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Women Talking asks if you’ll listen. There is, of course, an argument to be made that Sarah Polley’s adaptation of Miriam Toews’s critically acclaimed novel is meant to be more seen than heard. After all, the material has been taken from the page and repurposed for the screen. And while it’s understood that any great film is an amalgamation of mediums meant to touch more senses than most, there’s also the expectation that it be a feast for the eyes first and foremost. 

The film, however, is highly desaturated. It’s so devoid of color, in fact, that it seems only a step removed from a black-and-white film. That is until viewers are invited into a space even more desaturated, a subdued yet not completely colorless in-between space that exists in flashbacks. And those flashbacks depict the film’s protagonists in an equally in-between space.  

Like the book before it, the film is based loosely on a real-life, ultra-conservative Mennonite colony in Bolivia where, for years, girls and women were rendered unconscious with animal anesthetic, raped, and then told it was the work of the devil. The flashbacks find some of the women immediately after they come to. They are stunned. Suspended in a split second, they exist neither before nor after the assaults, but rather in the fleeting space after the rape and right before the true realization that something terrible has happened. Something that, even when compared to the rest of the film, is more devastating and draining. But does the color change denote a spectrum and, thus, the possibility of a brighter existence to come? Again, you’ll have to listen, because while this depressed aesthetic choice is fitting given the subject matter, it is perhaps wholly secondary to the women talking. 

The discussions occur in a hayloft over the course of a few days as the women debate whether to do nothing, to stay and fight, or to leave. Among them are two families: the Friesen family and the Loewen family. The former consists of Agata (Judith Ivey), her daughters Ona (Rooney Mara) and Salome (Claire Foy), and their niece Neitje (Liv McNeil), whose mother committed suicide after the attacks. They are prepared to stay and fight. The latter consists of Greta (Sheila McCarthy), her daughters Mariche (Jessie Buckley) and Mejal (Michelle McLeod), and Mariche’s daughter Autje (Kate Hallett). They are prepared to leave. Absent are the most devout who have already chosen to do nothing, among them Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand). 

Also missing are nearly all the men. Those who have committed the heinous crime at hand were taken into custody, and the remaining men who committed the sinister act of standing by have left to bail them out. Then there’s August Epp (Ben Whishaw), a previously excommunicated community member who has recently returned and is the only man privy to the talking. Unable to read or write, the women recruit August to take the minutes, which Ona has deemed important. There’s that hint again that a different future might exist. A future, perhaps, in which these women continue talking and maybe even add some additional methods of communication to their repertoire. After all, they’re off to a strong start. 

Although almost solely shot in the hayloft, the film never feels limited. Brought to life by the characters’ complex conversations and the actors’ powerhouse performances as they dig into the nuances of each option, the film unfurls into a sprawling parable applicable, of course, to the suffering we all endure in a patriarchal society. While the women ask themselves how as pacifists they will fight or where they will go if they leave, it’s easy for everyone involved in the film, from production to consumption, to begin interrogating their own decisions. 

Women Talking3.5/4 starsPG-13, 104 min. Limited theatrical release 12/23, wide theatrical release 1/20/23mgm.com/movies/women-talking

How does it sit, for example, that the film was produced by Plan B, a company cofounded and owned by Brad Pitt, who has been accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife Angelina Jolie? In an industry rife with abuse—some of which Polley has written about in her memoir Run Towards the Danger—does this simply remain one of the costs of doing business? It shouldn’t, of course. No one, real or fictional, should have to endure abuse as an avenue to success. Yet, here we all are. 

By the film’s end, the women do decide, led to action by the conversations, which are sometimes soft and understanding and sometimes filled with rage. But what’s evident throughout the shifts in mood, from hopeful to harrowing and back again, is that it’s an engaged exchange in which listening is just as respected as talking. This idea is underscored in the expanse of the film as well by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (Tár, Joker). Working alongside Polley, Guðnadóttir’s music drives the women toward their decision. The next time you find yourself debating a difficult choice, a position the patriarchy seems to perpetually place us in, perhaps ask yourself what it is you’re hearing. 

