Tickets only $10!
The theme for the summer of 2025 is MADE IN MONTANA - featuring a selection of cinema highlighting several lesser-known movies that were shot under the Big Sky! While production crews often utilize Montana's stunning backgrounds to set the scene before retreating to the comfort of a studio lot, the seven feature films of this summer were created almost entirely in the Treasure State. Therefore, each one taps into the same culture and landscapes we all share, and relates it back to us in new and surprising ways. We hope that by curating a lineup of Montana-centric cinema specifically for the community, audiences might find something new and surprising about our home state in each one of these films.
FEATURED FILM:
Title: Certain Women
Year: 2016
Director: Kelly Reichhardt
Starring: Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone
Rated: R (mild nudity, mild language)
Run Time: 1hr 47mins
Certain Women, directed by Kelly Reichardt, is a quiet, contemplative film that interweaves the lives of three women in small-town Montana. Based on short stories by Maile Meloy, a Montana native, the film stars Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Lily Gladstone. Each narrative focuses on a different woman navigating personal and emotional challenges—ranging from an overworked lawyer managing a volatile client to a married couple trying to build a home with reclaimed sandstone, to a lonely ranch hand who develops a quiet affection for a visiting teacher. The film’s strength lies in its subtle storytelling, sparse dialogue, and the emotional restraint of its characters, which reflect the isolation and introspection often associated with rural life.
Montana is more than a setting in Certain Women—it is an essential part of the film’s emotional and thematic texture. The vast, open landscapes mirror the internal lives of the characters, evoking feelings of solitude, resilience, and emotional distance. Reichardt captures the stark beauty and stillness of Montana’s plains and small towns with an almost painterly eye, emphasizing the slow pace of life and the quiet dignity of people rooted in place. The state’s rugged terrain and unforgiving winters serve as both a physical and psychological backdrop, grounding the film in a very specific American experience that reflects themes of longing, endurance, and the unspoken complexities of everyday life.
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