Certain Women

Kelly Reichardt makes films that unfold at the speed of life, not Hollywood. She's a poet of the space between words, and the hypnotic and haunting Certain Women presents the writer-director at her artfully attentive best.

While the first chapter (Laura Dern) is less compelling than the second (Michelle Williams) and third chapters (Kristen Stewart), as a whole this makes for a highly refined film that confirms Reichardt as a master of restrained cinema. She makes the mundane into the profound; doing simple things takes on new meaning. The three stories are about women; as simple but as powerful as that. Williams and René Auberjonois calling to birds is the epitome of beautiful cinema and Reichardt at her best.

Reichardt returns to the slice of life drama she explored in Wendy & Lucy, finding such soft, subtle insights. One doesn't walk away feeling enlightened or changed, but rather that one has lived in these characters' shoes for a short while and felt their quiet pain. The ending is so sad its almost unbearable. I know Reichardt would consider the "expected" ending anathema, but it was a tough conclusion. A somewhat surprising film for Rechardt given her previous two films. An obscure gem.