# Certain Women (film)
**Certain Women** is a 2016 American drama film written and directed by [Kelly Reichardt](https://www.edgepedia.org/kelly-reichardt), adapted from short stories by the Montana writer Maile Meloy and told as three loosely connected episodes about women in small-town Montana, played by [Laura Dern](https://www.edgepedia.org/laura-dern), Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, and [Lily Gladstone](https://www.edgepedia.org/lily-gladstone).[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016) • [2](https://www.mailemeloy.com/certain-women) It screened at the 54th New York Film Festival and won Best Film at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/certain-women/) • [2](https://www.mailemeloy.com/certain-women)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Kelly Reichardt, her seventh feature; screenplay adapted from stories by Maile Meloy[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/certain-women/) • [4](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/jm/ux/0f/pf/NZIFF16_Wellington_LowRes.pdf?k=9b729039da) |
| Source material | Short stories from Meloy's collections *Half in Love* and *Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It*[2](https://www.mailemeloy.com/certain-women) |
| Principal cast | Laura Dern (Laura Wells), Michelle Williams (Gina Lewis), Kristen Stewart (Beth Travis), Lily Gladstone (Jamie, a ranch hand)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016) |
| Setting | Livingston, Montana, and the surrounding plains, in a barren winter[4](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/jm/ux/0f/pf/NZIFF16_Wellington_LowRes.pdf?k=9b729039da) • [5](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/14794/chapter-abstract/169017689) |
| Format | Three self-contained but interlocking episodes, 107 minutes, shot on 16mm[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/certain-women/) |
| Release | Limited US theatrical release October 14, 2016, distributed by IFC Films; gross USA $1.0M[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016) |
| Reception | 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (197 reviews); Best Film, 2016 BFI London Film Festival[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016) • [2](https://www.mailemeloy.com/certain-women) |
## Spoilers
### The three stories
The film is structured as a triptych of episodes that share a place and a mood rather than a plot.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/certain-women/) In the first, Laura Dern plays Laura Wells, a lawyer handling a disgruntled client, Fuller ([Jared Harris](https://www.edgepedia.org/jared-harris)), an injured construction worker who has already settled his case but will not accept her advice that he has no claim; the story includes a hostage situation and workplace sexism.[6](https://time.com/4529423/certain-women-burns-slow-but-true/) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016) In the second, Michelle Williams plays Gina Lewis, a wife and mother determined to build a dream home from sandstone she spots on the property of an elderly man (Rene Auberjonois), who will negotiate only with her husband (James Le Gros).[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/10/19/kelly-reichardt-looks-inward-for-certain-women/) • [3](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/certain-women/) In the third, [Kristen Stewart](https://www.edgepedia.org/kristen-stewart) plays Beth Travis, a young law-school graduate who drives into town twice a week to teach a night class, where a lonely ranch hand, Jamie (Lily Gladstone), develops a crush on her after wandering into the class by accident.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/10/19/kelly-reichardt-looks-inward-for-certain-women/) • [6](https://time.com/4529423/certain-women-burns-slow-but-true/)
The storylines never fully converge, but they overlap lightly: Gina's husband Ryan is seen earlier with Laura in a romantic situation, and the film closes with a brief epilogue for each story shown in sequence.[8](https://blog.uclfilm.com/archive/blog/certain-women-review/index.html) Reichardt described the challenge of keeping an overall arc across episodes shot as three separate films, saying she hoped the third story would reverberate back to the earlier ones.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/10/19/kelly-reichardt-looks-inward-for-certain-women/)
## Adaptation from Maile Meloy
Reichardt requested to adapt a handful of stories by Maile Meloy, an award-winning author and chronicler of the American West, drawing on the collections *Half in Love* and *Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It*.[2](https://www.mailemeloy.com/certain-women) • [9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4945-maile-meloy-s-journey-from-page-to-screen)
**A changed character.** In Meloy's original story the rancher is a man, and the story involves a boy with polio in a different era; Reichardt changed the character to a woman, played by Lily Gladstone, an actor of mixed Blackfeet descent, to make the film more contemporary and because she felt the lonely old rancher was a figure cinema had already exhausted.[10](https://www.reclaimtheframe.org/post/spotlight-kelly-reichardt-on-certain-women) • [11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/interview-kelly-reichardt-certain-women) Gladstone told *OUT* magazine that she reads the character as exploring her gender identity on a nonbinary spectrum.[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/interview-kelly-reichardt-certain-women) Reichardt found the ranch location by happenstance while scouting for a beige barn and met the woman who ran it; Gladstone worked on the ranch for a few weeks to prepare.[10](https://www.reclaimtheframe.org/post/spotlight-kelly-reichardt-on-certain-women)
## Production
Reichardt shot the film on 16mm, with cinematography by Christopher Blauvelt and editing by Reichardt herself.[3](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/certain-women/) • [12](https://filmfestival.cologne/en/filme/certain-women) It was her first film set largely in interiors; she set herself the challenge of having interiors after her earlier work, and most of the film takes place inside.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/10/19/kelly-reichardt-looks-inward-for-certain-women/) It was also a geographic expansion: her previous features had been set and filmed in Oregon, while *Certain Women* was shot in Montana.[13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/kelly-reichardt-certain-women-kristen-stewart-michelle-williams)
