3 Women

Ah, the 70s. A time when a director could convince a studio to give him the money to make a movie without having to show them a finished script, or even a complete outline of what the final film would be. You didn’t need a finished script, the studio would say, if the director in question was an artist like Robert Altman. While it isn’t nearly as polished — or purposeful — as Nashville, this weird little mystery is one of Altman’s best thanks to the freedom he gives his two leading ladies to create — and ultimately destroy — their characters. Sissy Spacek is stunning as Pinky Rose, a little lost lamb of a girl who slowly adopts, then consumes, the personality of her roommate Millie (Shelly Duvall). Unfortunately, the addition of the third woman (Jancie Rule) to the story is underdeveloped and feels tacked on.