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They say April showers bring May flowers, but the main deluge this month seems to be facial hair on dudes in streaming movies.

Tom Hardy and Jude Law are rocking great ‘staches in a couple of action movies. Ralph Fiennes’ beard is definitely epic as Odysseus. And Christopher Abbott turns into a werewolf, so he’s furry to the max. All these guys, and some high-profile women, star in a new crop of flicks now available on your favorite streaming service, from Netflix and Max to Prime Video and Hulu. There are theatrical releases finally coming home, like the Nicole Kidman erotic thriller “Babygirl,” but also original fare such as Viola Davis’ presidential action movie “G20.”

Here are 10 notable new movies you can stream right now:

‘Babygirl’

Nicole Kidman stars in the erotic thriller as a powerful CEO who gets signed up for her company’s mentorship program. She at first spurns the sexual advances of her younger intern (Harris Dickinson), but they wind up in a full-on affair, in which she takes on a submissive role in a tryst that puts her personal and professional lives in jeopardy.

Where to watch: Max

‘Companion’

The sci-fi horror film features “Yellowjackets” breakout Sophie Thatcher as a high-tech AI companion who goes on a weekend getaway with her jerky boyfriend (Jack Quaid). When she figures out she’s a robot and not a human, she revolts in bloody fashion, tweaking her settings (including boosting her intelligence from 40% to 100%) and finding new agency in the wild satire.

Where to watch: Max

‘G20’

There’s major “Die Hard” vibes with this action thriller starring Viola Davis as a president literally under fire when she attends a global summit in South Africa. An Australian ex-special forces soldier (Antony Starr) leads a terrorist takeover of the event to destabilize the world’s economy, but POTUS – who’s also an Army veteran – singlehandedly takes on the bad guys to save family members and world leaders alike.

Where to watch: Prime Video

‘Havoc’

“The Raid” filmmaker Gareth Evans immerses Tom Hardy in blistering gunfights and Hong Kong-style martial-arts action in this delightfully chaotic and seriously bloody crime thriller. When a nightclub shooting sparks a gang war, a dirty cop (Hardy) works to find the son of a corrupt politician (Forest Whitaker) and keep him safe while pursued by rival underworld factions and his fellow officers.

Where to watch: Netflix

‘Last Breath’

The true-life survival thriller stars Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu as deep-sea divers working to replace a pipe on an oil rig manifold 300 feet below sea level. An emergency on their ship sends them scrambling, and when their crewmate (Finn Cole) gets trapped on the seabed with only five minutes of oxygen in his tank, the two divers have to get creative – and fast – to save him.

Where to watch: Peacock

‘The Order’

Based on a true story, the excellent white-knuckle crime thriller casts Jude Law as a weary FBI agent who partners with a young Oregon cop (Tye Sheridan) when a series of terrorist attacks hint at the involvement of a neo-Nazi group with nefarious plans. Law exudes dogged intensity and Nicholas Hoult is superb as the charismatic white supremacist leader in a gripping action drama.

Where to watch: Hulu

‘The Return’

Don’t look now, but Homer’s having a moment. Christopher Nolan is doing a big-budget version of “The Odyssey,” and this “Game of Thrones”-y action melodrama also pulls from the epic poem. Ten years after his Trojan horse gambit, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washes up on Ithaca and has to get his mind right – and his warrior groove back – for battle as well as a rousing reunion with wife Queen Penelope (Juliette Binoche).

Where to watch: Paramount+

‘The Room Next Door’

In acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature film, Ingrid (Julianne Moore) is a successful author who learns that her former colleague and friend Martha (Tilda Swinton) has terminal cancer. Martha tells her pal she has bought euthanasia pills and wants Ingrid to go on a trip and assist in her suicide, and Ingrid navigates moral and personal questions about the situation.

Where to watch: Netflix

‘Wolf Man’

In this new take on the classic Universal Monsters character, Christopher Abbott plays a devoted dad who receives notice that his long-missing father is now considered dead. He plans a family trip to his remote childhood home to fix the relationship with his wife (Julia Garner), and on the way, he almost hits a strange creature in the road, and it bites him. He struggles to keep his loved ones safe from the thing while also turning into something dangerous himself.

