Women Talking (Sarah Polley, 2022)

[DarkImbecile]

An achingly emotional experience that consistently showcases stellar writing, powerhouse acting, sublime image-making, and a moving score, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking is handily the best film I’ve seen this year.

There’s so much to discuss in terms of the conception, execution, and artistry of this film — to say nothing of my personal experience seeing it — that I don’t have time or emotional bandwidth to get into in writing so soon after seeing it.

So instead I’ll just say that Polley has assembled maybe the pound-for-pound best set of roles and performances by women that I’ve ever seen in a single film: Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, and Jessie Buckley are each given a platform to excel, but a half-dozen other supporting characters ranging from children to grandparents are given remarkable space to deliver soulful, rich, lived-in depictions of women making choices momentous and small, internal and interpersonal.

Polley’s mastery of this magnificent cast and crew is truly remarkable, and I can only express my serious admiration for her work here as a director and a writer. Highly recommended!

[therewillbeblus]

Hope you’re right about Buckley this time- she needs a W!

In all seriousness, I’m very much looking forward to this- I love everyone involved, Polley is a treasure, and I have been impatiently waiting for her next narrative feature for years. Thanks for reducing my patience further

[DarkImbecile]

Hope you’re right about Buckley this time- she needs a W!

1) How dare you

2) Honestly though, I think Claire Foy might have given my favorite performance of the core actresses, and Rooney Mara is very good as well

Thanks for reducing my patience further

I hope you aren’t looking forward to TÁR; I couldn’t write it up earlier and now I need to get a few hours of sleep, but it’s even better. Struggling to think of an instance where I’ve seen two movies that were better on the same day

[therewillbeblus]

It’s my most anticipated movie of the year, mostly because it seems as provocative in forcing one’s mindset and heart towards the limits of their elasticity as Ema did

[DeprongMori]

Hope you’re right about Buckley this time- she needs a W!

In all seriousness, I’m very much looking forward to this- I love everyone involved, Polley is a treasure, and I have been impatiently waiting for her next narrative feature for years. Thanks for reducing my patience further

If you’ve been wondering about Sarah Polley’s recent long absence from filmmaking, I’d highly recommend her book Run Toward the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory or, even better, the audiobook, which she narrates. The proximate cause of her long absence was a severe concussion, but it goes much deeper than that — there was a lot of accumulated trauma.

And yes, Sarah Polley is a treasure. Very much looking forward to her new film.

[Harvest]

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD0mFhMqDCE

Making of Featurette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jin7zfZills

[flyonthewall2983]

Honestly thought I heard Frances Conroy’s voice towards the end of the trailer but she isn’t in the cast

[DarkImbecile]

Meaty New Yorker profile of Sarah Polley

[therewillbeblus]

T'would be meatier if either Go or Dawn of the Dead were mentioned

[soundchaser]

Finally saw this tonight, and I'd be curious to know what other members here make of it. I agree with DI that the performances are unimpeachable - they're far and away the strongest part of the film. I'm very mixed on the screenplay, though, which teetered over the edge of irrelevance by specificity maybe one too many times for me. The scene where Mara

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apologizes to Buckey for hurting her was just a little too close to some oft-ridiculed (and fairly so, in my view) Twitter rhetoric,

and the film flies a little too close to that particular sun a few times. I had trouble believing at points that these women had been brought up in the environment the film puts them in. Maybe that's a failure of imagination on my part -- I recognize that it's working very much in the realm of the Biblical parable -- but it was frustrating either way to wind up liking but not loving the end result.

[DarkImbecile]

Out of curiosity, did you see it in a theater or elsewhere?

[soundchaser]

A theater. I feel like I'm being a bit too harsh on it in hindsight - I was not the only one in tears by the end. Loved the twist (such as it is), too.

[Shrew]

I found this to be a very frustrating film, because it hits a lot of awkward notes on its way through some genuinely moving moments. The last half hour or so is particularly strong. However, I agree with soundchaser that something's off with the dialogue. These are women who haven't been taught to read, and whose worldview must be profoundly shaped by their religious teachings, such that nearly everything must be filtered through that. They, as the film states, lack the "language" to process what happened to them. At times the film is good at remembering this: one elder keeps relating everything back to parables about her horses, her only real attachment outside of faith or family; a discussion about the limits of forgiveness; another about the contradictions in the duty of a mother vs duty to one's faith. But then some all-too clearly formed philosophy crops up, unburdened by any of the religious or social context we've seen. Or some odd phrase will stick out, forcing you to wonder where they would have encountered that, let alone processed it fully enough to drop it in heated conversation (I just couldn't wrap my head around "collision course"). Or something that simply makes you groan. This film literally has the line:

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Not all men.

