Kelly Reichardt's "Wendy and Lucy" starring Michelle Williams

I went in not knowing what to expect, and it felt ponderous when I was watching it, but the ending and Williams' performance have stuck with me. A lot of critics seem to single out the mechanic as the oddity that doesn't work, but I thought the All-American Boy Scout who busts her was worse. His exchange with the manager felt like something out of Bubble (or another bad Soderbergh movie).

― sad man in him room (milo z), Monday, February 23, 2009 5:18 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ocean's 12?

also otm about backstory... soooo not ness

Has anyone read any of the Jon Raymond stories? I just read the NYRB thing about this movie and Livability, and now I am intrigued.

yeah, i read livability-
the stories are good; a couple as good as the two that became the films, but the writing's kind of boring?, which isn't something i'd say about anything else; just, very minimal and concise but without the grace that is evident when some others write that way.

hmm, i was thinking about checking this guy out after watching Wendy and Lucy on Saturday. great stuff, but I think I dug Old Joy a little more.

also this is crazy pants--i don't always need backstory, i like ambiguity sometimes

some more backstory would have been nice; the phone call didn't really do it for me.

totally.

p.s. i am going to listen to this: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2009/04/08/jon-raymond-reads-from-livability.html

this was really good. i could watch a million more quiet movies like this.

i think i'd rank old joy > wendy and lucy > meek's cutoff but they are all really great.

I think about this movie all the time. I wish there were more like it.

occurred to me that i would really have loved kelly reichardt to direct krakauer's "into the wild" instead of sean penn, would've been 100x better

i wish i like this woman's movies more! they seem kind of art-cinema-by-numbers to me.

Old Joy really flicks my switches and i do find it quite singular and not by-numbers but i didn't like the other two at all. I found W&L relentless, gratuitous but, ultimately, uninteresting.