Anticipate Kelly Reichardt's CERTAIN WOMEN

http://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/certain-women-6.jpg

Based on short stories from Maile Meloy's collection, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It. Starring: Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams and Jared Harris.

Am watching on Saturday.

oh awesome

Psyched.

I don't think the Michele Williams-James Gros domestic section works, but a sequence with Kristen Stewart as a lawyer hopelessly out of depth teaching a school law class and the rancher who has a crush on her is one of the quietest, saddest scenes I've seen in a recent movie (and boasts one of my favorite spontaneous sequences). Reichardt's rhythms are her own; whenever I sense Naruse or Tsai her editing picks up the pace. She loves these women, and she loves observing them.

Roundup:

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-nyff-2016-kelly-reichardts-certain-women

*James LeGros rather, once cute.

"Certain Women" was great. Third segment was gorgeous and resonated for Reichardt's ability to use naturalism so fluently. She presents characters as they are in that moment without the privilege of knowing too much past or history. We take the characters as they are presented and it lends her movies a subtle grace and respect for the audience's intelligence.

I thought this was A+, understated and beautifully acted.

It's sneaked up on me. I'm still thinking about it a month later.

Loved this. My favorite film of hers so far. The teacher/rancher section is devastating.

Just saw it today, a really good movie. I agree with p much everyone that the 3rd section is the highlight, but I liked the first two parts and part of the power of the last one comes from following them. Lily Gladstone is a star, or should/will be.

Reichstardt is a great editor, I love all the mid-sentence cuts ("So, ah, as you may know, I'm divorced-")

otm, I think the editing is key to her style. It lets her take those long pauses because her cuts are so good. Sometimes she can get a little on the nose with it, but usually it's surprising and interesting. And she has a good eye for deadpan, which shows up in odd places. The repeated takes of the corgi were hilarious and cute but in a totally naturalistic way -- corgis are hilarious and cute.

Liked this a lot, tho probably not more than Meek's or Night Moves bcz of the middle act. (Rene Auberjonois is terrific in it, however.)

Loved it, but then I'm always a sucker for seeing my home state on film. Felt this captured the pace and energy of Montana life really well, and it's so perfect that Kristen Stewart ostensibly spends the entire third act rushing down the highway, but all we see is Lily Gladstone waiting for her favorite hour of the week.

Liked this, didn't love it--Wendy and Lucy still my favourite. Thought Jared Harris was excellent, though, which I bring up for a particular reason. I'm in the middle of binge-watching Mad Men for the second time, and as soon as Harris turned up I thought, "That's not going to work at all--it'll be impossible for me not to see Lane Pryce right now." Took about 10 seconds for me to forget Pryce and see him as this new character.

what'd you think of the Stewart-Gladstone ection?

*section

Well done, the actresses were very good, but a little contrived? (Or maybe implausible.) I know I gloss over stuff every bit as convenient in films I like better, but I found it a stretch that anyone would drive eight hours twice a week to teach a class that seemed to have about five people enrolled--or any class even. I wondered why Lily Gladstone was there in that building in the first place--maybe that was explained and I missed it. I can see why someone would be very moved by that section, but it came up a little short for me.

That last segment was probably the most beautiful thing I've seen all last year

I do understand that, and I can get really defensive when something really moves me and someone else comes along and shrugs their shoulders, so I don't want to press the point.

I think she's one of the best filmmakers out there. The only film out of the five I've seen that I didn't like was Meek's Cutoff.

Fair enough clemenza :) - Meek's Cutoff didn't do much for me either

I thought at least the drive was explained - she took the job because she was terrified she could find nothing else - and was absorbed by the character. The way she dressed, her hair, the fact that she first wrote 'Elizabeth' then just shortened it to 'Beth' on the chalkboard. There was so much backstory that was never elaborated with that character, it was amazing.

Yeah, in that sense I think the implausibility feels true. Who would drive 8 hours to teach a tiny class? Only someone without other good options. And as soon as she has other options, she's done.

I have had a few very brief jobs in my life solely because I needed to make some cash while waiting for other things. I've never had to drive that far, but I also don't live in Montana. In retrospect, I think this is my favorite movie of 2016.

Finally caught up with this, mostly thanks to the director's poll reminding me that I'd still never seen anything by Reichardt. Liked the Dern/Harris story ok, the Williams one didn't really go anywhere, but the Lily Gladstone/Kristen Stewart story gutted me in the exact way that I suspect Call Me By Your Name was supposed to.

rewatched this for the first time since it came out, masterpiece... movie ends with a title card "FOR LUCY"... then I realized Lucy in Wendy & Lucy was playing herself.. and she's in Old Joy... :'(

The Kristen Stewart segment is so heartbreaking - nailed the temporary hope lone wolves can have before reality sets back in

i need to see this, i love her other films so much

Classic film; best thing she's ever done. Too bad it was all but unavailable for what seemed like a year while Criterion took their time rolling it out.

