Certain Women (2016) poster
2016 · drama

Certain Women

Directed by Kelly Reichardt1h 47m2016
ElsewhereIMDb6.417kRT92%Metacritic82TMDB6.0384
  • sombre
  • slow-burn
  • signature
  • intimate
Movie DNA

Sombre, slow-burn, gentle drama, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Three strong-willed women strive to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest: a lawyer forced to subdue a troubled client; a wife and mother whose plans to construct her dream home reveal fissures in her marriage; and a lonely ranch hand who forms an ambiguous bond with a young law student.

Our read · Certain Women (2016) reads as a sombre, slow-burn, grounded drama entry — gentle in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of Certain Women

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want quiet Montana vignettes about women adrift, yearning, and barely connecting.

ends ambiguousit stays with youmeditativegrips by minute 22attention 4/5feels its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightSkip if minimalist Reichardt pacing and unresolved longing will leave you restless.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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