Smooth Talk
The Nickel Cinema117-119 Clerkenwell Road, London
Tue 15 Sept · 18:30
About this event
Fifteen-year-old Connie spends a hot Northern California summer escaping family tensions through beach trips, shopping malls and flirtations with boys. Restless, self-conscious and eager to enter the adult world, she catches the attention of Arnold Friend, a charismatic older stranger who arrives at her house while she is alone. What begins as smooth-talking seduction gradually develops into something far more threatening. Adapted from Joyce Carol Oates’s short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, SMOOTH TALK gave Laura Dern her first leading role, opposite a deeply unsettling Treat Williams. Director Joyce Chopra captures both the excitement and danger of adolescent sexual awakening, shifting almost imperceptibly from sun-drenched coming-of-age drama into a tense and deeply ambiguous psychological thriller. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1986 Sundance Film Festival.
Follow the thread
A different kind of night
Not the same tradition as the lineage above — a genuinely different thread to pull, if you want one.