Where to watch: Peacock

‘Y2K’

We all were spared from Y2K causing too much trouble. But what if it actually sparked the robopocalypse? That’s the conceit of this silly sci-fi teen comedy. Jaeden Martell plays a shy kid who attends a party on New Year’s Eve 2000 to chat up his crush (Rachel Zegler) but finds himself fighting for his life – and teaming with Fred Durst, of all people – when murderous machines try to take over mankind.

Where to watch: Max

NEW YORK — Blake Lively is speaking out about trauma with her mother by her side.

Amid her ongoing legal battle with actor Justin Baldoni, the “It Ends With Us” star, 37, delivered a speech focused on the importance of women not being silent about abuse on April 24 at the Time100 gala in New York City.

Lively, who Time magazine named one of the most influential people in the world, never mentioned Baldoni or her allegations of sexual harassment against him. However, she alluded to the litigation after reflecting on how influence is a “significant responsibility” to hold.

“Who and what we stand up for, and what we stay silent about, what we monetize versus what we actually live, matters,” she said.

“I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum,” Lively continued. “What I will speak to separately is the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today, and since I could speak, because of the pain, caution and fight of the many women who have paved the way, and the men who stood beside them.”

Since last year, Lively has been involved in litigation with her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Baldoni, whom she has accused of engaging in inappropriate conduct and orchestrating a smear campaign against her. Baldoni has denied the allegations and accused Lively of defamation and extortion.

Blake Lively delivers powerful speech about abuse at Time100 gala

Lively was joined at the event by her mother, who she revealed is a “survivor of the worst crime someone can commit against a woman” when a work acquaintance tried to kill her, before Lively was born. The actress said she shared this information at her mom’s urging.

Blake Lively files motion to dismiss ‘vengeful and rambling’ Justin Baldoni lawsuit

“I’ve watched her conceal her raw and undeserved shame my entire life, so as her daughter, being asked to share this today is monumental. …My mom never got justice from her work acquaintance who attempted to take her life when she was the mother of three young kids, years before I was born,” Lively said while holding her mother’s hand.

Lively said her mom credits her survival to drawing on the experience of another woman whom she had previously heard “painfully and graphically” describe escaping abuse on the radio.

“Because of hearing that woman speak to her experience instead of shutting down in fear and unfair shame, my mom is alive today,” Lively said.

Blake Lively alleges Justin Baldoni harassment was witnessed by ‘It Ends with Us’ co-stars

Lively on the ‘silent torch of womanhood that we come to know’

“She was saved by a woman whose name she’ll never know. I am alive and standing here with you all today, being honored because of a woman whose name I’ll never know. I am here, and my mom is here, because that woman not only survived, but she told others how.”

Lively continued, “It’s a silent torch of womanhood that we come to know, a pact that privately, we must show others how to survive, literally or spiritually. We don’t let our daughters know, but one day, we break their hearts by letting them in on the secret we kept from them as they pranced around in princess dresses: that they are not, and will likely never be, safe — at work, at home, in a parking lot, in a medical office, online, in any space they inhabit, physically, emotionally, professionally. But why does that torch have to be our burden to carry in private? How can we not all agree on that basic human right?”

Ryan Reynolds joins Blake Lively at Time100 gala: ‘My sweet husband’

Lively was joined at the event by her husband, Ryan Reynolds, who posed with her for photos on the red carpet. She mentioned him at the end of her remarks when she thanked “every man, including my sweet husband, who are kind and good when no one is watching.”

The “Another Simple Favor” star was honored in the “titans” section of Time’s list of the most influential people in the world. The list also included actors like Demi Moore and Adrien Brody and athletes like Serena Williams and Simone Biles, all of whom turned out for the star-studded gala hosted by Snoop Dogg.

Lively received a standing ovation after delivering her toast, the final speech of the evening, before the night ended with a performance by Ed Sheeran.

Earlier in the night, Moore, coming off her first Oscar season for “The Substance,” became self-reflective in remarks about the nature of time itself.

“I’ve spent a lot of my life up until now running from who I wasn’t, racing towards who I thought I should be, and never really appreciating who was right in front of me,” Moore said. “…But when I had the courage to pause, to get still, to stop running, I found grace, compassion, and most importantly, acceptance. Because when we embrace who we are, where we are, exactly as we are, we stop missing the moment we’re in.”

