by Eric Blume
We've discussed Let Them All Talk a few times, but mostly in the ccontext of Meryl Streep. In honor of director Steven Soderbergh's birthday, I'd like to root for this weird little movie currently streaming on HBOMax.
Before the film came out, a friend of mine texted and said, "I feel like Soderbergh doesn't even make movies anymore...he just does experiments." And that feels true. Several years ago now, Soderbergh toyed with retiring, saying something along the lines of if he had to shoot one more over-the-shoulder shot, he was going to kill himself. (I'm paraphrasing, relax.) While that may sound a bit pretentious, it also makes sense...
Filmmaking requires an incredible amount of technical work, some of which is really not fun. Punching in for an insert shot is not exactly artistically or stylistically challenging or rewarding, nor are all those over-the-shoulder shots you need for proper coverage when you get back to the edit bay. I admire that Soderberg is trying to strip away some of those requirements and is experimenting with a stripped-down style to try to just get to the meat of the piece.
You've probably read this, but Soderberg basically shot Let Them All Talk with 'no equipment and no crew'. That basically means that while of course there was equipment and a crew it was nothing along the scale of a typical film, especially one with the caliber of actors on hand here. Most of the film was evidently shot with a sketched-out semi-script, single camera, and a sound guy, on an actual voyage of a ship, with "real people" instead of paid extras, etc.
Yes, the results are variable. No, it is not a masterpiece. The improv dialogue is inevitably banal, and we miss the dramatic and emotional highs that good writing can give you. But in stripping down the technical elements of filmmaking, we get a very simplified and distilled picture which, when it's at its best, make us feel like we're seeing actual humans going through an actual experience.
It's lovely seeing Lucas Hedges give so generously to the four actresses he plays opposite. He's a great listening actor, and it's the perfect vehicle for him exactly because he is so open to possibility. Candice Bergen does a sharp and interesting riff on both her persona and roles we've seen her do in the past, and the work she does feels fiesty and real... she too seems stripped down from her usual presentational style. This is also one of Meryl's best performances across the last decade or so. One of the joys of a great Meryl performance is that you are aware of her virtuosity. But here, that virtuosity is taken away from her, and she feels more like a "real person". On some level, the performance is about her insecurity (something we rarely see from Meryl) and the letting go of the artifice of an "artist" (she's arguably deflating her own reputation here, in an interesting way).
Soderberg wasn't quite able to get into something really deep or new this time, but I hope he keeps experimenting. I'd argue this is MORE interesting than the "traditional" movies he's given us in the past decade or so, and at least he's taking risks. Interested to hear your thoughts in the comments, as always.