Rural Massachusetts, 1991: Eleven-year-old Lacy sneaks out of her summer camp bunk, crosses a field under the darkness of night, enters the barn where the phone is, and calls her mom. “I’m going to kill myself if you don’t come and get me.”

The following day, Lacy is sprung from camp, bids her goodbyes, and then discovers that when her mom came to pick her up, so did mom’s boyfriend. “I’m feeling better,” Lacy says. “I think I’ll stay.”

So opens Janet Planet, writer-director Annie Baker’s debut feature. It’s a humorous opening but not outright funny. Is Lacy’s declaration of suicide a trump card to get out of camp or a cry for help with a history behind it? Baker plays the scene for chuckles, but as Janet Planet develops, there’s a lingering sense that there might be some truth in Lacy’s attempt at attention.

And Janet Planet is a movie that lingers, even as you watch it. Not much happens, and what does is delivered in a slow, dull, off-center manner. Several shots are set back and framed to cut off the heads of actors, while the close-ups are used for inanimate objects.

Baker, along with cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff and editor Lucian Johnston, use these close-ups as provocation. In one, Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) turns on the microwave to make dinner. The shot of the microwave—as tight as Stanley Kubrick’s framing of Hal 9000—then cuts to Lacy in the shower. Traditional drama could lead you down the path of suspense. Did Lacy set the timer for too long and won’t be able to hear the smoke alarm over the noise from the shower? Will the unattended microwave cause damage? The answer to both is no. There is no connection between the microwave and Lacy in the shower other than that Baker and Johnston cut them that way. Oh, and while Lacy is in the shower, she pulls a large clump of her red hair out and pastes it against the shower wall. Is her hair falling out because she’s sick? No resolution there, either.

That’s Janet Planet in a nutshell. The action is low-key and what drama there is results from the relationship between Lacy, who wants attention, and Janet (Julianne Nicholson), who wants something else. Complicating matters are the comings and goings of three individuals: boyfriend Wayne (Will Patton), friend Regina (Sophie Okonedo), and cult leader Avi (Elias Koteas). Each one brings a threat or a promise to the story. Is Wayne, who suffers from migraines, abusive, or is he just a pill to be around? Is Regina a friend, or is she leeching off Janet? Will Avi convert Janet and Lacy into followers of his traveling theater group, or is he just a decent guy who brings a bottle of wine over for dinner and takes Janet on a pleasant afternoon picnic?

Janet Planet answers none. It’s a movie that feels ambiguous but not unsure. Janet Planet is convincingly specific in realizing these characters and this place. Hell, Baker and her team create such a believable setting that Janet Planet doesn’t feel like a period piece at all. Instead, it plays like a forgotten and recently rediscovered movie from 1991—maybe just not a revolutionary discovery.

Janet Planet(2023)
Written and directed by Annie Baker
Produced by Annie Baker, Andrew Goldman, Dan Janvey, Derrick Tseng
Starring: Zoe Ziegler, Julianne Nicholson, Will Patton, Sophie Okonedo, Elias Koteas
A24, Rated PG-13, Running time 113, Premiered Sept. 1, 2023 at the Telluride Film Festival

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