The Big Picture
Lily Gladstone’s performance in
Certain Women
is the definitive takeaway from the film, showing depth through subtle facial expressions and quiet delivery.
Gladstone’s role in
Certain Women
as a queer Indigenous woman holds great meaning for those who have not seen their communities or identities represented in American films.
Kelly Reichardt’s films, like
Certain Women
, and the success of filmmakers like Chloé Zhao and Jane Campion, have redefined what the Western genre can be by exploring themes beyond traditional narratives of revenge.
It’s no secret that while performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro were stellar in Killers of the Flower Moon, one of the strongest performances in Martin Scorsese’s most recent movie has to be Lily Gladstone. Her performance as Mollie Burkhart was so good, she is nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars this year. It is an exciting career move for an actress to share billing with such legends as DiCaprio and De Niro, but this is not Gladstone’s first time in an acclaimed film with big-name talent involved.
In 2016, Gladstone appeared in Certain Women, directed by Kelly Reichardt. Reichardt is known for her quiet and powerfully understated films, many of which take place in the West and subversively play with themes relating to that of the American Frontier. This subversive kind of Western story has become increasingly popular in recent years, with fellow filmmakers such as Chloé Zhao and Jane Campion finding great success with Nomadland and The Power of the Dog respectively. Reichardt brought together Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, and her frequent collaborator Michelle Williams for Certain Women, an anthology of stories based on a 2009 collection by author Maile Meloy.
Certain Women
The lives of three women intersect in small-town America, where each is imperfectly blazing a trail.
Release Date October 14, 2014
Runtime 107
Main Genre Drama
Who is Lily Gladstone in ‘Certain Women?’
Lily Gladstone portrays Jamie, a rancher in the third and final story segment of the film. Jaime travels into the town of Livingston, Montana where the other stories are set, and finds herself sitting in on a law education class taught by Beth, portrayed by Kristen Stewart. Jamie takes a liking to Beth, and they have an unspoken connection that grows over the course of Jamie’s visits to Beth’s lectures. There is an ambiguous nature to the relationship shared between Gladstone and Stewart’s characters in the film, as things go largely unsaid, and it seems Gladstone’s character is more invested in Stewart’s than the other way around. Beth emotionally closes herself off, and the two communicate in a very muted way because there is a lot of hesitation from both parties to allow things to move further than they can handle.
Reichardt’s film shows the complexity of the lives of each woman at the center of these stories through understated tension. These are not experiences that will define their lives forever. High-stakes dramas often depict what the audience accepts as events that are monumental and extremely important in the lives of the characters on screen, but Certain Women is dealing with real day-to-day life, as many of Reichardt’s films do. The slice-of-life storytelling does not leave much room for Gladstone to have a big explosive moment of Oscar-reel acting, but she proves that she can communicate with her subtle facial expressions and quiet delivery more than many others could do with a loud, showy monologue. Gladstone’s performance is the definitive takeaway from the film.
The third story of Certain Women comes to its climactic moment when Jamie drives out to see Beth one last time, knowing she has quit the law education job and will not be returning to Livingston. Beth is unreceptive, and the two part ways after a truncated farewell. Jamie expresses a lot despite saying very little and tries to play it casual while revealing that, in some sense, her heart is breaking at the end of this meaningful connection she felt. No tears are shed, but it is a quietly devastating moment and empowered entirely by Gladstone’s incredible performance.
Related Lily Gladstone Calls ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ a “Great American Tragedy” The highly anticipated new film from Martin Scorsese hits theatres this October.
Lily Gladstone Is One of Many Women Shaping a New Frontier in American Cinema
Receiving critical praise alongside acting talent such as Laura Dern, and working with an acclaimed director like Kelly Reichardt, is a great way to have a breakout role. Her role in Certain Women was a huge step toward a leading role in Killers of the Flower Moon. In Martin Scorsese’s film, Gladstone plays an Osage Nation woman whose family becomes the center of a terrifying and disturbing string of murders. It portrays the greed and prejudice people had for Native Americans during the early 1900s and Gladstone’s role as the stoic and determined Mollie feels almost spiritually connected to Jamie in Certain Women.
Certain Women does not dwell on Gladstone’s ancestry, but centering a story around a queer Indigenous woman means a lot as a form of representation. Through a universal story of longing for a human connection, Gladstone’s role in the film can be recognized and related to by nearly anyone who watches, but it matters especially for those who feel that they have not been able to see their own communities or identities represented in American films. Similarly, Gladstone ends up being the most compelling aspect of Certain Women and proved clearly with her performance why she got so much praise for her role in Killers of the Flower Moon.
Kelly Reichardt has largely focused on telling stories about women in the American West throughout her career. Similarly, the success found in Zhao’s films or Campion’s most recent Oscar-winning work has proved that the scope of these kinds of stories has changed a lot in the last few years. A “Western” is no longer simply a tale of a gunslinger’s revenge. Westerns can be about trying to find work in an increasingly unforgiving economic landscape, queer love, navigating disability, grappling with conventions of gender roles, and so much more. Lily Gladstone is an important inclusion in this new movement and one of many incredibly talented women leading the charge in redefining what the Western genre can be.
Certain Women is available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.
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