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It’s that time of the season where I measure a year’s worth of political progress by comparing steps forwards and steps back, in the hope that overall we’ve made progress.

I could fill this issue with many examples of elections, budgets, and spending plans from 2022. But I’ll settle on a few items. Starting with some good news . . .

The CTA’s Red Line Extension project. 

I’m happy to say that the year ended with Mayor Lori Lightfoot doing something right. That’s right as in correct—not as in ideology.

I’ve been critical of Lightfoot for much of 2022. But on the Red Line, I have to say thank you, Madame Mayor (and thank you City Council for overwhelmingly approving her proposal). You did what your predecessors—Mayors Emanuel and Daley—said they wanted to do, but never got around to actually doing.

That’s extending the Red Line south from where it currently stops at 95th to 130th Street, and building four new stops—at 103rd, 111th, Michigan Avenue, and near Altgeld Gardens.

The mayor and council did it by committing about $959 million in Tax Increment Financing dollars (the feds will pick up most of the rest of the cost). So finally some worthwhile economic development from the TIF scam.

Frankly, I don’t think those two aforementioned mayoral predecessors wanted to extend the Red Line, no matter how many times they said they did. Frankly, I think those predecessors saw that project as a waste of money.

So they did just about every other CTA project. They built the Pink Line. They repaired the Brown Line. They fixed up the Red Line. They built the flyover at Belmont. They rebuilt the 95th Street station, but no Red Line extension.

The extended Red Line will bring service to Washington Heights and Roseland, communities that have suffered for investment under Daley and Emanuel.

As far as I can tell, the governing principle of Daley and Emanuel was to mostly spend TIF money in areas that were already booming, thus gentrifying already gentrifying communities, while leaving lower-income communities, like Washington Heights and Roseland, to fend for themselves.

We all know what happened.

Over the last 20 years, Chicago’s Black population has drastically fallen—including in Washington Heights and Roseland.

It was demographers like Alden Loury, now an editor at WBEZ, who brought this to my attention. I remember asking Loury why Chicago’s powers-that-be did not sound the alarm about the outward Black migration.

To which he said something like,”Ben, I don’t think they saw it as a problem.”

Truer words were never spoken.

I hope extending the Red Line sparks renewal on the far south side. So, one giant step forward. On the other hand . . .

The only no vote in the council was cast by Alderperson Pat Dowell on the grounds that her near south-side ward was largely paying the city’s share of the project.

Or as she put it at a city council hearing, “Because these benefits are citywide, everyone should have skin in the game of paying for this project. This has to include the entire city.”

That’s inaccurate. TIF is a citywide tax hike. The Red Line TIF district will raise property taxes on every Chicago property—not just property in Dowell’s ward.

To say otherwise is to feed the notion that somehow 3rd Ward residents will, as the Sun-Times put it, “bear the burden” of the extension’s costs.

Again, not true. Again, every property owner’s taxes will rise for this project. Again, a TIF is a citywide tax hike. Whether she intended to or not, Alderperson Dowell contributed to Chicago’s ignorance of TIFs. 

So it’s like a quarter step back. I’ll settle for that.

Now onto the national front. Democrats defeated MAGA attempts to take control of the Senate—even picked up a seat. So that’s a big step forward—if you believe in democracy as opposed to Trumpocracy.

And yet, last week House and Senate Democrats joined their Republican counterparts to add $45 billion to the defense bill that President Biden had already requested.

Let me repeat that to make sure there is no confusion about what Democrats did.

Next year’s entire defense budget is not $45 billion—it will be about $858 billion.

No, the $45 billion is what Congress is adding to what Biden wanted to spend. Like $851 billion on bombs and guns was not enough!

That $45 billion is obviously a lot more than the $3.6 billion it will cost to extend the Red Line. They could probably extend the Red Line to Carbondale for that kind of cash.

