Evening

Series/Themes: Critical Conversations, Special Guests, Women in Film Focus

Genre: Classics, Drama

Film Year: 1985

Locations: USA

Film Length: 91 min.

Languages: English

Director: Joyce Chopra

Featuring: Laura Dern, Treat Williams, Mary Kay Place

Suspended between carefree youth and the harsh realities of the adult world, a teenage girl experiences an unsettling awakening in this haunting vision of innocence lost. Based on Joyce Carol Oates celebrated short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, the narrative debut from Joyce Chopra features a revelatory breakout performance by Laura Dern as Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family, whose summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts and innocent flirtations is shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger (a memorably menacing Treat Williams). Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Smooth Talk captures the thrill and terror of adolescent sexual exploration, and it transforms the conventions of a coming -of-age story into something altogether more troubling and profound.

-Film note from the Criterion Collection

Introduction by Tyler Coates (The Hollywood Reporter)
Discussion with Director Joyce Chopra, moderated by Paul Wagner (UVA)