Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk is a thoroughly captivating and wonderful bit of cinematic experimentation. It’s always a delight to see how Soderbergh chooses to play with form, theme, narrative, style, and technique. With his latest film, the short shooting schedule, the improvisation, and the barest sketches of an idea have yielded some intriguing results. The underlying pseudo-detective narrative that’s been fused into this story of three septuagenarian friends reconnecting after thirty years is incredibly fascinating. The twenty-something nephew, our viewpoint character, is tasked with discovering what his aunt’s friends think about her after all these years, his aunt’s agent has tasked him with learning more about the new novel, and one of his aunt’s friends even tasks him with finding out more about a potential suitor. Mysteries abound throughout the narrative, but the film’s real mystery is one of human connection – how one consciousness reaches out and touches another, however fleetingly. The improvisation adds to the feeling of the tenuousness of these connections, how quickly they can all melt away. Soderbergh’s handheld camera floats across the ship that serves as the backdrop for all of this action, capturing these generative conversations, these moments of surprised reaction, lending to the feeling of impermanence as well. It’s thrilling to watch these actors at the top of their game taking such risks with a filmmaker who is often taking risks, coming together to explore the mysteries of connection.