Now, I obsessively followed the 2022 elections in many states (not just Illinois). And I don’t recall any Democrats running on platforms of upping the defense budget by $45 billion.

Never heard one of them say—we have to hold onto the House and the Senate so we can spend even more money on weaponry than what President Biden wanted to spend. As opposed to spending it on transit, schools, health care, or any of the dozens of programs that people in this country really need.

Quite the contrary: I know of activists who worked their tails off for Democrats who they hoped would cut defense.

This headline from the Sunday, December 18, New York Times print version said it all: “Bonanza for Arms Makers As Military Budget Surges.”

I don’t recall one Democratic candidate or voter saying, “We need a bonanza for arms makers!”

Certainly, I didn’t read that refrain in any of the hundreds of solicitations I received all year long from Democratic candidates.

As always, Democrats are their own worst enemies. So one step back.

Finally, on the state level . . . 

Democrats beat MAGA in every statewide race, including governor and supreme court. And all those Republican candidates managed to concede defeat without crying that the election was stolen and storming the state capitol. Call that a step forward.

As you can see, I’m really trying to look on the bright side, folks. Hope 2023 is one giant step forward for all of you.

The Latest from the Ben Joravsky Show

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If you love the Deftones as much as I do, you’ve undoubtedly passionately defended them to a nu-metal naysayer. “They’re not really nu-metal,” you might argue. “Sure, they had some rap parts on their first record, but they’ve actually spent most of their career leaning into dream-pop and shoegaze influences.” (I can’t be the only person out there going to bat for the band on a fairly regular basis, can I?)

Deftones front man Chino Moreno has been open about his love of classic shoegaze, goth, and dream pop since the band broke out in the mid-90s, and they’ve pushed those elements further and further to the forefront of their alt-metal with each release. Over the years, Moreno has also used various side projects (including the trip-hoppy Team Sleep and his collaboration with former members of Isis, Palms) to explore his fascination with these styles. But he straight-up dives into them with Crosses, his mostly electronic duo with former Far guitarist Shaun Lopez. They’ve been putting out slick, catchy, industrial-tinged dream pop and witch house since 2011, and their love for those dreary, mysterious sounds runs so deep that last year they released a cover of Q Lazzarus’s dark synth-pop classic, “Goodbye Horses.” On their brand-new EP, Permanent.Radiant, gorgeous tracks of slick, airy synths and cloudy soundscapes serve as a foundation for Moreno’s signature yearning croon. These songs are deep, heavy, and beyond smooth; if your favorite parts of Deftones records are the sweet spots, then you definitely shouldn’t miss this release.

Crosses’s Permanent.Radiant is available through the artist’s website.

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Credit: Kirk Williamson

For the cover of our last print issue of 2022, we wanted to capture the spirit of the year, as we see it, in our own Reader way. We asked photographer Carolina Sanchez to see if she could find a street musician who was being ignored, a situation which many can relate to as the essence of this year: lots of work, not a lot of respect. Sanchez found the musician, Kaliq Woods, at the corner of State and Randolph, where he “usually plays the clarinet but because of how cold it was his keys froze and got stuck, so he opted into playing the drums instead.” Sanchez added, “[Woods] had a man next to him dancing most of the time, who randomly came up while he was playing the timbales and sang ‘Merry Christmas’ over and over again.”

From “Rescuing the legacy of Dancin’ Man” to our cover model’s festively dancing friend, it’s been a turbulent and surprising year for us all. Here are just a few of our favorite images that Reader stories begot this year. We look forward to bringing you more glimpses into our unique Chicago world in the next.

Starbucks baristas at five locations in Chicago have voted to unionize in recent months. Credit: Michael Izquierdo

In April, contributor Amy Qin spoke to local Starbucks baristas working to build support for a union (“Brewing solidarity”). As of August, workers at six Chicago-area stores had voted to unionize, following the wave of support for labor unions that emerged nationally in 2022.

