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Smooth Talk (New Restoration)

Available to rent for $9.99
Dec 14 - Jan 11
Directed by Joyce Chopra
1985, USA, 91 min

This title is available to rent via Cinematheque at Home for $9.99. This is not only an opportunity for our patrons to see new cinema, but is an important way that they can continue to support independent film during this pandemic with 50% of all sales supporting our theatre.

Suspended between carefree youth and the harsh realities of the adult world, a teenage girl experiences an unsettling awakening in this haunting vision of innocence lost. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ celebrated short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and produced for PBS’ American Playhouse, the narrative debut from director Joyce Chopra features a revelatory breakout performance from Laura Dern as Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family whose summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations is shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger (a memorably menacing Treat Williams). Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Smooth Talk captures the thrill and terror of adolescent sexual exploration as it transforms the ingredients of a standard coming of age portrait into something altogether more troubling and profound.

Looking Backwards // Moving Forwards is our ongoing series shining a light on the important work being done to preserve and promote the history of film via new digital restorations. Generously Sponsored by IATSE 856. 

Reviews

The shiveringly memorable Smooth Talk may be the first film to get adolescence in America right, down to the last, delicate seismographic tremor.
– Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times  
As she would the following year in Blue Velvet, Dern nails the devastation of a young woman learning how evil and exploitative the world of men can be.
– Jake Cole, Slant Magazine  
...at times it feels as if Smooth Talk is a slasher movie waiting to erupt.
– Jake Cole, Slant Magazine  
Smooth Talk depends so completely on surprise[.] Many will be shocked by the movie's ending, and would want to be warned. Others will see it as a modern morality tale, a Grimm story for the late 20th century, a time when evil seems more banal and seductive than it should.
– Roger Ebert
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ABOUT US

The Winnipeg Film Group is an artist-run education, production, exhibition and distribution centre committed to promoting the art of cinema.
our location

We’re located in the heart of Winnipeg's historic Exchange District in the Artspace building. We are across the street from Old Market Square at the corner of Arthur Street and Bannatyne - one block west of Main.

The Winnipeg Film Group is located on Treaty 1 Territory and on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene Peoples and in the homeland of the Métis Nation. We offer our respect and gratitude to the traditional caretakers of this land.

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