I'm probably a bit biased towards these kinds of films - quiet, interior, interested in people without seeking to explain them, and located in a landscape (both natural and urban) that combines beauty and barrenness - and predisposed to find the poetry and profundity in them. But, even still, I thought Certain Women was pretty outstanding, from the almost trompe l'oeil effect of the opening shot of the train coming closer across the Montana plains, its horn startlingly loud as it looms in the foreground of the shot, through its three very loosely connected - at least events-wise - vignettes of women making their way through the stuff of life.
It's based on short stories by Maile Meloy, which makes sense as the story and character plotting as well as elements of the general mood reminded me of Short Cuts, especially the way it finds significance, crisis, contingent resolution and so on in small moments, in that (American) short story way. But its strength is its own - in the stunning, painterly cinematography (it's regionally off-base but Andrew Wyeth was the one who came to mind), the attentiveness to its characters and the contexts and constraints within which they pursue their lives and goals, and also in the performances turned in by Laura Dern (so much soul), Michelle Williams (the weakest of the segments but still good, and all too real feeling), and newcomer Lily Gladstone (who was maybe the best of them, and so believable, both on her own with the horses, and interacting with the intriguing cipher of Kristen Stewart's blow-in, teaching 'school law' of all things). Also, the film has some of the best silences between people that I've seen in a long time.
(w/ Cass)
It's based on short stories by Maile Meloy, which makes sense as the story and character plotting as well as elements of the general mood reminded me of Short Cuts, especially the way it finds significance, crisis, contingent resolution and so on in small moments, in that (American) short story way. But its strength is its own - in the stunning, painterly cinematography (it's regionally off-base but Andrew Wyeth was the one who came to mind), the attentiveness to its characters and the contexts and constraints within which they pursue their lives and goals, and also in the performances turned in by Laura Dern (so much soul), Michelle Williams (the weakest of the segments but still good, and all too real feeling), and newcomer Lily Gladstone (who was maybe the best of them, and so believable, both on her own with the horses, and interacting with the intriguing cipher of Kristen Stewart's blow-in, teaching 'school law' of all things). Also, the film has some of the best silences between people that I've seen in a long time.
(w/ Cass)
