Although he initially comes off as kind and friendly, he gradually adopts a sinister demeanor, alternating between speaking to Connie in a warm, seductive voice and shouting insults to his fellow car passenger when he inquires about a phone.
Arnold informs Connie about how he has been watching her and that he knows all about her, recounting the details of her family's barbecue plans with startling accuracy.
At the film's ending, she doesn't inform June about what happened, but dances with her to James Taylor's recording of the song "Handy Man".
[7] The film was given a limited release in American theaters and continued to be unreleased on VHS and DVD for years thereafter due to going through different distributors.
The website's consensus reads: "Elevated by Laura Dern's haunting performance, Smooth Talk is far more than your average coming-of-age drama.
"[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
[12] Writing of the restored film, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said, "Chopra strikes an astoundingly tactile, intimate vision of Connie’s terror together with the burdens of self-doubt and silence that she endures—and that predators foster.
"[13] Marshall Shaffer of Slant Magazine wrote "The film adequately recognizes the thin line between male seduction and coercion.
"[8] Jake Cole, also of Slant, awarded the film 3.5 stars, saying "Dern nails the devastation of a woman learning how evil and exploitative the world of men can be, and just as David Lynch’s film [Blue Velvet] ended on a note of society's mask of civilized jollity reasserting itself in the face of deeper awareness, so, too, does Smooth Talk conclude with Connie, faced with no recourse to change anything, find a way to compartmentalize her rude awakening for the sake of survival.
[3] The edition is a two-disc set which includes Chopra’s short films, retrospective interviews with the director and cast, and behind-the-scenes featurettes.