I was remined a lot of 12 Angry Men. An ensemble piece that offers showstoppers for each character to articulate a particular view, till some of them see their personalities overwhelmed by that one idea and the reality of the situation is strained in order to make these differing ideological points. Of course, I liked 12 Angry Men when I saw it some dozen years ago, and I found myself wondering in the middle of the film if I was being too hard on Women Talking for taking similar tacks, or if I had been too forgiving of 12 Angry Men in the past.

[brundlefly]

They, as the film states, lack the "language" to process what happened to them.

I do not know that by "language" they meant "dialogue."

Though for a while I had the feeling conversations were picked up and put down too cavalierly, and I wanted more extended, methodical arguments entertained, I finally just gave myself over to its process. I didn't need accurate plainspeak or something that observed a particular communal time or place any more than I needed it to be set in Bolivia. I enjoyed enough that Polley wanted these women to have a space in which they were allowed to be articulate -- through talking, drawing, gesture, touch. Found it involved, righteous, and respectful in serious and fulfilling ways. Even if perhaps dramatically I kept waiting for a shoe to drop.

[alacal2]

I'm 100% with DI on this. I experienced such an emotional and philosophical buffeting that I left the cinema exhausted. Polley's control over her material was so impressive.

I have to mention two shots that made me catch my breath breath. The look of joy, pride, curiosity etc on the faces of the two young girls who run out and greet the census registration car. And

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the final scene where the shutters of the barn are pulled open to reveal a black shape on the horizon that gradually shows itself to be the line of carriages waiting for their families to leave

[Monterey Jack]

You just directed an acclaimed indie that won you a screenplay Oscar! Your reward is to direct another crummy, soulless Disney remake...!

https://deadline.com/2023/06/bambi-live ... 235415991/

[beamish14]

You just directed an acclaimed indie that won you a screenplay Oscar! Your reward is to direct another crummy, soulless Disney remake...!

https://deadline.com/2023/06/bambi-live ... 235415991/

She is also developing a film about Hollywood during awards season

[hearthesilence]

JFC I hope she's just "in talks" to gauge what kind of salary she can command.

[therewillbeblus]

You really can’t fault an indie filmmaker for taking a great job, especially when they’re already marginalized in the industry, but as long as she doesn’t go the Chloé Zhao route and join the MCU, it’s whatever. That one was particularly wincing after all the self-aggrandizing Oscar speeches committing to an ethos of using the medium to give voices to the voiceless etc

I’m really interested in the autobiographical award season pic, and her version of Bambi could be creative and personal a la Barbie for all we know

[ntnon]

..as long as she doesn’t go the Chloé Zhao route and join the MCU, it’s whatever. That one was particularly wincing after all the self-aggrandizing Oscar speeches committing to an ethos of using the medium to give voices to the voiceless etc

That was Eternals? Bitterly disappointing mess of a film, but easily the most 'inclusive' and diverse. Is that not part of the idea - including the voiceless in big and much-seen films..?

[therewillbeblus]

I think she was referring to seeking out stories of invisible populations worth telling, and either way, what makes you think she had a substantial role in the conception or casting of a Marvel movie? I'd hedge my bets on Feige and co. being responsible for initiating its "inclusive" and "diverse" aspects vs. Zhao coming in and telling Marvel what's up in the world

[ntnon]

I think she was referring to seeking out stories of invisible populations worth telling, and either way, what makes you think she had a substantial role in the conception or casting of a Marvel movie?

Fair points. I am curious if much has been reported about how integral she was to anything - I often think a director's influence is overrated in general, but I seem to be in a minority; with big Marvel movies, it is more likely that the director plays a less important overall part.

Inspired by Tree of Life.

[Mr Sausage]

Marvel is like the studio system. Most are directors for hire executing someone else’s vision, while a small handful (Gunn, Waititi) manage to impress something of their own voice and personality into their projects.

I imagine Polley’s talents will be wasted and she will turn in another anonymous Marvel product. It may even be very good, but not exactly a Sarah Polley film.

[brundlefly]

I'm excited to see how she works adultery into this one.

[hearthesilence]

I'm excited to see how she works adultery into this one.

Eh, tame stuff for Marvel.