Kelly Reichardt, CERTAIN WOMEN

FILM 001

DECEMBER 13TH       7PM

Certain Women is, according to the New York Times, "arguably the most precise expression" of Kelly Reichardt's vision to date. The film features Laura Dern, Lily Gladstone, Kristen Stewart and Michelle Williams, and consists of three short narratives, all set on the plains of the contemporary Northwest. Dern is a lawyer who finds herself contending with both office sexism and a hostage situation; Williams is a wife and mother whose determination to build her dream home puts her at odds with the men in her life; and Stewart is young law student who forms an ambiguous bond with Gladstone, a lonely ranch hand.

Kelly Reichardt, whose previous films include Meek's Cutoff,  Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, River of Grass, and Nigh Moves, is known for patient and unflinching portraits of characters whose lives are both ordinary and marginal, characters for whom economic security is remarkably tenuous. As she said in the same New York Times profile this year, she is interested in characters who "don’t have a net, who if you sneezed on them, their world would fall apart." Reichardt's method, which is patient and remarkably observant, allows the scene around the characters to fill in and suggest what the characters themselves infrequently say. Though perhaps quieter than in most films, Reichardt's characters have the look of contemporary America and what they do say speaks volumes. 
 

Trailer, 2016