Contributing: Edward Segarra and Jay Stahl

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today’s puzzle before reading further! Have a Ball (Freestyle)

Constructor: Jess Rucks

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Comments from Today’s Crossword Constructor

Jess: This grid was a labor of love and I am pleased with how it turned out. I’m a huge college basketball fan, so CINDERELLA TEAMS was fun to have in there! I also had way too much fun coming up with clues for DONUT PILLOW, but alas, they all were a tad too … ahem …cheeky, to make the cut. 

On a more serious note, I am grateful that Amanda kept my clue for DOORS. The book referenced in the clue is a compelling and poignant read about a family’s struggle to access special education supports in their school district. Highly recommend. I hope you enjoyed the puzzle! Thanks for solving!

What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle

• BEE (5D: Barry B. Benson, e.g.) Barry B. Benson is the main character of the 2007 animated film, BEE Movie. Barry is a BEE who has the ability to talk to humans. Jerry Seinfeld voices Barry, who has just graduated from college as the movie begins. Since this is in the “What I Learned” section, you can safely assume that I never saw BEE Movie. The answer was fairly inferable, however, thanks to Barry B. Benson’s alliterative name.
• DOORS ( 37D: “Thirteen ___: A Family’s Fight for Equal Access to Education”) Thirteen DOORS: A Family’s Fight for Equal Access to Education is a book by Aaron Wright. Published in 2020, the book tells the story of a family in the San Francisco Bay area as they advocate for educational resources for their daughter who is on the autism spectrum. The book is a work of fiction, but is based on the author’s personal experiences.

Random Thoughts & Interesting Things

• QUINCEANARA (14A: Fifteenth birthday celebration, for some) A QUINCEAÑARA, a common tradition in Mexican and other Latin American cultures, is a celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday.
• ANA (16A: “SNL” alum Gasteyer) ANA Gasteyer was a cast member on Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1996 to 2002. One of the things she became known for on the show was her Martha Stewart impressions. 
• USE THE FORCE (17A: Harness power from a galaxy far, far away) This Star Wars reference made me smile.
• GSA (20A: Student-led LGBTQIA+ grp.) GSA here stands for “gay-straight alliance” or “gender-sexuality alliance.” This student-led organization works to provide a safe and supportive community for LGBTQIA+ persons. The groups also advocate for social change “related to racial, gender, and educational justice.”
• GEO (21A: Nat ___ Wild) Nat GEO Wild is a TV network that focuses on wildlife and natural history programming. It is a sister network to National Geographic TV.
• AFRO (22A: Hairstyle for Questlove) Questlove (whose name is sometimes stylized as ?uestlove) is a rapper, dj, record producer, and filmmaker. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and he hosts a podcast called Questlove Supreme. And yes, as the clue informs us, Questlove’s hairstyle is an AFRO.
• ESCHER (25A: “Drawing Hands” artist) M. C. ESCHER (1898-1972) was a Dutch artist known for his mathematically-inspired drawings that depict impossible objects and tessellations. Drawing Hands is an M.C. ESCHER lithograph first printed in 1948. It depicts two hands in the act of drawing each other.
• GINSENG (28A: Medicinal root) GINSENG is a root that has been used in traditional medicine for hundreds of years, particularly in China and Korea.
• RONDO (31A: Sonata movement) In instrumental music, a RONDO is a recurring musical theme. A sonata may include a RONDO. (This is an extremely basic explanation. I’m sure it’s probably more complicated than this!)
• MLK (33A: Jan. honoree) The abbreviation of January as Jan. in the clue alerts solvers that the answer will be an abbreviation. In the U.S., the third Monday of January is a Federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., who is often referred to as MLK.
• ACA (34A: Obamacare letters) Obamacare is officially known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). President Obama signed the ACA into law on March 23, 2010, and many of the law’s provisions were put into place by 2014.
• CINDERELLA TEAMS (36A: Underdogs of the Big Dance) The Big Dance here is a reference to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, which is also referred to as March Madness. CINDERELLA TEAMS are those teams that achieve more success in the tournament than predicted.
• ZOO (42A: Workplace for some conservationists) Many ZOOs play a significant role in conservation programs. Examples may include captive breeding programs, research, and educational programs.
• TWOS (43A: Basketball shots inside the arc) Three days ago we saw THREES clued as [Beyond-the-arc shots]. It was fun to see TWOS clued in a corresponding way today.
• IRIS (50A: Greek rainbow goddess) In Greek mythology, IRIS is considered to be a personification of the rainbow. She was a messenger of the Olympian gods. In some stories IRIS is described as wearing a coat of many colors. She is sometimes depicted as riding on rainbows to get from place to place.
• OUR (51A: “___ House” (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song) “OUR House” is a 1970 song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Thanks for this earworm, puzzle! “OUR house is a very, very, very fine house / With two cats in the yard / Life used to be so hard / Now everything is easy ’cause of you…”
• DONUT PILLOW (57A: Cushion sometimes used for tailbone pain relief) and HOLE (27D: Feature of a 57-Across) So named because its central HOLE makes it look like a DONUT, a DONUT PILLOW can be used for tailbone pain, as sitting on one doesn’t place pressure on the tailbone.
• PET (64A: Fur baby) Shoutout to our PETs: Jess’s cat, Milo, and my cat, Willow.

