Certain Women (2016)

Simply A Masterpiece

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Blistering performances.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Which is both telling and sad. Telling because there's nothing in the movie of any substance or meaning. And sad because there is no plot. All that's left for the reviewer is to retell the scenes. I felt I was being trolled by the writer director by being forced to watch nothing until I had some kind of reaction. Like Freudian therapy where the therapist says nothing in an effort to upset the patient into a 'breakthrough. In any case you will watch and watch and watch and ultimately feel the experiment is you. Alternatively the movie is so indie that everyone is supposed to think it's genius, a new art form even, so that no one will ever mention that the emperor has no clothes. On a technical level there's no backing music, the sound of tinny and flat, if the lighting is natural then Montana gets less sun than Scotland. The camera work is good. At least there's no shaky cam. There's very little dialog but the interminable lengths of scenes isn't as irritating as you would think. They're just pointless.The acting is sturdy enough though all the cheering that this is a master class in acting is off. Laura Dern really is one dimensional. Michelle Williams really is one dimensional. Kirsten Stewart is the personification of bored robotic stoner 'drama'. All in all the movie is like an existentialist play where all the characters are dead and in hell but they don't know it, spending eternity in a dull dead entropic nothing where nothing happens

This movie's meaning totally escaped us. There appears to be 3 somehow related "plots", but none are decipherable much less the overall meaning the writers were trying to convey. We both dozed at various points, the wife in fact snoozed the last 20 minutes ... we'll, she didn't actually miss much. The acting was okay, except for the super long, drug-out scenes of a lone actor just staring, or endless facial shots of someone driving. What possible life-changing enlightenment is one supposed to derive from that is beyond me, but today's directors and editors seem to think they are adroitly hitting us with ploys as ingenious as Hitchcock or Ford. Not.

But Oh Nooooooo I saw one review where something was said about dullness - wow - I am all about artsy and cool flicks but this was just plain a waste of my time - I kept waiting for SOMETHING and was just happy when it was finally over. What a waste of my time. Ugh

My wife and I watched this on DVD from our public library. When it was over my wife just said "Slice of life stories."When I viewed the extras on the disk it became clear that the source work was based on or inspired by the author's life experiences as she grew into adulthood. As such they have not much, if any, back story. The movie just picks up at some significant point in their lives.Laura Dern is a lawyer, she has a stubborn client, for 8 months she has been telling him he has no recourse for a work-related injury but he persists. Then when they meet with a male attorney and he says the same thing the man says "OK". That segment was mostly a commentary on how women and men are perceived in the same profession.Michelle Williams wants to build her dream home on a plot of secluded land in Montana, we see her dealing with an older man for a pile of stone he doesn't seem to have any use for. Meanwhile there is tension in the family, it is as if she is overlooking the tension and hoping the new home will make everything nice. Of note, Williams actually grew up in Montana.My favorite of the three is Kristen Stewart as young lawyer Elizabeth Travis, who took a Tu &Th evening gig to teach "School Law" to educators in a continuing education program, without factoring in that it was a 4-hour drive each way and she had to be at work each day after. Teach until 9PM, get a bite to eat, get home at 2AM, get up at 7AM to dress for work. She meets a lonely young rancher lady who wanders into her class "because she saw people going in." But she seems to want to pursue a deeper relationship which makes Elizabeth uncomfortable. While we enjoyed the various stories I would not give this movie a very high rating because there isn't much there. It is very well made but seeing slices of lives of other people is marginally rewarding.