balance” between her work and personal life after becoming a mom.

“Having kids, that wasn’t really my motivation,” she explained. “I was just excited to have kids, and with a person that I was in love with. But it’s really important to have people in your life who keep you on the ground.”

Portman is raising her family in Paris after relocating from the United States.

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“I find the people here are actually incredibly friendly — you just have to know how to interact, so that we’re not the ones being rude,” she told Net-a-Porter in her May 2025 cover story. “Now, when I go back to the U.S., I’m like, ‘Oh,’ I would go into a store and not say hello to everyone there? It’s weird.”

While Portman enjoys the “privacy” she receives in France, she also appreciates the polite nature of her children’s friends.

“All the kids that come to my house are, like, ‘Bonjour, Madame’ — and give me the bise [cheek-to-cheek kiss],” she said. “And before they leave, they are like, ‘Thank you for having me’ — and if I’m not nearby, they’ll come and find me to say it.”

Y’all! Usher had a pretty convincing double waiting for him in Las Vegas this week. Even the R&B icon had to take a second look! The Grammy-winning singer stepped out on Wednesday to celebrate a new addition inspired by one of the biggest chapters of his career, and the finished tribute left him genuinely impressed.

RELATED: Okay! Usher And Chris Brown Extend ‘R&B’ Tour Dates And Fans Are Cuttin’ Up

Usher Says His Wax Figure Looks “More Like Me Than Me”

The reveal took place at Madame Tussauds Las Vegas, where Usher came face-to-face with his lifelike wax figure. “It looks more like me than me,” he said while admiring the craftsmanship. “You guys got my eyes right.” He added that he was honored to share the moment with fans visiting Las Vegas and called the finished piece “impressive.”

 The Wax Figure Has The Details On LOCK!

The figure draws heavily from Usher’s My Way Las Vegas residency. He donated his Vanson skeleton biker jacket for the display, while the figure is also styled in roller skates and wears jewelry inspired by Usher’s signature look, including the Ice Box “U” pendant chain he wore to the unveiling. According to Madame Tussauds, the figure took nine months to create, with 20 studio artists contributing to the process.

“I’m blown away,” Usher said. He added that he hopes fans who didn’t get the chance to attend his Vegas residency can experience “a little glimpse of the magic” from the show through the figure.

Fans Say The Wax Figure Is Giving Usher!

As soon as the reveal hit the TL, fans ran to The Shade Room’s Instagram comment section with plenty to say about Usher’s wax twin. Some claimed the figure looks more like Usher than Usher himself, while others came with jokes for days, and a few folks agreed the artist who brought the figure to life deserves a raise ASAP.

One Instagram user @dominiquechinn said, “They got him perfect, can’t say that for many others they’ve done”

This Instagram user @thenigeriantarzan commented, “Oh nah they did my boy right. This look better than the human usher”

And, Instagram user @johnhallstudio added, “They FINALLY got it right! Give whoever created that statue a vacation on the house!”

Meanwhile, Instagram user @jay_rodriguez856 joked, “They did better than the double he used in stage lol”

While Instagram user @shelovecj shared, “He made sure to not get the same guy who made D Wade”

Lastly, Instagram user @march_ninety_three_ claimed, “Madame Tussaud finally done hired black artists to work on their wax figures huh”

RELATED: Whew! Nevaeh Akira Shares Spicy Dancing Video As Usher’s Ex-Wife Tameka Foster Shades Her (VIDEO)

Of all the books ever published, it’s inevitable that some are going to be sad. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, even those who might well admit that they don’t really read, and instead spend their time pursuing other forms of entertainment like movies, TV shows, or games. Books predate all those, and books likely influenced a bunch of those kinds of entertainment, even before taking into account how many adaptations of books there are out there.

The challenge here comes not from observing the sadness of certain books, but from selecting a bunch of those sad books and highlighting them as the saddest. It’s a subjective thing, and that subjectivity is coupled with a rather overwhelming history of literature, and the unfortunate reality that one cannot (even if they live for a century or more), cannot read everything. So, here’s an honest attempt to rank some of the saddest books of all time, acknowledging that what one finds sad, another person might not consider so bad.