• HAAGEN-DAZS (11D: Ice cream company with a pseudo-Scandinavian name) Well, now I am hungry for ice cream… HÄAGEN-DAZS is an ice cream company started by Reuben and Rose Mattus in 1960 in the Bronx. They invented the pseudo-Scandinavian name HÄAGEN-DAZS because they thought it sounded Danish.
• CRETE (26D: 26D: Island where the Minotaur was trapped) In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull. King Minos of CRETE – the largest of the Greek islands – instructed Daedalus and his son Icarus to create an elaborate labyrinth to house the Minotaur.
• WARP PIPE (35D: Tube-shaped transport in Super Mario Bros.) I knew the answer here was a type of PIPE. After all, in the Mario video game franchise, Mario is a plumber. However, my limited knowledge of the games themselves meant I needed the help of crossing answers to arrive at WARP PIPE.
• Several other clues I especially enjoyed:
  • SIT (62A: Ride the bench)
  • LUST (2D: Desire in many romantasy novels)
  • GLITTERATI (28D: Glamorous group)
  • HOME (55D: “___ is wherever I’m with you”)

Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis

HAVE A BALL (Freestyle): There’s no theme today, as this is a freestyle, or themeless, puzzle. The title is a nod to CINDERELLA TEAMS (36A: Underdogs of the Big Dance).

I really enjoy that the title of HAVE A BALL relates to the grid-spanning answer CINDERELLA TEAMS on a couple of levels. The story of CINDERELLA famously features a BALL, which could also be referred to as a “Big Dance,” a term mentioned in the clue. The term CINDERELLA TEAMS refers to basketball TEAMS – you know, TEAMS that need a BALL to play. Such fun! Thank you, Jess, for this delightful puzzle.

For more on USA TODAY’s Crossword Puzzles

“I’d have to say April 25 because it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.”

Twenty-five years ago, this now-famous line made moviegoers chuckle as Heather Burns’ character described her “perfect date” during the Miss United States pageant in the 2000 action-comedy “Miss Congeniality.” Now, the line is a part of its own annual meme − “Miss Congeniality Day.”

Never seen the movie or need a refresher? Here’s what to know about Miss Congeniality Day.

Why is April 25 the ‘perfect date’?

In the movie, Miss United State MC Stan Fields (William Shatner) asks Heather Burns’ character, Cheryl Frasier what her idea of a perfect date is.

In response, Burns delivers the famous line: “That’s a tough one. I’d have to say April 25 because it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.”

Frasier’s misunderstanding of the question is one of the most iconic lines in the movie.

More entertainment news: What time does ‘Andor’ Season 2 come out? Release date, cast, schedule

Watch the moment

Never seen “Miss Congeniality”? No need to fret. Here’s the line in all of its glory.

What is ‘Miss Congeniality’?

Released in 2000, “Miss Congeniality” is an action-comedy movie starring Sandra Bullock, who plays FBI detective Gracie. Though she lacks refinement and femininity, Gracie is chosen to attend Miss United States to track down a terrorist who has threatened to bomb the pageant. The movie was directed by Donald Petrie, known for movies like “Richie Rich,” “Little Italy” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”

Benjamin Bratt, Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, Ernie Hudson, and John DiResta also make up the movie’s cast.

