PRESENTED ON 35MM! 30TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING!
This August, We Really Like Her! co-hosts Danita Steinberg and Emily Gagne invite you to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Nicole Holofcener's feature filmmaking career with a 35mm screening of her first film, Walking and Talking (1996).
Both a successor of Girlfriends (1978) and predecessor to Frances Ha (2012), Walking and Talking is an underrated entry in both the friendship and '90s indie film canons. A slice-of-life dramedy, it follows childhood best friends Amelia (Holofcener regular Catherine Keener) and Laura (the late Anne Heche) as they navigate their changing dynamic when Laura decides to move out of their apartment to get married to boyfriend Frank (Little Children and Tár director Todd Field). While Amelia distracts herself with awkward dalliances (cue Kevin Corrigan as video store clerk Bill and Liev Schreiber as her lingering ex), Laura questions her engagement when she starts fantasizing about one of her therapy clients and flirts with other men. After some distance, the longtime pals are reminded that it's a lot easier to figure things out together than struggle apart.
Despite directing episodes of iconic TV shows like Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Gilmore Girls, Parks and Recreation and critically acclaimed films (Friends With Money, Enough Said and You Hurt My Feelings, to name a few), Holofcener is still not nearly as revered as her male contemporaries such as Noam Baumbach, the Duplass Brothers, Richard Linklater and Kevin Smith. But as Walking and Talking demonstrates, she has always been a true auteur, filling her cinematic worlds with distinct observational humour, sharp dialogue, and emotional nuance, not to mention three-dimensional roles for unsung performers like Keener and Heche.