Directed by Annie Baker
with Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler, Elias Koteas, Will Patton, and Sophie Okonedo
2024, USA, 113 minutes, PG-13
In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet and her spellbinding nature. In her solitary moments, Lacy inhabits an inner world so extraordinarily detailed that it begins to seep into the outside world. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker captures a child’s experience of time passing, and the ineffability of a daughter falling out of love with her mother, in this singularly sublime film debut.
Discussion follows the film.
“Janet Planet is a phenomenal debut by Annie Baker, a MacArthur genius grant-winning playwright who has notched so many theater prizes that she may have grabbed a camera just for the challenge.” – Washington Post
“The genius of Janet Planet, Baker’s debut as a feature writer-director, is how flawlessly it renders what it’s like to spend the summer being 11 at your home in the woods, when your mother is your whole world and you wish you could just have her to yourself.” Critic’s Pick – The New York Times
“Janet Planet unfolds at a dreamy murmur, using soft strokes to paint a picture of a liminal time in childhood —the period of dawning awareness of a parent’s individual humanity.” – Vanity Fair
“Like another accomplished playwright who made a graceful transition into films this year, Celine Song with Past Lives, Baker shows no signs of being a neophyte in the medium. Her approach feels closer, however, in tone, humor and sharp-edged poignancy to another beautifully acted recent work from a woman filmmaker, Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up.” – Hollywood Reporter