Review of Certain Women (2016) by Bostoncritic — 21 Nov 2016

An indie film of short stories about women, set in the state of Montana, intrigued me as it would many, just because I've never been there, but also because it has three famous and accomplished actresses.

I wanted to like this movie. The three main actresses, and the additional unknown actress who played a ranch hand, can hardly be faulted for their performances, given the pathetically vapid, boring script.

The director wants to tell stories about how women have it so hard in a man's world. It is supposed to be a serious movie with serious points about subtle indignities faced by women. Instead it is all style over substance.

And the style is a slow, lingering, pseudo-intellectual gaze at inconsequential, mundane lives of lonely women in a lonely Montana landscape. Remarkable in that the acting was great, and it was actually beautifully shot, yet I never want to see another movie by Kelly Reichardt ever again.

And Montana is now at the bottom of my list of yet-unvisited states to see. Do not waste your time or your money. Stay away, unless you want to see perhaps the world's most stupid, pretentious, pseudo-intellectual "feminist" film ever made.