Smooth Talk (1985) ***1/2

Joyce Chopra's Smooth Talk (1985), based on Joyce Carol Oates' 1966 short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, is a strange bird. It's two-thirds a coming-of-age story about 15-year-old Connie (Laura Dern, just one year away from her breakout role in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (my review here)) and her contentious relationship with her mother (Mary Kay Place), and one-third a sort of cautionary tale with a terrifying denouement. 

That's not to say that everything occurring prior to the final 30 minutes is inconsequential—in fact the details are delightful and there is a nostalgic quality to the bulk of the film. It’s just that there is a definite, jarring, tonal shift in that all-important central scene that feels like it’s from a different film (which I imagine was intentional). Furthermore, the way in which the film concludes brings the mood back to a lighthearted place, but we know that Connie is changed, as we the audience are as well. A terrible thing has happened to her, but one gets the sense that she will do her utmost to ensure she never finds herself in a similar position again, if she can help it.

Dern, only 17 when ST was filmed, proved that she is an actor of great range, even at such a young age and in such an early role. I would argue that she's even better here than in Blue Velvet. Additionally, Treat Williams perfectly encapsulates both the James Dean-charm and subtle menace of his character Arnold Friend. Williams and Dern’s performances, along with Chopra’s filmmaking and her husband Tom Cole’s screenplay, really bring home the dangers of predatory men who prey on young girls’ naivety and vulnerability, without ever being exploitative.

Smooth Talk offers a glimpse into (at that point in time and even still) a rarely seen perspective in film, a specific mood and time in a teenage girl's life—one where she struggles for identity, longs to be truly "seen,” and to escape every day life. Chopra’s film stands out among films of the '80s because of those rare qualities, for being genuine and not succumbing to being merely a teenybopper picture, and for being one of few widely-seen films of the decade made by a woman director.