Janet Planet (2024) Movie Review and Film Summary

Janet Planet Stars Julianne Nicholson and Zoe Ziegler and is Directed by Annie Baker

Review: Janet Planet is warm and cozy, but I’m just not sure it transported me to this world that is both vivid and hazy. The performances, from Zoe Ziegler as the impressionable, yet adult-ish11-year-old Lacy, to Julianne Nicholson as her free thinking and free spirited mother Janet, steal the movie as a result – one that relies on that specificity from its actresses in order for it to feel timely and transferrable.

Janet Planet Movie Review

I hope this movie finds me again when I’m older – when I feel more susceptible to the soft spoken, intricate style that director Annie Baker captures with incredible detail and sincerity. I’ve liked movies similar to Janet Planet before – maybe no director is a better compliment to Annie Baker than Kelly Reichardt, whose films I occasionally love and occasionally strike out with – but I feel as though I’ve seen better movies capture what Annie Baker attempts to capture here.

Which is a nostalgia-stricken, grainy portrait of a mother-daughter at arm’s length of one another. Like a rendition of The Florida Project, only Janet Planet is capable of disappearing into the shadows – almost willing to.

This is to say that Janet Planet may be the most A24 movie ever put to screen, challenging a user’s attentiveness with smaller gestures and even smaller flourishes. Baker’s jump from the stage to screen is notably unique and palpable, but not all too memorable in my eyes. The performances, from Zoe Ziegler as the impressionable, yet adult-ish11-year-old Lacy, to Julianne Nicholson as her free thinking and free spirited mother Janet, steal the movie as a result – one that relies on that specificity from its actresses in order for it to feel timely and transferrable.

It’s warm. It’s cozy. It’s ultimately very sweet and tender, but I’m just not sure Janet Planet transported me to this world that is both vivid and hazy. Not trying to bring up a dozen movies that capture this better, but Falcon Lake is another picture that finds those smaller moments that speak as loud as the larger display. Janet Planet gets there technically, but I wasn’t there on an emotional or physical level. A soft recommendation for the softies out there. Mainstream moviegoers may struggle to get through it.

Score: 2.5/5

Genre: Drama

Watch Janet Planet (2024) on VOD

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