Elmo holds a pigeon he coaxed into his hands. Credit: Lloyd DeGrane

Reader staff writer Katie Prout’s “Searching for the Pigeon Lady” (February) started as interest in a particularly legendary downtown ornithologist but swiftly grew into a series of larger questions about resilience, centered in private moments in public spaces.

“It’s a precious commodity,” says Beau O’Reilly. “This was hugely important music, not only in 1966 but in 1936. It’s how culture moved around the country,” Credit: Sarah Joyce for Chicago Reader

Beau O’Reilly, a fixture in Chicago’s theater and music scenes since the 70s, continues to perform and create opportunities for other artists. Contributor Mark Guarino talked to O’Reilly in April about theater work on the fringes for “Beau O’Reilly keeps the folk cabaret alive.”

Greg reads his poem “Thoughts of a Lonely Man” aloud from his notebook. The cat he shares with his girlfriend Stacey perches on his knee. Credit: Sarah Gelbard

In January, contributor Sarah Gelbard spoke to unhoused people and their allies (“Homeless in a pandemic-stricken Chicago”) about the conundrum of hundreds of Chicago public housing units sitting empty when there is obvious need.

Journalist Dometi Pongo curated open mics and now exemplifies the idea that one can be creative and still be themselves. Credit: ThoughtPoet

Contributor ThoughtPoet shared “#SadBoyEnergy (The Prelude)” with our readers in February: a photo essay examining what it means for Black men to suffer from depression and related stress. Multimedia journalist, host, and speaker Dometi Pongo is pictured above.

Leonard Lerer, 62, chief scientific officer of Back of the Yards Algae Sciences Credit: Matthew Gilson for Chicago Reader

For July’s “Something magic’s growing at Back of the Yards Algae Sciences,” Reader senior writer Mike Sula discovered an unlikely team of bioprospectors experimenting with algae and more. Scientist Leonard Lerer is pictured next to a spirulina photobioreactor.

Credit: Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth

After a tumultuous series of events, the Reader was able to move forward in May with its preconceived plan to shed itself of private ownership and embrace nonprofit status. The transition was not without challenges. In Apri, Reader union members led a protest outside a now-former Reader owner’s home, which ultimately helped push the process along. The demo attracted fellow journalists, longtime Reader readers, and labor comrades from other guilds. (“‘Free the Reader!’” by Elly Boes, Grace Del Vecchio, and 14 East Magazine, April)

Credit: Olivia Obineme

19-year-old Austin resident Indya Pinkard was one of several teens that writer Justin Agrelo interviewed about safety, gun violence, the expansion of the city’s curfew for young people, and more, for July’s “Young people dream up a safer summer in Chicago,” a publishing collaboration with the nonprofit newsroom The Trace.

Credit: DuWayne Padilla

Culture editor Taryn Allen spoke to members of OnWord Skate Collective this summer about plans for a film about their work (“Welcome to the skate park,” July). The group embraces skaters of all ages and abilities, and prioritizes women, trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people.

Artist Derric Clemmons stands near one of his Urban Trees art installations on Commercial Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood on Saturday, May 21, 2022. Credit: Eddie Quiñones for Chicago Reader

In May, contributor Irene Hsiao took in the public and interactive art of southeast side native Derric Clemmons and his South Worx Art Group (“Reshaping the landscape on the southeast side”), who built structures as part of a city initiative to revitalize the area near 89th and Commercial.

Members of the band the Breathing Light perform music on the street under a pop-up tent as part of the People’s Fest in the Douglass Park neighborhood in September 2022 Credit: Kelly Garcia

Over the course of the year, Reader staff writer Kelly Garcia covered the concerns surrounding large festivals taking resources from public parks, specifically festivals in Douglass Park preventing residents from being able to use the park’s resources.

