Smooth Talk is based on the short story "Where Have You Gone, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, and for a long time it was a forgotten relic. Viewing it in 2024, it feels like a film transferred from a stage production. Part cautionary tale, part non-sci fi Twilight Zone episode, it is not a narrative in the traditional sense. A two act surprise: Smooth Talk starts off with Connie (Laura Dern) embarrassed by her father's pie in the sky attitude and her mother's overbearing nature. She wants something more out of life, but is unsure what exactly. She cruises the local mall and hamburger joints, lightly flirting with boys out of a sense of experimentation and frustration. One expedition to the burger joint goes sour when she is hit on by an older creeper (Treat Williams), who tells her he is "watching her" in a cutesy tone. Her mother is angry with her flirations, and the ensuing fight leaves Connie staying home from a neighbor's barbeque out of protest. The second half of the film sees the stranger coming to her house in a 50's convertible. Now what happens in his seduction of her cannot be successfully conveyed in words, but needless to say he is able to get her out of the house and into his car through a Joker-like mixture of silliness, intimidation, and terror. His popped collar, his roadster, his buddy listening to a radio silently, and his clearly being 10-plus years older than Connie may seem amusing when you first see him, but in a half hour; Connie is all his. When we see his roadster at the beach, we don't find out whether she was raped, had consensual sex, or just watched the sunset on the beach; but when she comes home, she has become an adult. She even forgives her mother and puts their fight in the rearview mirror.
If you thought this story of Laura Dern getting stalked was something out of a David Lynch project, it is not; Smooth Talk is directed by Joyce Chapra. Lynch and Chopra are spiritual relatives. There are no hallucinatory elements here, in fact, this film is shot with unflinching realism. The sparkling sunsets against the backdrop of the seduction may seem forced, but midwestern sunsets are really that beautiful on the prairie. But Lynch's Blue Velvet and Chopra's Smooth Talk build on the same thematic foundation: things may look shiny on the surface of Reagan's America, but there are sinister forces lurking if you look hard enough. Dern gives a performance where lighting can alter her stature: "She is a chameleon who looks 12 in one shot and 18 in the next." Like Shelley Winters in Lolita, if the film had starred any younger of an actress, the uncomfortable atmosphere may have been overwhelming. And as mentioned, Williams really tweaks every moment he can, coming across as a realistic, non-painted version of the Heath Ledger Joker. As Pauline Kael observed "he is taking neo-method acting to its limit." It is a performance that has to be seen to be fully explained.
With a one million dollar budget, the film grossed an unthinkable $16,000. The 1980s were the first time that a flop at the box office did not spell doom for a film's prospects; the recent invention of home video made it possible to save any victim of the box office. Sadly, this film fell through the cracks, and faded away like a distant memory. This "Out of Circulation" story has a happy ending, though. Smooth Talk was given a 4K re-release through the Criterion Collection in 2020, though it was still unavailable to stream on any service until the beginning of this year. I ultimately had to buy a region free international edition because the Criterion edition was prohibitively expensive. So all's well that ends well; put Smooth Talk in the Library of Congress to be safe.
Rating: ***1/2 out of 4
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