Trailer

Smooth Talk

Runtime
1hr 32mins
Directed by
Joyce Chopra
Featuring
Laura Dern, Treat Williams, Mary Kay Place
Body

Through our Virtual Screening Room, you can rent films curated by the Coolidge team, while helping to support the Coolidge during this unprecedented time.

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?” and produced for PBS’s American Playhouse, the narrative debut from director Joyce Chopra features a revelatory breakout performance from 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 as it transforms the ingredients of a standard coming of age portrait into something altogether more troubling and profound.

watch now

Plus, director Joyce Chopra joined us for a livestreamed Q&A moderated by Coolidge Director of Marketing & Development Beth Gilligan. Watch here or at the embedded video below:

Having technical issues? Visit our FAQ page here.

Reviews
Review Text

An uncannily assured look at teenage anxieties. Throughout, Joyce Chopra patiently and shrewdly observes the contradictions of human behavior that Laura Dern brilliantly conveys.

Review Author
Jake Cole
Review Publication
Slant Magazine
Review Text

Magical! Equal parts teen movie, mother-daughter drama, and psychological horror ... No less miraculous is Smooth Talk’s ability to feel brand new, despite having been filmed more than thirty years ago.

Review Author
Anne Cohen
Review Publication
Refinery29
Review Text

Deserves classic status ... the new 4K restoration getting a run in American virtual cinemas this weekend does a great service by boosting the profile of a major work from an artist who never got her due.

Review Author
Charles Bramesco
Review Publication
Little White Lies

This Week

  • From Academy Award winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, starring Jessie Buckley, and Paul Mescal. 

    Showtimes
  • A new film from Bradley Cooper, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern.

    Showtimes
  • The new film from director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Decision to Leave) and based on Donald E. Westlake's novel The Ax

    Showtimes
  • A fictionalized account of the dairy cooperative movement that transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world’s largest milk producer.

    Showtimes
  • A work of staggering imagination from visionary Chinese director Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night).

    Showtimes
  • The new movie from master filmmaker  Kleber Mendonça Filho starring, Wagner Moura in a career-defining performance. 

    Showtimes
  • Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns for his most dangerous case yet in the third and darkest chapter of Rian Johnson’s murder mystery opus. 

    Showtimes
  • In the future, intelligence is extinct.

    Showtimes
  • In this course, we’ll sweep through the history of American journalists on film, as taught by Judi Freeman.

    Showtimes
  • Winner, Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, 2025 Venice Film Festival

    Showtimes
  • Terrence Malick's feature directorial debut, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.

    Showtimes
  • When the lights go out, the knife goes in.

    Showtimes
  • Furiosa and Fury Road Double Feature

    Survive the wastelands and reach what awaits in Valhalla!

    Showtimes