The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan is a 2018 drama film directed, co-written, produced, and edited by Xavier Dolan, in his English-language debut. The film stars Kit Harington, Jacob Tremblay, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Thandiwe Newton, Ben Schnetzer, Amara Karan, Chris Zylka, Jared Keeso, Emily Hampshire, Sarah Gadon, and Michael Gambon. It deals with themes of celebrity, tabloid media in Hollywood, mother-son relationships, and homosexuality.

It is presented as three different sequences of scenes interspersed during the film: a series set in 2017 showing a young actor who reminisces about the written correspondence he shared as a child with an American TV star who died since then, and two other series set in the mid-2000s depicting the lives of both characters at the time of the correspondence.

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. The film received generally negative reviews, with many critics describing it as Dolan's worst directorial effort, despite some praise for its cast.