The ranch sequences were filmed with a very small crew, just Gladstone and four or five others, to avoid frightening the horses, in temperatures of four to five below zero [Fahrenheit](https://www.edgepedia.org/fahrenheit) (about -18 °C) while shooting on film.[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/interview-kelly-reichardt-certain-women) The producers were Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, and Anish Savjani, with executive producers [Larry Fessenden](https://www.edgepedia.org/larry-fessenden), Todd Haynes, and Nathan Kelly; the film received support from the Montana Big Sky Film Grant.[12](https://filmfestival.cologne/en/filme/certain-women) • [14](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/pdf/2022-06-19-certain-women.pdf)
## Style and themes
The film's episodes revolve around loneliness, the class divide, and missed opportunities against the vast emptiness of the [Northwestern United States](https://www.edgepedia.org/northwestern-united-states).[12](https://filmfestival.cologne/en/filme/certain-women) Critics describe Reichardt's approach as minimalist: simple plots, extremely spare dialogue, largely absent music, and expansive Montana landscapes and barren winter settings that reflect the emotional states of the characters.[15](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_Certain%20Women.pdf) • [5](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/14794/chapter-abstract/169017689) A scholarly chapter on the film notes that it is one of the few contemporary films by a white American director to include a Native American character as the protagonist of one of its stories.[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/interview-kelly-reichardt-certain-women)
The three women navigate a world in which the rules for being a woman the "right" way are unwritten but still in play, in Reichardt's framing of the material.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/10/19/kelly-reichardt-looks-inward-for-certain-women/) Michelle Williams, who described her character as a kind of new homesteader capitalizing on Montana, was working with Reichardt for the third time, after *Wendy and Lucy* and other collaborations.[16](https://time.com/4549389/michelle-williams-interview-manchester-by-the-sea/)
## Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 92% Tomatometer from 197 reviews, with the critics consensus reading that it "further demonstrates writer-director Kelly Reichardt's gift for telling the stories of ordinary people with uncommon empathy and skill."[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016) It won Best Film at the 2016 [BFI London Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/bfi-london-film-festival), was nominated for Best Director at the 2017 [Independent Spirit Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/independent-spirit-awards), and placed fourth on Sight & Sound's list of the best films of 2016.[2](https://www.mailemeloy.com/certain-women) • [17](https://americanafilmfest.com/en/film/certain-women/) Variety called Reichardt "the quietest of great American filmmakers" in connection with the film.[4](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/jm/ux/0f/pf/NZIFF16_Wellington_LowRes.pdf?k=9b729039da)
Audience measures were cooler than critical ones: the film scored 51% on Rotten Tomatoes' Popcornmeter from more than 5,000 ratings, and 6.4/10 on IMDb.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016) • [18](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/certain-women) Some reviewers found the episodes thin when loosely woven together; others praised the elliptical structure, with one noting that the power of the approach becomes apparent in the third act.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016)
## References
1. [Certain Women (2016), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/certain_women_2016)
2. [Certain Women, Maile Meloy official site](https://www.mailemeloy.com/certain-women)
3. [Certain Women, NYFF54, Film Society of Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/certain-women/)
4. [NZIFF 2016 Wellington programme notes, Certain Women](https://www.nziff.co.nz/assets/sm/upload/jm/ux/0f/pf/NZIFF16_Wellington_LowRes.pdf?k=9b729039da)
5. [E. Dawn Hall, "Solidification: Certain Women," ReFocus: The Films of Kelly Reichardt, Edinburgh Scholarship Online](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/14794/chapter-abstract/169017689)
6. ["Certain Women Burns Slow but True," TIME, October 13, 2016](https://time.com/4529423/certain-women-burns-slow-but-true/)
7. ["Kelly Reichardt looks inward for 'Certain Women,'" The Washington Post, October 19, 2016](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/10/19/kelly-reichardt-looks-inward-for-certain-women/)
8. [Certain Women review, UCL Film & TV Society](https://blog.uclfilm.com/archive/blog/certain-women-review/index.html)
9. ["Maile Meloy's Journey from Page to Screen," The Criterion Collection, September 20, 2017](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4945-maile-meloy-s-journey-from-page-to-screen)
10. ["Spotlight: Kelly Reichardt on Certain Women," Reclaim the Frame](https://www.reclaimtheframe.org/post/spotlight-kelly-reichardt-on-certain-women)
11. ["Kelly Reichardt on Certain Women," Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/interview-kelly-reichardt-certain-women)
12. [Certain Women, Film Festival Cologne](https://filmfestival.cologne/en/filme/certain-women)
13. ["Kelly Reichardt: 'Moonlight was a shelter from the storm,'" BFI, 2016](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/kelly-reichardt-certain-women-kristen-stewart-michelle-williams)
14. [Certain Women press notes, BFI](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/pdf/2022-06-19-certain-women.pdf)
15. [Film Comment on Certain Women (2016), University of Michigan library copy](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_Certain%20Women.pdf)
16. ["Michelle Williams on the 'Bravest Human Being' She's Ever Played," TIME, November 2, 2016](https://time.com/4549389/michelle-williams-interview-manchester-by-the-sea/)
17. [Certain Women, Americana Film Fest](https://americanafilmfest.com/en/film/certain-women/)
18. [Certain Women streaming details, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/certain-women)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2015 and 2016 › Released in 2016*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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