Drama | Thriller | USA | English | Colour | 92min
Cast: Laura Dern, Treat Williams, Mary Kay Place, Margaret Welsh, Sara Inglis, Levon Helm
Teenager Connie (Laura Dern) spends the summer before her senior year fixating on getting male attention.
While her mother, Katherine (Mary Kay Place), nags her about painting the house and favors her older sister, Connie spends her days going to the mall with her friends and flirting with guys. The seemingly carefree pursuits of a mid-80s American teenager.
However, one afternoon, while the rest of her family is away at a barbeque, Connie is visited at home by a handsome, but dangerous looking older stranger, Arnold Friend (Treat Williams), who has been watching her.
And her carefree life takes a sudden serious turn.
Smooth Talk holds a rich pedigree.
Produced on a relatively shoestring budget in 1985, the film was based upon prolific writer Joyce Carol Oates' stirring 1966 short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"—a staple in college literature courses.
It won the prestigious Grand Jury Prize at the 1986 Sundance Film Festival.
Upon its limited theatrical release, the picture was met with wide critical acclaim, and ultimately went on to be nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards.
Legendary musician James Taylor contributed three tracks to the soundtrack, including "Limousine Driver" (an original song) and the indelibly integrated "Handy Man."
And finally, front and center among the cast, was 18-year-old Laura Dern, the fresh-faced offspring of respected actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd.
Her performance as teenaged Connie—by all intents and purposes, her first lead role after a few minor parts—signaled not only the arrival of an original, versatile new talent, but also the beginning of a solid thirty-plus-year career.
Produced for PBS's American Playhouse series, 'Smooth Talk' was given a brief theatrical release before its official February 9, 1987 TV debut.