10 Best Movies Like Women Talking

Though it may not always be easy to watch, Sarah Polley’s newest film Women Talking is the story that was needed for the moment. Telling a tale of women who struggle to reconcile their faith in the face of a crisis, the film isn’t the first to tackle such difficult topics, though it does so more deftly than most others have.

Whether it was award-winning modern hits like Spotlight to classic gems like The Naked Kiss, it is obvious that the themes broached in Women Talking are quite familiar in the realm of cinema. While a host of films have tried, only a select few movies handle their subject matter with the same grace as the new stunning drama.

The Lost Daughter (2021)

Stream On Netflix

Though Women Talking approaches its subject matter in a more dry and straightforward manner, the Netflix gem The Lost Daughter is subversive with its approach to storytelling. Leda is a college professor on vacation who meets a young mother, and they strike up a friendship over their mutual struggles with parenthood.

RELATED: The Lost Daughter & 9 Other Best Netflix Original Movies By Female Directors

Motherhood is seen in many different ways in the film, and Leda is the conduit through which the audience experiences society’s pressures placed exclusively on women. While not dealing with dark topics like abuse, The Lost Daughter is still an intense character portrait with a twisting and turning plot.

Hazel’s People (1973)

Stream On The Film Detective

Playing out like a time capsule to the 1970s, the understated drama Hazel’s People hit all the counter-culture bullet points that moviegoers have come to expect from the early years of the decade. After his best friend is killed during a protest against the Vietnam War, a young man must travel to Pennsylvania to inform his friend’s Mennonite parents.

Though it is much more verbose than the realistic drama of Women Talking, Hazel’s People is nevertheless a story of faith in crisis, and the struggle between violence and peace. The Mennonite way of life is put under a microscope in the flick, and the viewer comes away with a deeper understanding of the somewhat secretive religious community.

First Reformed (2017)

Stream On HBO Max And Kanopy

Women Talking is the story of an entire community caught up in a crisis of faith, but Paul Schrader’s dark tale First Reformed is a crisis of faith in an entirely personal capacity. A mild-mannered pastor finds himself spiraling out of control after counseling a radical environmentalist and his wife.

Putting its focus on a huge topic like global warming, the crisis in First Reformed involves the question of a just god in the face of such a massive issue. Often ranked among Paul Schrader’s best screenplays, First Reformed lets the writing speak for itself, and it is anchored by strong performances just like Women Talking.

By The Grace Of God (2018)

Stream On Amazon Prime Video And Kanopy

The setting of Women Talking is a close-knit community that is largely shut away from the rest of the world, but By the Grace of God approaches a religious scandal that was much more widely known. The plot follows three men who attempt to secure justice when they confront a priest who abused all of them when they were children.

RELATED: Spotlight & 9 Other Best Movies About Investigative Journalism, Ranked By Rotten Tomatoes

The stigma of assault is something that ties the two movies together, and while Women Talking is focused on the female experience, By the Grace of God deals with the separate stigmas that come with male victims. The French film dramatizes real events, but there is an eye toward facts that makes the movie as fascinating as it is entertaining.

The Tale (2018)

Stream On HBO Max

Firmly establishing itself as one of Laura Dern’s best movies, The Tale is an understated piece that allowed its star to shine brightly. Jennifer is a successful woman who finds her life thrown into disarray when a story she wrote as a child potentially exposes abuse she may have repressed.

Like Women Talking, the movie leaves out any salaciousness and opts instead to make the characters the most important part of the story. Memory is put under the microscope in the flick, and the audience goes on a roller coaster ride with Jennifer as she attempts to put everything together.

The Naked Kiss (1964)

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On the surface, Women Talking and Samuel Fuller’s gritty noir film The Naked Kiss seem like disparate movies, but they are actually quite similar when it comes to themes. A former sex worker relocates to a small suburban town and finds her attempts to reintegrate into polite society hampered by the stigma surrounding her former life.

Fuller put the ideals of small-town America on blast in The Naked Kiss, and it has the same exposing energy as Women Talking. Made in Fuller’s signature pulp style, there is an edgy nature that the newer film lacks, but they ultimately are saying very similar things about the way society treats victims.

Speak (2004)

Stream On Showtime And Fubo TV

A few years before her Twilight fame, Kristen Stewart starred in one of her best films, the indie teen drama Speak. After a traumatic event over the summer, a teen enters high school as a selective mute and struggles to tell her story to a largely apathetic world.

Movies like Women Talking are important because they spread awareness, and Speak was an early example of a movie that tackled its subject matter with none of the Hollywood glitz that obscures the important messaging. The film is grim and difficult to watch at times, but the pain is entirely necessary to tell the character’s story properly.

She Said (2022)

Rent From Apple TV And Amazon Prime Video

Women Talking wasn’t the only film of 2022 to approach its subject matter, and the criminally underseen flick She Said finally told the story of the biggest Hollywood scandal of all time. The film chronicles journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor as they publish a bombshell expose of the crimes of producer Harvey Weinstein.

RELATED: 10 Journalist Movies Like Carey Mulligan’s She Said

Recent history is never easy to adapt, and the film gets around many of those hurdles by focusing on the facts and delivering strong character portraits. The performances are all top-tier, and She Said stands as the more clinical and methodical alternative to the lyrical approach of Women Talking.

In Cold Blood (1967)

Rent From Apple TV And Amazon Prime Video

The mid-20th century was an eye-opening time for many who still harbored the belief in a simple life, and the book and film In Cold Blood went a long way to shatter that perception. The movie follows two career criminals who, on a lark, decide to rob and brutally murder a family living in rural Kansas.

Perceptions about the Mennonite community are challenged in Women Talking, and perceptions about small-town America were downright shattered by the earlier film. Presenting the stunning horror of the true story with absolutely no gloss, In Cold Blood had audiences questioning the sanctity of their values in the face of unspeakable events.

Spotlight (2015)

Stream On HBO Max And Showtime

While it bears a more striking resemblance to 2022’s She Said, Spotlight was nevertheless a groundbreaking flick that shed a light on a topic that many audience members weren’t prepared to face. Set in the early years of the 2000s, the film follows Boston journalists as they investigate a defrocked priest who was accused of abusing children.

Cleaning house at that year’s Oscars, Spotlight was sufficiently separated from its historical time period that it didn’t feel too raw. However, like Women Talking, there is a tenacious energy to the film that alternates between the dark realities of the story, and the hope for justice.

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