Kelly Reichardt is one of the very best American filmmakers working today, and her latest film, “Certain Women,” is her venture into the American road. One look at her résumé, which includes “River Of Grass,” “Old Joy,” “Wendy And Lucy,” “Meek’s Cutoff,” “Night Moves” and now “Certain Women,” and we see an auteur allergic to formula and never sacrificing her uncompromising vision for mainstream popularity.
“Certain Women” has three short stories at the center of its plotting. All three are adapted from Maile Meloy’s writings about lonely, isolated women in the 21st century. Starring Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Lily Gladstone in a career-making performance (and arguably the film’s best), this might be Reichardt’s best movie yet. It’s not only a profound statement on female yearning in the 21st century, but a delicately nuanced portrayal of an American society rotting at its core.
Reichardt weaves together three stories about four different women: Dern as a down-on-her-luck lawyer; Williams as an aggressive opportunist; Stewart as a motivated, but confused night school teacher; and Gladstone as a hard-working rancher confused with her own identity. It’s a romantic but pessimistic vision of western Americana.
We spoke to the prolific 52-year-old writer-director about the film, her incredible partnership with Michelle Williams and her fascination with the road.
First of all, congrats on this film. I do believe it is the best work of your career thus far.
Thank you, that’s very nice to hear.
First things first: How did you get this great cast?
I always wanted to work with these actors. Always wanted to work with Laura Dern. I just loved her in the Mike White HBO series “Enlightened;” I’m a big fan of that series and I kind of wish I could have directed an episode. So it was great that it worked out with Laura. Whereas with Kristen, she was attached for a very long time. She was in my friend’s movie, “Still Alice,” and it just went from there.
Kristen is a pretty big name for a Kelly Reichardt movie.
At first, I was worried she’d be too big of a name for the story I was just trying to tell, but she played “small” beautifully and really let that story be Lily’s [Lily Gladstone].
Then there’s Michelle.
Michelle, well, it’s Michelle. I didn’t work with her on my last project [“Night Moves“], so I was very much looking forward to working with and seeing her again. We don’t really hang outside the set, but when you make that many movies with someone, it becomes organic and beautiful. I called her and said, “you want to do this,” and she said “yes” right away, but she didn’t really know I wanted to shoot the film imminently. She was getting ready to do the Kenneth Lonergan film [“Manchester By The Sea“] at the time, but she somehow found a way to hop on board “Certain Women.”