How to watch ‘Miss Congeniality’

“Miss Congeniality” can be streamed on YouTube, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video.

Contributing: Haadiza Ogwude, Cincinnati Enquirer

Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at [email protected].

For Bill Maher, Larry David’s hot take on his meeting with President Donald Trump was just plain cold.

During an April 24 interview on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” the comedian and TV host, 69, got candid about his response to David’s satirical essay in The New York Times, which appeared to skewer Maher’s recent meeting with the president at the White House.

The April 21 article is a fictional piece written from the perspective of a person who had dinner with Adolf Hitler in 1939 and came away impressed that the Nazi leader was so personable, despite having been a “vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning.”

“This wasn’t my favorite moment of our friendship. I think the minute you play the ‘Hitler’ card, you’ve lost the argument,” Maher told host Piers Morgan.

Maher, a longtime critic of Trump, met with the commander in chief on March 31 and gave a full recap of their encounter during an episode of his talk show, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Maher said that while he maintains his criticisms of the president, Trump defied his expectations with his gracious and measured demeanor.

David, who is Jewish, never mentioned Maher or Trump in the essay, but the language he used closely mirrored the way the “Real Time” host spoke about his dinner with Trump.

Bill Maher’s monologue on Trump meeting: Read the full transcript

Bill Maher on why Larry David essay was ‘insulting’

In his interview with Morgan, Maher criticized the inappropriateness of David’s Hitler comparison.

“First of all, it’s kind of insulting to 6 million dead Jews,” Maher said. “Look, maybe it’s not completely logically fair, but Hitler has really kind of got to stay in his own place. He is the GOAT of evil. And we’re just going to have to leave it like that.”

He added: “I don’t need to be lectured on who Donald Trump is. Just the fact that I met him in person didn’t change that. The fact that I reported honestly is not a sin either.”

Larry David skewers Bill Maher with satirical Hitler essay

Maher also shared he hasn’t spoken with David, 77, since the publication of his essay. USA TODAY has reached out to representatives of David for comment.

“I don’t want to make this constantly personal with me and Larry. We might be friends again,” Maher concluded. “I can take a shot, and I also can absolutely take it when people disagree with me. … If I can talk to Trump, I can talk to Larry David, too.”

Contributing: Brendan Morrow and KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY

When Mexican musician Natalia Lafourcade turned 40, her alter ego was born.

Lafourcade, now 41, was reflecting on four decades of life and “wanted to have the right things to say to my friends, family and loved ones” at her birthday celebration, she says. “I was trying to think about what I was going to say that night, and I was taking my time to write something, and that week, ‘Cancionera’ came as an inspiration and as a message – I guess to myself, but also to the world.”

“Cancionera,” or songstress, is the title track off her 14-track album of the same name. In the sultry and spiritual song, Lafourcade calls out to the “grounding but also very ethereal” songstress inside her. “Always, always sing your truth/ Be woman, the beautiful muse …” she sings in Spanish.

It “has to do with your liberty and freedom and your own persona, your soul, your mind and the way you’re doing things in life,” Lafourcade says.

Lafourcade, who began songwriting from an early age, launched her first solo album in 2002. In her nearly 20-year career, she has released about a dozen albums, won four Grammys and is the most decorated female artist at the Latin Grammys with 17 wins.

Her follow-up to 2022’s “De Todas las Flores,” which earned her a Grammy award for best Latin rock/alternative album, returns to her haunting, ethereal and Latin folklore sounds, honoring the traditional San Jarocho sounds of her native Veracruz, Mexico.

More: Maná talks new tour and how Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination felt ‘like a dream’

As Lafourcade shares “Cancionera” with the world, she also kicked off the Cancionera Tour − the singer’s biggest North American trek since 2018 − on April 23 in Xalapa, Mexico, followed by several sold out stops in Mexico through May, and more than a dozen U.S. cities.

“I feel like I have two children coming into the world: the album and the tour,” says Lafourcade. “It’s been a dream for me.”

