Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Galina Since I read Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" many years ago as a teenager myself (many Oates' works were translated to Russian - she was and I hope still is very popular there), I've been fascinated by it. I've read many Oates's stories and some of her novels but the 10 pages long story of 15 years old Connie, "shallow, vain, silly, hopeful, doomed— but capable nonetheless of an unexpected gesture of heroism at the story's end" has stuck in my memory and I could never forget it. When I found out that the story was adapted to the screen, I tried to find the movie, "Smooth Talk" (1985) directed by Joyce Chopra and I saw it finally last weekend. A disturbing coming of age drama, the winner of The Grand Jury Prize at 1986 features 18 years-old Laura Dern who appears innocent, gawky, and provocative all at once. Laura owns the film as a sultry woman-child who just began to realize the power of her sexual attractiveness during one long summer that would change her life forever. It does not surprise me a bit that Dern's next movie would be David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" where she played sweet and innocent Sandy and in a few years she would play her best role, Lula Fortune in his "Wild at Heart" (1990). The more I think of Laura, the more I see her as one of the most talented actresses of her generation. She is fearless in taking sometimes unflattering roles and she never lost that aura of innocence wrapped in irresistible sexuality that made her Connie in "Smooth Talk" so alive and unforgettable.The links to the full text of the story and to the Oates' article about adapting it to the film are posted on the movie's message board. I was shocked to find out what the real story behind the fictional was.

kalipriestess The character of Arnold Friend was actually based loosely on Charles Howard Schmid, Jr., or "Smitty" aka "The Pied Piper of Tucson" who killed teenage girls in the 1960's. "The Pied Piper mimicked teenagers in talk, dress, and behavior, but he was not a teenager-he was a man in his early thirties. Rather short, he stuffed rags in his leather boots to give himself height." (from an article by Joyce Carole Oates) The rags made him unsteady on his feet.

breacain It's a cautionary tale from the rich old white men of Hollywood (and from JCO, whom I've never quite trusted anyway): Women, don't leave the house! It's a dangerous world out there! Starts out as a quality flick, and it captures *perfectly* this totally giddy, intoxicating stage of life where you're a kid in an adult body, kissing boys and buying sexy clothes. Then it becomes practically every movie ever made, and the young woman is punished terribly for her sexual curiosity. So terribly that we infer she will wind up a reclusive old maid, like her sister, and stay living with her parents til a very late age indeed. I call it Thelma and Louise syndrome. Will someone please give me a movie about a strong woman, in charge of her life and her sexuality, who is not physically or spiritually killed in the end? Sheesh!

TrickyPiranha The movie is for the most part was good. I recommend reading the short story which it is based on before you see the movie. The movie sticks to the plot for the most part, but there are a few differences that shouldn't have been added in. The roles of the parents were good and accurately got across the ideas that Connie disliked in them. Laura Dern as Connie did an average job of portraying Connie, the shallow 15 year old. Treat Williams was excellent as the disturbing Arnold Friend. The biggest problem with this film is they gave it a Hollywood "happily ever after" which is completely different from the dark ending of the story. "Where you are going, where have you been" is a very good story and is much darker than "Smooth Talk" but if you are a fan of the story, check this out to compare.