From what I was told last week, Alberto Barbera “liked” and wanted “Women Talking” at Venice, but was perfectly fine with Polley’s film choosing its Telluride-TIFF trajectory instead.
Barbera didn’t want “Women Talking” to play in competition, but did offer it a spot “out of competition”. His request was politely refused. If anything, the festival film that Barbera was most angry about missing out on was Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.” Other than that one, he managed to select everything that was on his radar.
With that being said, THR’s Scott Feinberg is throwing some cold water at the “Women Talking” fanatics. He says it’ll be a hard sell for Academy voters, 66% of which are men. Feinberg doesn’t seem to be a fan of the film either and is in fact saying its praise might be due to “festival fever.”
Sarah Polley’s film just wrapped its debut screening at Telluride. The consensus is overwhelmingly positive. Did anybody actually think this was going to get panned at, of all places, Telluride? People might be high off the mountain air at that festival, but I do expect similar positive reactions for “Women Talking” at TIFF, Polley’s hometown festival.
The raves are coming in from IndieWire, THR, and Variety. Meanwhile, solid B+ grades from The Playlist and EW.
Jessie Buckley and Claire Foy are being singled out as the major supporting players. There is supposedly no lead, just various different women conversing, monologuing, in various different parts of the commune.
A text I received this morning, from a writer who is covering Telluride for a trade:
“I don’t know what’s gotten into the people who saw “Women Talking” last night, but there is nothing “great” about this movie. It’s a bore. There’s nothing exceptional about its camerawork or direction. It plays like a stale theater production.”