Ernie Alvarez Credit: Kelly Garcia

Garcia’s subsequent series of articles looked at the story from several angles: uncovering contracts that revealed financial donations from Riot Fest to influential alderpersons (“Donations, violations, and fees,” September), a timeline of community organizing around the issues (“Riot acts,” August), an interview with Douglass Park youth soccer coach Ernie Alvarez (“A promise worth keeping,” July), and reporting about the People’s Fest, a public event that galvanized support for the neighbors (“A performance for the people,” September).

Credit: Carolina Sanchez for Chicago Reader

Contributor Zinya Salfiti visited Central Camera in August to find out how the century-old downtown camera store has weathered fire, floods, and pandemics (“Central Camera Co. stays focused”).

Ollyvia Putri Credit: Jeff Marini for Chicago Reader

Mike Sula continued his coverage this year of innovative local food purveyors who are unjustifiably under the radar, with stories like September’s “Pastry chef Ollyvia Putri’s 20-layer cakes are legit.”

Members of the dance company Silent Threat (below) see themselves projected on the side of the Merchandise Mart during the premiere of Billiken. Credit: Kyle Flubacker

For August’s feature “Black Chicago dance culture shines at Art on the Mart,” Reader senior writer Leor Galil gifted us with histories from local Black dancers about their experiences with the famous Bud Billiken parade. Galil talked to the filmmakers and subjects of the short film Billiken, which was projected for the public as part of the Art on the Mart series.

Over a thousand people rallied in the Loop for the “We Won’t Go Back” abortion rights rally which gathered in Federal Plaza and marched throughout the Loop ending near Grant Park. The march was a response to a leaked Supreme Court opinion indicating the Roe V. Wade, which protects the right to abortion, will be overturned. Credit: Kathleen Hinkel

Reader senior writer Deanna Isaacs writes about a variety of subjects for her regular culture column. Isaacs tackled the near-total upheaval of reproductive rights that the U.S. experienced this year, including a “secret draft” of a Supreme Court ruling that was uncovered this spring (“The end of Roe,” May).

The Brewed’s decor is steeped in horror—Jason Deuchler is standing in front of a re-creation of a mural from Candyman’s lair in the original film, and he’s checking out a sandworm from Beetlejuice built for the shop’s Halloween party earlier this month. Credit: Steven Piper for Chicago Reader

Our music section’s regular Chicagoans of Note series allows our writers to interview local people who play in, work in, or otherwise inhabit Chicago’s music communities. In October, Leor Galil talked to Jason Deuchler (DJ Intel), who co-owns the horror-themed coffee shop The Brewed.

Credit: Yijun Pan for Chicago Reader

Contributor Yolanda Perdomo talked to Albany Park resident Adam Carston about Windy City Ballyhoo, his pandemic lockdown project turned social media archive of Chicago’s moviegoing past (“Now Playing: Chicago’s history in movie ads,” October).

Fans at Kehlani’s August show at the Aragon Ballroom Credit: Debbie-Marie Brown

Reader staff writer Debbie-Marie Brown immersed themselves in the fandom of R&B artist Kehlani and found a community of mostly young, mostly LGBTQ+, and all very passionate fans (“Blue water road to Chicago,” September).

Coach Shawn Sorsby shows his son the basics. Credit: Debbie-Marie Brown

In October, Debbie-Marie Brown found another passionate community—kids who love chess and compete nationally with the help of the Chicago organization A Step Ahead Chess (“Making good moves”).

Mike Moses at the Regenstein Library Credit: Clayton Hauck for Chicago Reader

For November’s “What Paul Moses Taught,” contributor Hannah Edgar talked to Mike Moses, who brought his father Paul Bell Moses’s archives to the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library, which then blossomed into a moving exhibition of family history and art.

