Smooth Talk

Smooth Talk, motion picture about a small-town teenaged girl who meets a dangerous man during flirtatious play with her friends, based on the short story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' by Joyce Carol Oates. Released in 1985, this film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Laura Dern stars as Connie, a restless and sometimes emotionally troubled girl who is anxious to experience sexual contact for the first time. When Connie and her friends dress up to go out one weekend and talk to boys, she meets an older boy named Arnold Friend (played by Treat Williams). He makes a point of talking to Connie and claims to be about her age, though he looks much older. Not knowing how to get rid of Friend and his creepy, silent partner, Connie gets to know him instead. The film is intentionally vague about what happens in her encounter with the man, but when Connie returns home again, she is not the girl she used to be.

Director

• Joyce Chopra

Cast

• Treat Williams (Arnold Friend)
• Laura Dern (Connie)
• Mary Kay Place (Katherine)
• Elizabeth Berridge (June)
• Levon Helm (Harry)
• Sarah Inglis (Jill)
• Margaret Welch (Laura)
• Geoff Hoyle (Ellie)
• William Ragsdale (Jeff)
• David Berridge (Eddie)
• Cab Covay (Pickup driver)
• Michael French (Stan)
• Joy Carlin (Laura's mother)
• Mark McKay (Bobby King)
• Carl Mueller (Mall boy)
• David O'Neill (Mall boy)
• Craig Caddell (Mall boy)
• Gary Harris (Mall creep)
• Sally Schuab (Saleslady)
• William Desmond (Laura's dad)
• Michael Vaughn (Leroy)
• Rob Blair (Beach boy)
• Edgar Kahn (Beach boy)
• Spenser Mains (Eddie's friend)

Awards

• Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic (1986)