10

‘Of Mice and Men’ (1937)

Image via Penguin Classics

So, Of Mice and Men is one of those quintessential tearjerkers, probably being one of the first titles that comes to mind when you hear the term “sad book.” It’s a boring pick, then, when talking about sad books, but it earns its place here. It also earns that place here without being very long, since Of Mice and Men is a novella that doesn’t need the length of a novel to make you feel absolutely miserable.

The narrative here concerns two men looking for work during the Great Depression, and continually experiencing that search becoming harder and harder. Of Mice and Men is nearly 90 years old, which has made some of it dated, but if younger readers are made aware of that in advance, there’s still a pretty good chance they’ll be made to read it in high school, and it’s one of the saddest books you might come across when still fairly young, as a result.

9

‘A Storm of Swords’ (2000)

Image via Bantam Spectra

The first installment of a series that feels worth mentioning, A Storm of Swords is the third book in A Song of Ice and Fire, which is an epic fantasy series that’ll hopefully be finished… one day… maybe. Anyway, for now, it’s the most emotional book of the bunch. There have been five novels planned, of seven, and if you want to know why this one’s especially emotional, but haven’t read the series, it’s the book that the show, Game of Thrones, adapted for its third and fourth seasons.

Yes, A Storm of Swords was eventful enough to be the source material for two whole seasons, and so that one absolutely devastating episode in season 3… yeah, that part of the story is in A Storm of Swords. Honestly, that’s the main reason for including this book here. The other A Song of Ice and Fire books have their disturbing and downbeat moments, but that wedding of a red variety has them all beat, and makes this third book stand out as particularly depressing.

8

‘Wuthering Heights’ (1847)

Image via Chartwell

Some people might try telling you that Wuthering Heights is a romantic novel, but sometimes, some people are wrong. There are feelings of longing and desire here, but the passionate stuff is also destructive, and Wuthering Heights is more focused on looking at the lingering effects of trauma, alongside exploring prejudice, class, inequality, and all sorts of other things that aren’t particularly romantic.

There are some adaptations of Emily Brontë’s source material that lean into romance, or have things play out as a love story of a bittersweet nature, but in the book, there is not much love, traditional or otherwise. In its place, you do get a ton of sadness in Wuthering Heights, and it’s remarkable how much of that emotional devastation still packs a punch close to two centuries on from the novel’s publication.

7

‘Pet Sematary’ (1983)

Image via Hodder Paperbacks

Because you’re reading (or skimming through) something put together by a hopeless Stephen King fanatic, Pet Sematary is not going to be the only book by the author here. Apologies if that’s a problem. But if there’s one book by King worth singling out for its sadness, it’s Pet Sematary, because it’s quite in your face as a novel about death and grief, with the main characters living next to a cemetery, and because it’s a Stephen King book, that cemetery seems able to bring pets back to life.

The family cat dies and is resurrected. Chaos ensues, especially when the question of “Does this work with human beings as well as pets?” arises. Pet Sematary itself will never be buried/forgotten about, and even if it were, people would gladly dig it up to revisit it, or at least do that so they can recommend it. It’s a remarkable and uncompromising novel, and definitely one of King’s most raw and emotionally intense.

6

‘Mason & Dixon’ (1997)

Image via Henry Holt and Company

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Mason & Dixon is fairly surprising with its emotion, because Thomas Pynchon is not a particularly sentimental author, to put it mildly. His books are generally engaged with intellectually more than emotionally, and to be fair, there is also quite a bit to think about and analyze when it comes to Mason & Dixon as well, though it’s got a bit more of an emotional kick than you might be expecting, alongside all the absurdity, confusion, and episodes that prove unusually funny.

The main characters here (Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon) existed in real life, though Mason & Dixon does stray further from history than most historical fiction, owing to the exploits of the titular characters being presented as a story within a story. And Pynchon writes the whole thing unusually, even by his standards, mirroring/parodying the style of certain literature from the 1700s. It’s an interesting book, to say the least, and the ways that it proves touching and bittersweet really do prove startling (in a good way, not to mention a hard-to-explain way).

