This afternoon I finally saw Sarah Polley‘s Women Talking, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating. It’s not a “bad” film — just interminable.
And yet it’s a well-written, well-acted dialogue piece about eight Mennonite women (plus the wimpy Ben Whishaw) discussing whether to leave their community because of years of suffering sexual violence from several brute beast males.
Of course they should leave! And yet they spend the whole night in a barn, debating the pros and cons. And there I was, grinding it out in row #3 at the Werner Herzog theatre.
The three best performances are delivered by Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley and Rooney Mara.
Every critic in Telluride loves this bleak, suffocating film, and their motivation is almost entirely political. Given the political climate in this town and in other woke regions around the globe, there is no upside to rendering a negative verdict. Play it safe, go along, keep your head down.
I kept telling myself “this isn’t interminable…it’ll be over after 100 minutes and then you can get up and move on with the rest of your life.” And that’s what happened. I’m fine. My future is before me.
If this film turns out to be Best Picture nominated, I’ll be flabbergasted. But it could happen. There are plenty of hardcore types who will push for it.
A fair number of average industry Joes & Janes, trust me, are going to hate this film. (But don’t tell David Pollick.)
If my thought dreams could be seen, they’d probably put my head in a guillotine.
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