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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Let Them All Talk

Streaming on Max

It’s tempting to sum it up as The Golden Girls meets The Group. Meryl Streep is deeply funny as a highly mannered writer intent on producing a sequel to her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. Candice Bergen is a hoot as her oldest college friend, a bitter, down-on-her-alimony blonde making do selling lingerie. And Dianne Wiest is eccentrically sweet and erratic as their more gullible, do-gooder friend. But it would be a disservice to describe Let Them All Talk, a new Steven Soderbergh movie that debuts on HBO Max next week, as a comedy or satire—even though it takes place on a crossing (not a cruise) aboard the Queen Mary 2. Author Deborah Eisenberg, who wrote the screenplay, has created a humane, small-bore drama with a wicked sense of humor. It’s not like anything else, really, and, best of all, here’s another thing it’s not: a Nancy Meyers movie. —Alessandra Stanley