I loved Wendy and Lucy and especially Night Moves, but I would say my favorite Reichardt movies are Certain Women and Meek's Cutoff. Haven't seen Old Joy yet

River of Grass was kind of hard going

Huh, I'd never heard of that. The trailer is something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okyt4MUTKPc

the concept was amazing, the execution not as much, but as with so many films I think it would benefit from a second viewing

Meek’s and Certain Women were the only ones that felt particularly disappointing to me. Only seen once, open to revisit. Haven’t seen River of Grass.

Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy I could watch endlessly.

River of Grass is good. If you're a fan of her work it's really interesting because she didn't make another movie for 12 years. Many of the themes she explores in her later work are there, some latent but often explicit through voiceover. What's remarkable is how she was able to convey the ennui and longing and quiet desperation of her later work without words. I mean, my god, the close up of Wendy as she realizes she needs to leave Lucy where she is. Lily Gladstone approaching Kristen Stewart in the parking lot, the distance between them. Every shot of Lily Gladstone driving. Certain Women is my favorite by some distance. I saw Meek's Cutoff when it came out and hated it, but I wasn't a fan then. Been meaning to revisit it for a while now.

Night Moves bummed me out because if anyone other than Jesse Eisenberg starred I would've liked it a lot more. Dakota Fanning is good, Peter Sarsgaard is great, but I can't stand JE. He's totally one dimensional and can't be ambiguous.

Old Joy I don't like at all. I don't think I'm the right generation for it because I found those guys totally contemptible and pathetic. Bush era dated, although the best parts are the talk radio segments.

looking forward to Old Joy just for the Yo La Tengo soundtrack

I'm a YLT fan and it is a snooze

disappointing to hear, although maybe I will like it because I'm a fan of the sleepier ambient YLT stuff.

Reichardt is definitely one of the most interesting contemporary directors

I love OJ but def part of it is that it was filmed in the area I grew up

Old Joy I don't like at all. I don't think I'm the right generation for it because I found those guys totally contemptible and pathetic. Bush era dated, although the best parts are the talk radio segments.

Yeah that makes sense, and it's something that runs through all of her movies and a lot of what makes them great. She's one of my favorite working directors and all of her work is worth seeing and reevaluating.

ok saw Old Joy, agree about the averageness/lostness of the guys but didn’t mind that, and think circa 1916's description of the vibe being the thing is right. Also the film makes it seem like the Mt. Hood/Willamette National Forests east of Portland/Salem/Eugene are a paradise. I like that Lucy the dog from Wendy and Lucy makes an appearance. Wasn’t all that impressed by the YLT soundtrack though

also haven’t been as intrigued by many of Ebert’s reviews as much as this one: “What does Kurt want from Mark? Is it lost brotherhood, agape; or is there a sexual component, or does he just wish Mark could give him back the old days, and old joys, of their younger selves? Those questions, which linger long after the movie is over, make "Old Joy" unshakable”

Seeing Old Joy again 4 years later it seems greater. Kurt and Mark don't quite connect, but each offers something the other needs, if only tentatively. It's clear that the pivotal scene is the last one at the Bagby Hot Springs, where Kurt tells a story an encounter with an old man that expressed his anxiety with personal relationships, which is reflected in a dream where he is told not to worry, that sorrow is just 'worn out joy'.

I still haven't got over Old Joy. Saw it at the Sydney Film Festival with KR introducing it back in 2006? 7? and I must have seen it a dozen times since then, every time a little different, every time something new to think about.

Wendy & Lucy in a shitty movie theater in (or near - it was somewhere close to the Mitchell Bros strip club I think) the Tenderloin on a February night when it was raining too hard to do anything else was the perfect way to watch that one.

old joy was great, too bad the hot springs and surrounding area burned down a couple years ago. Stoked about the new film

I was very uncritical when it came to Old Joy--I loved Yo La Tengo's soundtrack so much, I liked the movie because of that.

Lily Gladstone is a star, or should/will be.

^^tipsy mothra called it in 2016

Saw this tonight for the first time, with Reichardt doing a Q&A after. She described an exercise in sound she does, having students listen to a scene from McCabe and Mrs. Miller and fill in the details from audio only. She described how she knew Rene Auberjonois’s voice so well from listening to that scene over and over. She also described frustration back then when she saw that Gladstone wasn’t on the poster.

Anyway, loved it, knowing very little going in.

An easy comparison, I know, but the last moments of the Gladstone/Stewart story reminded me so much of a Springsteen song, the moment when someone has nowhere to go but to sleep.

Lily Gladstone is...Jeanne Dielman, Rancher

Watched this last night and thought it was terrific. I agree with the comment upthread about a current or undertow that runs through her films (I still need to see Night Moves) - an undertow of quiet sadness that I could lazily call dukkha. So much is unsaid, so much internal monologue worn in a gesture, worn in the lines of the face. The scene I can't get out of my head is Dern walking up the stairs, appearing, disappearing, through someone else's story.

I agree the middle section is probably the least compelling but it illuminates the other two. Agree that René Auberjonois is superb. The glimpse of the puzzle on his table choked me up.

I love Old Joy and think about it often. Something in that sentimental old saw that 'you don't remember what you learned but you do remember how they made you feel' fits with Reichardt. Whatever it is that flows through her films, you step in and are indelibly marked.