424: Let Them All Talk

[00:00:00] 131. Let's get to Let Them All Talk, which is a, I think partially a Max original, but you can also get it in a few other places. And it's of course done by Soderbergh, it's the fifth of seven movies I'm talking about of his. It stars

[00:00:18] Meryl Streep, Gemma Chan, Diane West, Lucas Hedges, Christopher Fitzgerald, and a few others. And the synopsis is, a famous author goes on a cruise trip with her friends and nephew in an effort to find fun and happiness while she

[00:00:36] comes to terms with her troubled past. So this was the second Meryl Streep starring film for Soderbergh in a row, just had done The Laundromat, and I don't think I even remember this having come out. I only came across it because I was

[00:00:54] on Letterboxd looking at Soderbergh's filmography. I was like, oh cool, another Meryl Streep film with him, so I was curious. And this was the first time watching it, of course. It's a weird movie because it seems very, very small-scale and

[00:01:14] contains so much that the cast doesn't even really seem like they would be interested in being a part of it. Which sounds mean, and I don't mean it that way. I like that they're a part of such a small movie, but it's like there's

[00:01:27] really not much going on in the movie. There aren't a lot of big moments, there is not really a huge big ending, nothing like that. It's very much a talky, slower-paced, gradual, deliberate film dealing with fairly small issues. You know, just very

[00:01:44] kind of reconciliations and reconnecting with people, all that sort of thing. And the movie glides along so quietly that I both really like it for that and not dislike it, but am in some ways let down by it because I feel like it uses the

[00:02:02] cast alright, but not really enough as much as they could considering it's Meryl Streep, you know, Lucas Hedges, and many others. But there is still something very unique and different and sort of just random about this movie where this

[00:02:16] group of people are taking a cruise, you're on the cruise ship like the entire movie, there's no real other plot points going on or anything like that. It's just these conversations and these people trying to figure out, alright, why

[00:02:30] is Meryl Streep's character who is this very pretty pretentious writer and she's acting very strange, very distant with her family for some reason, and then there's this very popular sort of trashy crime writer who's on the ship

[00:02:49] and she kind of resents him for his success but same time he idolizes her, and then Lucas Hedges is going in between all these different female family members and having these conversations with them as well as this assistant. So there's a lot of interesting elements and honestly the

[00:03:09] more I talk about it the more I like it. I don't think it's ever gonna be a five out of five but there is something just kind of peculiar about it that grabs my

[00:03:18] interest and it's not one for everybody. I think that with how quiet it is, how low-key it is, many people could get bored very quickly and turn it off like alright nothing's happening I'm out. I get that for sure and it is in some ways

[00:03:32] a challenging movie because of all those reasons I've listed but for me I think first viewing I was kind of waiting for something crazy to happen. I was like alright there's got to be a big ending. There's got to be some weird twist that

[00:03:46] comes out of nowhere and there's not really that. So I don't know what the huge draw was for Soderbergh in this because you know he didn't have any part in the script and the cast came together afterwards and so I don't know what

[00:04:00] brought them all together but I kind of appreciate that even if it's not an amazing movie at this point. So I am curious to go back and revisit it. I think that it is a grower in some ways. I'm already kind of liking it more as I

[00:04:14] said. If you are in the mood for something different, if you like Soderbergh, if you like Streep, it's got a good set of performances. You know I think you can't really go wrong with that but it is one that really could turn a lot

[00:04:27] people off. Like the average viewer I don't think is really gonna like this movie very much. But other than that the movie looks great. I love the look of the ship. The lighting is spot-on. I love how Soderbergh likes his movies. The score is

[00:04:41] great. It has this kind of jazzy, mysterious score to it. Love that. The final few minutes with the reveals about Meryl Streep, I thought that was unexpected. I didn't see that coming and I liked that. I thought that was effective

[00:04:56] and yeah I'm looking honestly looking forward to watching it again after having talked about it now. I kind of want to go back and watch it. I think I'll like it more. So I think I gave it a three and a half out of five on Letterboxd

[00:05:10] but after this I'll give it a light, light four out of five.