Certain Women (2016) is based on the short stories by Maile Meloy, and set and shot in Montana, small towns and wide open plains, everything overcast and grey, filmed as a space of both beauty and loneliness. Three short narratives play out – a lawyer’s (Laura Dern) interaction with a disgruntled client (Jared Harris), a mother (Michelle Williams) determined to acquire an older neighbour’s sandstone for her new future home, and a ranch-hand (Lily Gladstone) who becomes interested in an education lawyer (Kristen Stewart) when she walks into the wrong night class. Ever since seeing Old Joy at RevFest one year, I’ve always been interested and responded to the work of director Kelly Reichardt. Often not a lot happens in her movies, and situations resolve without usual narrative closure – but I find them meditative and thoughtful, particularly how the slow style matches the pace of life represented and the lives of the women focused upon in this movie. All the performances are great, with measured characterisation, but newcomer Gladstone has such a vulnerable, yearning energy that she stands as highlight. You can rent it from YouTube or Google Play. Reichardt’s other films – Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Night Moves – are also worth seeking out (a few of which are on Kanopy). Recommended.
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