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Smooth Talk

Play trailer Poster for Smooth Talk PG-13 Released Nov 17, 1985 1h 32m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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94% Tomatometer 31 Reviews 47% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Fifteen-year-old Connie (Laura Dern) spends the summer before her sophomore year fixating on getting male attention. While her mother, Katherine (Mary Kay Place), nags her about painting the house and favors her older sister, Connie spends her days going to the mall with her friends. One day, while the rest of her family is having a barbeque, Connie is confronted at home by a handsome, dangerous stranger, Arnold Friend (Treat Williams), who has been watching her.
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Smooth Talk

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Critics Consensus

Elevated by Laura Dern's haunting performance, Smooth Talk is far more than your average coming-of-age drama.

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Critics Reviews

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Gene Siskel Chicago Tribune The strained mother-daughter relationship in ''Smooth Talk'' is one of the film's highlights, suggesting that envy often translates into hostility. Rated: 3.5/4 Nov 26, 2023 Full Review Sheila Benson Los Angeles Times What makes Laura Dern’s performance the event that it is--one of the finest, most sustained and most shatteringly observed we’ve had this year... it’s rare to have this variety of insights about adolescence from an actress so nearly that age herself. Nov 26, 2023 Full Review Rita Kempley Washington Post Not just another youth movie, but a deft dramatization of a Joyce Carol Oates story adapted by a couple of documentary filmmakers in their feature debut. Nov 26, 2023 Full Review Marya E. Gates Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Williams walks a fine line between total creep and smooth operator in a film that similarly explores the liminal space between fear and desire during female adolescence. Feb 13, 2024 Full Review Brian Susbielles InSession Film Dern plays a silly, hopeful, and doomed figure whose interest in a groovy figure (played by Treat Williams) shows its initial sparks and the charm anyone can put on before shifting gears to its more controlling ways. Mar 6, 2023 Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com ...an apt response to America's puritanical mindset that still refuses to responsibly address sex education. Rated: FIVE STARS Feb 28, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Michael C Date rap at its finest. Yuck! Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 12/18/24 Full Review Joan N An underrated gem. Great performances from Laura Dern and Treat Williams. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 04/28/24 Full Review Audience Member I saw this movie when it came out in 1985 and just recently saw it again. What a difference 35 years make. When I first saw it, I thought Treat Williams was fantastic, destined to be a star. This time around, I thought his acting was overwrought, a little too mannered. This time around, it is Laura Dern who is fantastic as a teen chafing against her family on the one hand, and a nervous, giggly, anxious, girls-just-want-to-have-fun teenager on the other. She's sexually curious but hesitant. That is, until she is relentlessly pursued by the enigmatic Wiliams, simultaneously threatening and seductive. She engages him skeptically from behind a screen door until she reluctantly agrees to go for a ride in his muscle car. We next see the car parked in the country without the couple and we left to wonder when she returns gratefully engaging her family. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Smooth Talk achieves an incredible trick: what first starts as a happy, breezy '80s coming-of-age film becomes a frightening and disturbing reflection on the dangers of growing up fast and the consequences of the predatory male gaze. Laura Dern gives an impressive, powerful performance, especially for a young actor. The film's strengths lie partially in its ability to ground relationships, consequences, and dialogue in a realistic manner that feels tangible. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member Based on the writings Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been A very young Laura Dern is Connie, a rebellious partying teenager with a stubborn mother to boot She wants to spend her sophomore year getting all the guys' attention and shopping with her friends Connie's also feeling neglected given her own mother favors her sister more Things start to get interesting when at a bbq an older man played by Treat Williams starts noticing her more and more Dern is very charismatic in the lead but Williams isnt in the movie enough to make a lasting impact. Overall I didn't like it. Not much going on to keep me invested. The nature of it is pretty dark and disturbing to say the least. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member An impressive early performance from Laura Dern in this disturbing '80s coming of age drama. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Smooth Talk

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Cast & Crew

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Joyce Chopra

Director

Laura Dern

Connie

Treat Williams

Arnold Friend

Mary Kay Place

Katherine

Margaret Welsh

Laura

Sara Inglis

Jill

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Smooth Talk

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Movie Info

Synopsis Fifteen-year-old Connie (Laura Dern) spends the summer before her sophomore year fixating on getting male attention. While her mother, Katherine (Mary Kay Place), nags her about painting the house and favors her older sister, Connie spends her days going to the mall with her friends. One day, while the rest of her family is having a barbeque, Connie is confronted at home by a handsome, dangerous stranger, Arnold Friend (Treat Williams), who has been watching her.
Director
Joyce Chopra
Producer
Martin Rosen
Screenwriter
Tom Cole
Distributor
International Spectrafilm
Rating
PG-13
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 17, 1985, Original
Release Date (DVD)
Dec 7, 2004
Runtime
1h 32m
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