Certain Women

Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy; Night Moves; Showing Up) is the cinematic poet of the Pacific Northwest. In Certain Women, adapted from three short stories by Maile Meloy, she gives us unobtrusively incisive portraits of four Montana women brushing up against the everyday wears and tears of difficult and feckless men, their own circumstances, and the desire for something better.

Laura (Laura Dern) is a lawyer who has her hands full with a self-righteous and belligerant client (Jared Harris) even as her relationship with a married man unravels. Gina (Michelle Williams) is determined to build her dream house outside of town—but faces scepticism from her husband and neighbours. And a Native American ranch hand (Lily Gladstone in her first film role) wanders into a night class taught by Kristen Stewart and they strike up a friendship that might turn into something more.

This is a film of spare observation and unspoken drama. In the moment, you might think you’re missing something, but as it sinks in, you realize just how lived-in it really is.

Powerful, focused, nervy, lean. Certain Women is a work of art produced by a director in full control of her material. It leaves you reeling. Coming out of the cinema, I found myself looking at the women around me and wondering what their stories were.

Catherine Wheatley, Sight & Sound

A minor miracle [and] an unassuming masterpiece… A triptych of stories in which nothing much happens, full of expressive moments in which nothing is said, but which somehow convey an ache of longing or a small stab of triumph. Reichardt’s low-key, intimate films draw us in. Her work is subtle, deliberately anti-dramatic. Her approach goes beyond naturalism and lands somewhere between painful introversion and acute empathy.

Wendy Ide, The Guardian