The making of ‘Cancionera’ was ‘really something special’

“Cancionera,” as Lafourcade’s artistic mirror, also brought some levity at a transitional moment in her life. It allowed her to explore the duality of light and shadow, tradition and transgression, and pushed her beyond the conventional.

“The way we created the album allowed me to play a lot with my personality, but also with the alter ego of this character and the different energies that I felt La Cancionera was bringing to the table,” Lafourcade says.

‘This is the path to death’: Anitta reveals why she ditched her ‘nonstop’ work ethic

With this project, the singer-songwriter marks a transformative phase of her career − one that continues to honor the intimacy of her voice and the guitar.

“‘Cancionera’ makes you create,” she says. “She’s very much like, ‘Let’s play, let’s create, and let’s not think too much about it.’ That was the way we were making the music … the energy of creating that way was really something special.”

More: Paquita la del Barrio’s best heartbreak anthems, from ‘Rata De Dos Patas’ to ‘Taco Placero’

Lafourcade brought a team of musicians together, recorded the entire album in one session on analog tape, and mixed it live with the help of producer Adán Jodorowsky, who also worked on “De Todas las Flores.”

“We didn’t know in the moment if it was going to be OK, but it was really great to see how every song was taking its own form and personality,” she says of the process.

Natalia Lafourcade: Music is her master, the stage is her home

At only 4 feet, 11 inches, the stage doesn’t overpower Lafourcade − she takes charge during live performances, becoming a force and giving life to the emotions her lyricism evokes. Lafourcade loves the stage because she gets to lose control, but still trusts that something beautiful will come together, she says.

Whether singing a cappella or accompanied by her guitar to hundreds or thousands of people − at a small venue or an awards show − Lafourcade’s performances feel visceral, intense and intimate all at once.

“For me, the stage feels like my house. I feel very comfortable onstage, it’s not like I get nervous or weird,” says Lafourcade. “It just feels like a safe space to create in a constant collaboration with these energies.”

“You can feel the room being fed with people’s emotions, with the emotions I’m bringing, but also with what my fans bring,” Lafourcade says. “The love that comes with everything creates a very particular energy, and I love to use all that to tell a story.”

‘You deserve safety’: Ángela Aguilar dedicates Billboard Breakthrough Award to immigrants

And a storyteller she is, through and through. Through her music, Lafourcade paints stories of heartbreak, loss, womanhood, grief and the celebration of life.

In “Hasta La Raiz” (“To the Root”), one of her most popular songs, she sings of her Mexican roots and the deep connection she feels to her hometown. In “Muerte” (“Death”), Lafourcade shows gratitude for permanent endings, which in turn teach her the importance of living life to the fullest. She also dedicated “Que Te Vaya Bonito Nicolás” (“I Wish You the Best, Nicolás”) to her late nephew, who died in 2021 after a tragic accident.

“Music is one of my biggest masters and it makes me transform all the time,” she says. “For some reason, many times I feel that when I’m comfortable in a song, music is shaking my face and saying, ‘Move on, go to another place and try something different and do things differently.'”

She continues: “Every single time, music is confronting me in that way and I love that. It makes me realize I have the ability to change as many times as I want. Music really loves when we can move out of a certain path so her energy can move through us.”

For Lafourcade, going on tour and releasing “Cancionera” feels full circle. She’s ready to share with her fans music she’s been working on since she was 15 years old, when she was still finding her footing in this industry.

“I wanted to do this tour in my 40s to begin this decade, and so far, it’s felt like a reconfiguration.”

“There is no such thing as an innocent map,” observes Philippe Rekacewicz in his catalogue essay that accompanies Diagrams, a new exhibition at the Prada Foundation in Venice. 

A renowned cartographer, the Paris-born Rekacewicz is well aware of his medium’s capacity to transform narratives for good and ill. His own work includes maps that illustrate the deaths of migrants as they bid for new lives in Europe. “A map,” Rekacewicz continues, “is above all a social and political act — and therefore inherently subjective.” 

Curated by international architect Rem Koolhaas and his studio AMO/OMA, the Prada show aims to consider diagrams in all their political complexities. Alongside maps, the exhibition’s myriad items include early 20th-century infographics by African-American sociologist WEB Du Bois highlighting racial inequalities; a 17th-century Chinese woodcut of the human circulatory system; and a 2008 map by AMO/OMA themselves showing the top 10 study destinations for students from China and the US. 

