Childhood is not always peaches and cream. Occasionally it can be really volatile: parents fighting a nasty divorce, getting bullied at school, experiencing a serious injury, etc. Other times, life can be really great like an awesome birthday party. But most of the time, childhood is really strange and full of awkward conversations, spent trying to occupy time — this is “Janet Planet.”
Shot on cozy vintage 16 millimeter film, this film is not like the rest of this year’s catalog. There’s nothing that specifically happens in the plot of “Janet Planet” compared to something like the battle on Arrakis in “Dune: Part Two” or the exhilarating tennis matches in “Challengers.” Instead, this move focuses on quiet peaceful feelings. The film feels warm and tender — sounds of the cicadas and night ambience, the interior of a car, a cabin in the evening — it is the folk music of movies.
Taking place in rural Massachusetts in 1991 this slice-of-life film follows an 11-year-old girl named Lucy who spends the summer with her mom Janet. Her mom rocks a shaggy, short hairstyle and a pair of baggy linen pants.
Avoiding kitschy remarks to the time period, the film does not show the fashion trends or use pop hits that would instantly cause viewers to recognize the decade. Instead it focuses primarily on Lucy in all of her boredom and the activities her mom scheduled for her, like learning piano or playing with Janet’s friend’s children. Filmmakers scattered remnants of the decade throughout the background, hiding 90s paraphernalia synonymous with the time period in plain sight.
Lucy fills up her toy cups with water in the tea-parties she hosts and can never seem to get down the piano melodies her strict instructor is teaching her. She wears clothing that doesn’t exactly work well together. It would be easy to believe this is a work of auto-fiction, and though the film does pull from writer-director Annie Baker’s own childhood with her divorced mom in Amherst, it is clear these details are part of the fabric of her artwork.
The film is divided into chapters, each being named after a significant figure in Janet’s life. Being a divorcee, the figures that orbit Janet tend to be the men she is surrounded by, with chapters on occasion featuring less significant individuals simply passing through her life.
The literary qualities of this film seem to transpire from Baker’s background as a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright. In her autobiographical storytelling style — Baker shows that this is not an average film — each of these chapters strive to gradually educate Lucy on who her mom is as a person.
There are not a lot of recognizable faces among the cast of “Janet Planet,” apart from the titular character, played by Juliana Nicholson, who was seen most recently in the Nicholas Cage dark comedy “Dream Scenario.” Though, this is not to say that the casting isn’t incredibly well done. 11-year-old Lucy is played by actress Zoe Ziegler, who feels like an actress not typically depicted on film but has a look that feels much more close to home. Think of the casting of Bria Vinaite as Hailey in “The Florida Project” — no known actress could play these parts.
Comparisons to “The Florida Project” are especially apparent, not only in casting, but because of the observational nature in how the film captures everything. Both films feel extremely real and honest to life. Whereas “The Florida Project” focuses on children at an age too young for most people to remember clearly, “Janet Planet” focuses on the coming of age experience of being 11-years-old, a time when people start becoming conscious of their existence.
The film’s honesty extends to the dialogue as well — sitting in that place between hyper-realism and clearly scripted that Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson have made such a home in. Its idiosyncrasies are occasionally off-putting but always have a truth to it. The film only offers glimpses of each character’s inner world, but their actions clue the viewer into who they are immediately.
For this to be Annie Baker’s first film, it’s quite phenomenal that her voice is so clear. Using longer takes — contrasting Steven Spielberg-esque “Oners” in which a camera moves through a scene with blocking and framing that feels explicitly rehearsed — her style is more akin to a transcendental filmmaking, such as the work of Japanese director Yasijiru Ozu.
The combinations of symmetrically composed but understated images, a wall of nature sounds and an emphasis on tone and ambiance, cement Baker’s writing and directing style for films to come. This is one of those debuts of an artist whose work people will go back to after decades and point to their first piece saying, “They’ve always had this style!”
With the intensity of everything going on in the world, sometimes the weight and lack of reality of these massive blockbuster films just feels alienating. It’s nice to watch a film and be able to reflect on life’s experiences, extending beyond the haze and into the “grass is always greener” mentality that’s associated with nostalgia, allowing viewers to look back at who their parents were and recognize that they were growing up too.
As much as the film is a snapshot into a child learning about the world, it’s also about learning that her mom is still learning, too.
Verdict: Running a little under two hours, the duration of the film may seem long for what it is but it’s easy to escape into the world and atmosphere Baker creates. This movie is like medicine for the heart. “Janet Planet” is the quiet small film viewers did not anticipate needing.
