Shy People

R

Released Dec 4, 1987

1h 59m

Drama

List

64%

11 Reviews

Tomatometer

79%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

A New York writer (Jill Clayburgh) and her teenage daughter (Martha Plimpton) disturb a Louisiana swamp woman (Barbara Hershey) and her odd family.

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Jeff M

Despite a cast led by two award-winning actresses and a Best Actress award for Hershey at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, my guess is that 9 out of 10 people who read this post will never have even heard of this strange, eerily atmospheric and intense motion picture about a New York writer for Cosmopolitan who visits her kin in the swamps of Louisiana for an article she plans to pen about their family. Obviously much of the film centers around the culture shock of going from a posh apartment in The Big Apple to a ramshackle house with no electricity hours from civilization. There are so many ways that this movie could have gone so wrong, and while it isn't flawless, it works so much better than one would expect. I wish Hershey had gotten more notice for her remarkable performance here - she's almost alchemic in her ability to play a role ripe for caricature but keep it grounded and even occasionally understated. Clayburgh doesn't come off quite as well as her co-star. Unfortunately she often succumbs to the caricature that Hershey avoids - from her 12 inch cigarettes to her equally long manicured fingernails and high heels. It's all just a bit exaggerated for my taste. And there are some other quibbles here and there - a son who has been locked in a tool shed by his mother somehow maintains remarkably healthy looking teeth. The musical score, while sparse, feels out of place. And a supporting performance by the usually reliable Mare Winningham feels miscalculated. But despite these reservations, I remained pretty much captivated throughout, and our time spent in the Louisiana swampland feels like a voyage to a whole new world. I wish the makers of the awful HILLBILLY ELEGY had been able to achieve half the authenticity of Southern life as we see here. (And before anyone calls me out, I'm not equating the characters of HILLBILLY ELEGY to the characters of SHY PEOPLE). If nothing else, this is a great chance to watch one of the great underrated performances of the 80s by an actress who was in the middle of the most prolific time of her career.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/06/24

Full Review

Audience Member

A nominee for the 1987 Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm and the movie that won Barbara Hershey best actress at that year's festival, Shy People features the eleventh official soundtrack by the band Tangerine Dream. Want to know more about them? Check out a past article we featured on the site, Exploring: 10 Tangerine Dream Film Soundtracks. Diana Sullivan (Jill Clayburgh) may be a successful New York journalist, but she has no idea just how bad her daughter Grace (Martha Plimpton) has spiraled out of control or how bad her cocaine habit is. Meanwhile, a new assignment takes her back home and into Louisiana, where they come into the orbit of Diana's distant cousin, Ruth (Hershey) and her brood of boys who have been taught that everything that comes from the cities is wrong. Director Andrei Konchalovsky also made Duet for One, Maria's Lovers and Runaway Train for Cannon. Somehow, he soon followed this with Tango & Cash which still makes me think over his choices, as that film is so alien from the rest of what I know of his work. Roger Ebert said that Shy People is "one of the great visionary films of recent years, a film that shakes off the petty distractions of safe Hollywood entertainments and develops a large vision." After all the success at Cannes and such a strong review, why is Shy People nearly forgotten? Every explained it as "a great film that slipped through the cracks of an idiotic distribution deal," as "when a major distributor made a substantial offer for it, it developed that a Cannon executive already had booked it into 300 Southwestern theaters in a quick-cash deal. The major distributor pulled out, the movie never received a proper launching..," and that was, sadly, that.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Excellent directing and acting.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Sadly this seems to have been forgotten by the general public and rarely gets talked about even when discussing the careers of the cast that includes Barbara Hershey, Jill Clayburgh and the wonderful Martha Plimpton. Excellent cinematography, strong acting and an intense atmosphere all make this an extremely underrated film from the 1980s that sadly hasn't made its way onto DVD yet.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Great red state/blue state drama; one of the best and most overlooked movies from the 1980's.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Supurb acting and a unique story line make this one of the best films of the 1980's. Compelling, mysterious, and engrossing. I was hooked from beginning to end. The final scene between Clayburgh and Plimpton is heartbreaking and brilliant!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

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Andrey Konchalovskiy

Director

Jill Clayburgh

Diana

Barbara Hershey

Ruth

Martha Plimpton

Grace

Merritt Butrick

Mike

John Philbin

Tommy

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Gene Siskel

Chicago Tribune

It's a bit precious despite an almost convincing performance by Hershey.

Rated: 2.5/4

Dec 6, 2018

Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

One doesn’t want to say too much more about a film that makes and provokes its own discoveries...

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Shy People is one of the great visionary films of recent years, a film that shakes off the petty distractions of safe Hollywood entertainments and develops a large vision.

Rated: 4/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Cosmo Bjorkenheim

Screen Slate

A twisted family drama with a dash of the supernatural.

Jan 14, 2020

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

Rated: 2/5

Sep 27, 2005

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Jun 11, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

A New York writer (Jill Clayburgh) and her teenage daughter (Martha Plimpton) disturb a Louisiana swamp woman (Barbara Hershey) and her odd family.

Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy
Screenwriter: Gérard Brach, Andrey Konchalovskiy, Marjorie David
Production Co: The Cannon Group
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 4, 1987, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.4K
Runtime: 1h 59m
Sound Mix: Surround