5

‘The Subtle Knife’ (1997)

Image via Scholastic UK

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Within the His Dark Materials trilogy, Northern Lights might be the best book, but The Subtle Knife is probably the most emotionally impactful. Northern Lights you have to start with, either way, and then The Subtle Knife is the middle chapter of the trilogy. The Amber Spyglass wraps things up, and has some events that are probably supposed to be about as tearjerking as The Subtle Knife, but it just doesn’t quite get there.

The third book is messy, to say the least. Lots of it works, and even when it’s not working, its ambition can be admired. Worst-case scenario, it’s an instance of “two out of three ain’t bad.” As for The Subtle Knife specifically… well, highlighting the saddest scene here would be a huge spoiler, but you’ll know it when you come to it. It’s perfect, and also so emotionally brutal.

4

‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ (2007)

Image via Bloomsbury

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There was a point at which the Harry Potter movies were not able to match the intensity found in the books, and that point was crossed well and truly before the seventh and final book in the series (and its two-part film adaptation): Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. To focus on the books, though, they do ratchet up in intensity gradually and quite logically, with the characters dealing with more challenging things the older they get.

So, if you yourself were growing up while these books and/or movies were coming out, and you weren’t too young when they first started coming out, you could probably handle each new one. If things got a bit too sad with book #7, that’s understandable, since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows doesn’t really mess around. It’s got “Death” (or “Deathly,” technically) in the title, and you do get a lot of death here, alongside other things that really drive home a sense of finality. It’s great, but definitely bittersweet stuff, as far as closing chapters go.

3

‘The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower’ (2004)

The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower concluded the mainline The Dark Tower series, as the seventh and final main book, though The Wind Through the Keyhole came later (but proved to be an inessential interquel). This book is the grand finale, and without giving away what happens here, or most of what happens in the preceding six books, it is indeed focused on the final stage of Roland’s journey to that infamous Dark Tower.

If you read this book in isolation, it would be confusing and make it hard to see what all the hype was about. When you read it after the first six books, though, the final part of The Dark Tower packs so many emotional wallops in a row. It’s even more brutal on an emotional front than the finale that was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the sadness here (your mileage may vary on how bitter or how sweet this bittersweet book ultimately is) feeling undeniable.

2

‘Les Misérables’ (1862)

Image via Penguin Classics

While it was originally written in French, rather than English, Les Misérables doesn’t really lose anything in translation by maintaining the French title for readers outside France. It’s a book about lots of unfortunate people living during a tumultuous and emotionally strained time in history, with that history being stuck to, even if the people who either experience or observe the real-life events here are actually fictional.

That’s historical fiction for you, in a nutshell. An honorable mention should probably go out to War and Peace, which does some comparable things to Les Misérables and is itself fairly moving at times, but Les Misérables is more outwardly tragic. It’s also safe to say that it paved the way for plenty of sad and/or tearjerking stories to come (for better or worse), so it scores high here, for present purposes, thanks to its historical value within the overall world of literature.

1

‘A Little Life’ (2015)

Image via Doubleday

If you’re talking about books that have a certain notoriety for being sad, and you don’t give a mention to A Little Life, people are going to start seriously raising some eyebrows. So, here’s A Little Life. It’s a long book, and it’s distressing for that lengthy amount of time, with the narrative here focusing on a group of friends who all have some extreme personal demons they’re dealing with.

Much of that stuff’s from the past, so you get a sense of why those things were horrible and sad in that history, and then there’s a further exploration of how all those downbeat events continue to impact everyone in the present. There’s something to be said for this book’s braveness, and its willingness to tackle so many difficult things thematically, but you’d also be forgiven for sticking to admiring A Little Life from afar, rather than getting caught up in all its sadness, if it’s just not the kind of thing you need in your life right now.

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A Little Life

Release Date

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September 28, 2023

Runtime

219 minutes

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Director

Ivo van Hove

Writers

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Koen Tachelet

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Cast

• 

  James Norton

  Jude St. Francis

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  Luke Thompson

  Willem Ragnarsson

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• 

  Omari Douglas

  Jean-Baptiste “JB” Marion

• 

  Zach Wyatt

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  Malcolm Irvine

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