If this sounds a perilously broad field, it’s deliberately so. “We weren’t trying to map the whole journey,” explains OMA associate architect Giulio Margheri. “We were looking for patterns.” The show, Margheri says, has been themed around “urgencies” including the body, the built environment, inequality, migration, representation of the world, resources, war, truth and values. 

Rather than deliver an omniscient chronological narrative, Margheri says the aim was to “deliver moments and episodes”. These are “made more powerful by the association between each other,” he continues. “It was exciting to see how topics were talking to each other across time.” 

For example, in the section devoted to the human body, the Chinese woodcuts are juxtaposed with contemporary images. “The information we have about the body changes,” observes Margheri, adding that in earlier times observation and dissection were the only forms of investigation as opposed, say, to modern-day radiography. But, by and large, the body itself remains unchanged, making the similarities between such images as illuminating as the differences.

Primarily, diagrams are platforms for information. “Some look boring,” admits Margheri. “But the minute you study them, you get another layer of understanding.” This is certainly true of an 1869 print charting Hannibal’s journey from Spain through southern France and across the Alps into Italy by French civil engineer and infographic pioneer Charles Joseph Minard. Consisting of a beige band wobbling through almost featureless white space — save for place names, hair-thin pen strokes delineating rivers, and a few hatched lines signifying the Mediterranean — it reveals nothing at first glance of the Carthaginian general’s death-defying rollercoaster as he, his army and his elephants fought off murderous Gallic tribes and confronted rockslides and precipitous descents. But when considered in the light of those challenges, it becomes gripping. 

Minard, who died in 1870, hit his stride in the 19th century, during what Diagrams’ curators describe as the golden age of infographics. His diagram of Napoleon’s campaign in Russia maps the retreat through Poland according to his army’s staggering death toll and the sub-zero temperatures. As the men die, Minard’s graphic beige band narrows, delivering a visual chill to chime with that eastern European weather. 

Other pictures are equally revealing for what they conceal. Consider the diagram entitled “Universal Commercial History”, a visual analysis drawn up by the Scottish engineer William Playfair in 1805 which traces the rise and fall of global wealth since 1500 BC against what he terms “Remarkable Events Relative to Commerce”. Playfair, who is said to have invented the pie chart, includes moments such as “Rome founded”, “Mahomet’s Flight”, and “America discovered”. He never mentions slavery.

With such a broad-brush approach, lacunae are inevitable. It is a shame that the work of Viennese social scientist Otto Neurath — who, along with his wife Marie and colleague Gerd Arntz, invented the Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education) — is not on show. Based on pictograms, Neurath’s Isotypes are an important forerunner to the digital vernacular (from emojis to icons) so familiar to us today. Nor does the exhibition include maps of the devastation of Gaza since October 2023, such as those made by investigative research agency Forensic Architecture, which are proving among the most critical diagrams of our time.

It is important to note OMA’s own connection to the lagoon city. In 2009, it began its redevelopment of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Dating back to the 13th century, though rebuilt in the early 1500s, the spectacular building had served as a public post office until it was acquired by Benetton and transformed into a luxury shopping centre. Later leased to the LVMH group, it became home to the latter’s Hong Kong-based retailer DFS. But late last year, the Fondaco abruptly announced its closure due to €100mn in losses.

The Fondaco’s plush interior, complete with gilded surfaces and red escalators, is a glossy yet troubling fusion of a 21st-century hypercapitalist skin stretched over a centuries-old skeleton. It would have been fascinating to see the diagrams for that renovation. 

Yet the dynamics behind the Fondaco’s demise, speaking as it does to glitches within tiny Venice’s paradoxically global marketplace, do tie into one of the most fascinating diagrams in the Prada show. 

Entitled “The World Model” (1972), the monochrome flow-style chart connects subjects such as industrial capitalism, mortality, pollution and food production. Published as part of a report entitled The Limits to Growth for the Club of Rome, it illustrates the unsustainability of unchecked economic and population growth. For that provocative image and many others, this show is surely worth a visit.

May 10-November 24, fondazioneprada.org

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