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While Chicago indie supergroup Doom Flower were getting to work on their new second album, Limestone Ritual (Record Label), they hit a speedbump that would’ve killed a lesser band’s momentum. As Tribune critic Britt Julious reported in a November profile, drummer Areif Sless-Kitain couldn’t make it to the recording sessions, and because he’s such a cool, intuitive, in-the-pocket player (with a list of credits that includes the Eternals and Brokeback), he’s difficult if not impossible to replace. Front woman Jess Price (of Campdogzz) and bassist Bobby Burg (Love of Everything, Joan of Arc) made the best of the situation by lifting drum tracks from a breakbeat record, which gives Limestone Ritual a distinct trip-hop effervescence. Matt Lemke (Wedding Dress) embellishes the spartan sampled percussion with svelte synths that give the songs a futuristic lounge mystique. Limestone Ritual doesn’t have a single focal point—the interplay between Price’s tendrils of guitar and Burg’s resonant, minimal bass is as engrossing as Price’s half-mumbled singing. The sublime, easygoing guitar melody of “Break Cycle” exudes a sleepy optimism, which is exactly the tone I’d like to see for the music of 2023.

Doom Flower Chris Sutter (Meat Wave) and the Deepdogs DJs (members of Deeper) open. Thu 1/5, 8:30 PM, California Clipper, 1002 N. California, $5, 21+

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Constellation hasn’t hosted a New Year’s Eve bash since the Sun Ra Arkestra’s legendary fete in 2017. This year, the intimate venue ushers in 2023 with homegrown talents who could be considered Constellation all-stars. The evening is headlined by Natural Information Society, led by multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams; the five-piece ensemble realizes his teeming compositions (often prominently featuring the bandleader on guimbri, a Gnawa three-string bass lute) against a backdrop of large-scale paintings by harmonium player and visual artist Lisa Alvarado. Natural Information Society are joined on the bill by the Separatist Party, a newer band that combines two local trios: synth magicians Bitchin Bajas (Cooper Crain, Rob Frye, and Dan Quinlivan) and a recurring unit comprising vocalist Marvin Tate, multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay, and drummer and composer Mike Reed (who also runs Constellation). The sites of cross-pollination between these musicians are too numerous to list, but to name two for your preshow listening pleasure: NIS and Bitchin Bajas put out the yearning, mystical Automaginary together in 2015, and Gay played cornet and Wurlitzer on Frye’s Exoplanet, one of my favorite albums of 2021. The same year, the Bajas threw it back to Constellation’s previous NYE headliners with Switched on Ra, a joyous synth retooling of Arkestra standards. New Year’s Eve might come just once a year, but the good vibes coming out of this show will surely have no expiration date.

  Natural Information Society, the Separatist Party Sat 12/31, 9 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $25, 18+

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Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras has long focused on individuals and communities battling larger forces, most notably in her films Citizenfour (2014) and Risk (2016), about whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, respectively. In this variation on her David and Goliath fixation, Poitras profiles photographer and activist Nan Goldin, whose incisive body of work probes the tender underbelly of metropolitan society, finding in it the titular beauty and bloodshed. The documentary considers Goldin’s life and art but also hones in on P.A.I.N (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), which Goldin started after a several-year struggle with addiction to OxyContin. The group has made headlines for their bold protests, which largely involve targeting institutions where the Sackler family’s name adorns museum wings and galleries; the Sacklers started Purdue Pharma, which manufactures the aforementioned drug and has knowingly misled the public about its addictive properties. Poitras tackles the complex subject matter of Goldin’s life, art, and activism (spanning not just the opioid epidemic but also the AIDS crisis in the late 80s and early 90s) with appreciable sophistication, eliciting dignity and consequence from even the scuzziest of dive bars. This makes for a natural congruence with Goldin’s practice, elevating it to the stuff of cinema rather than just mere documentation. A through line involving Goldin’s older sister, who tragically died by suicide as a young woman, takes us deeper into the artist’s brilliant but understandably burdened psyche; the detours into her associations with such writers and artists as Cookie Mueller and David Wojnarowicz are similarly illuminating and heartbreaking. 113 min.

Gene Siskel Film Center

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