Smooth Talk

''Smooth Talk'' is a 1985 film directed by Joyce Chopra, loosely based on Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (1966), which was in turn inspired by the Tucson murders committed by Charles Schmid. The protagonist and main character, Connie Wyatt, is played by Laura Dern. The antagonist, Arnold Friend, is played by Treat Williams.

The film was produced by American Playhouse and Goldcrest Films, and originally released to movie theaters in 1985. The original music score was composed by Russ Kunkel and Bill Payne. The film won the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic category at the 1986 Sundance Festival.

Plot

Connie Wyatt is a restless 15-year-old who is anxious to explore the pleasures of her sexual awakening. Before she enters her sophomore year in high school, she spends the summer moping around her family farmhouse. She suffers from her mother's put-downs while hearing nothing but praise for her older sister, June. Her father somehow manages to float around the family tensions. She also helps paint the cottage, just as her mother constantly demands her to.

Connie passes the time cruising the local shopping mall with her friends and flirting with boys. However, when an actual date leads to heavy petting, she escapes from the boy's car. At a hamburger joint, an older man confides to her, "I'm watching you!" and proves this soon after. One afternoon, her mother and June warn Connie to be careful with whom she flirts, and she is left alone in the house, while her family goes to a barbecue.

Later, as Connie is playing around the house, a man who calls himself Arnold Friend approaches her in a 1960s convertible with that name painted on it and identifies himself as "A. Friend". He dresses and behaves like James Dean, and name-drops several teenybopper acts, even though he is much older than she is. He comes off very kind and friendly, but rather suspicious, alternating between speaking to her in a warm, seductive voice and shouting insults to his fellow car passenger when he asks Arnold if he should pull out the phone, possibly to keep her from calling the police. Arnold informs Connie about how he has been watching her and that he knows all about her, recounting the details about her family's barbecue plans with amazing accuracy. He then begins speaking about how he could be her lover. She becomes scared and orders him to go, but he coerces her into going with him, threatening to burn down the house. His friend remains at the house, supposedly to watch over it while they are gone.

When she returns home, Connie is bewildered and disheveled, and informs Arnold that she never wants to see him again. It is left ambiguous whether or not he raped her; it is implied that she isn't the same person she was at the film's beginning. When Connie sees her family at home, her mother tearfully apologizes to her for slapping her earlier that day, but Connie reassures her that everything is all right. At the film's ending, she doesn't inform June about what happened, but dances with her to James Taylor's recording of the song " Handy Man".

Cast

* Treat Williams as Arnold Friend
* Laura Dern as Connie Wyatt
* Mary Kay Place as Katherine Wyatt
* Margaret Welsh as Laura
* Sara Inglis as Jill
* Levon Helm as Harry Wyatt
* Elizabeth Berridge as June Wyatt
* Geoff Hoyle as Ellie
* William Ragsdale as Jeff
* David Berridge as Eddie
* Cab Covay as Pick-up driver
* Michael French as Stan
* Joy Carlin as Laura's mother
* Mark McKay as Bobby King
* Carl Mueller as Mall Boy

Production

The short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates was adapted by playwright Tom Cole, Joyce Chopra's husband. Among the contributions Cole and Chopra added to the story was a fleshing out of the family relationship between Connie and her mother Katherine, as well as the addition of the characters June and Harry Wyatt. Laura Dern was not cast until two weeks before filming. Filming of ''Smooth Talk'' took place in northern California in the cities of Sebastopol and Santa Rosa.

Release and reception

Goldcrest Films invested £516,000 in the film and received £635,000 earning them a profit of £119,000. It screened at the 1986 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize. The film was given a limited release in American theaters and continued to be unreleased on VHS and DVD for years thereafter due to going through different distributors.

On Rotten Tomatoes, ''Smooth Talk'' holds a rating of 92% from 24 reviews. Roger Ebert, who awarded the film 3.5 stars out of 4, described it as "almost uncanny in its self-assurance".

Re-release

The film was given a 4K restoration by The Criterion Collection in September 2020 and was screened at the New York Film Festival that month to critical acclaim. Janus Films gave the film a general re-release that November. Writing of the restored film, Richard Brody of ''The New Yorker'' said, "Chopra strikes an astoundingly tactile, intimate vision of Connie’s terror together with the burdens of self-doubt and silence that she endures—and that predators foster. The film’s power is enormous throughout; spare means (long-held closeups, a four-minute take of sisterly confessions) evoke a drama that seems to have been filmed holding its breath."

Marshall Shaffer of '' Slant Magazine'' wrote "the film adequately recognizes the thin line between male seduction and coercion." Jake Cole, also of ''Slant'', awarded the film 3.5 stars, saying "Dern nails the devastation of a woman learning how evil and exploitative the world of men can be, and just as David Lynch’s film Blue_Velvet''.html" ;"title="Blue_Velvet_(film).html" ;"title="'Blue Velvet (film)">Blue Velvet''">Blue_Velvet_(film).html" ;"title="'Blue Velvet (film)">Blue Velvet''ended on a note of society’s mask of civilized jollity reasserting itself in the face of deeper awareness, so, too, does ''Smooth Talk'' conclude with Connie, faced with no recourse to change anything, find a way to compartmentalize her rude awakening for the sake of survival."

Home media

The film was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on December 7, 2004. The film was released on Blu-ray for the first time by Olive Films on November 24, 2015. The Criterion Collection released a special edition Blu-ray & DVD of the film on February 23, 2021. The edition is a two-disc set which includes Chopra’s short films, retrospective interviews with the director and cast, and behind-the-scenes featurettes.

References

External links

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''Smooth Talk: Girl Power''
an essay by Honor Moore at the Criterion Collection
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Interview with Joyce Chopra about Smooth Talk
' at Another Magazine

{{Joyce Chopra

1985 films
1985 directorial debut films
1985 romantic drama films
1980s coming-of-age drama films
American coming-of-age drama films
American romantic drama films
British coming-of-age drama films
British romantic drama films
Films based on short fiction
Films directed by Joyce Chopra
Films set in California
Films shot in California
Teensploitation
American Playhouse
Sundance Film Festival award winners
American independent films
1985 independent films
Films about adolescence
Films about mother–daughter relationships
Films about puberty
Juvenile sexuality in films
Goldcrest Films films
1980s English-language films
1980s American films
1980s British films