“Every second of my life is hell,” states Lacy, an eleven-year-old girl living with her mother, Janet. Earlier in Janet Planet – the directorial debut from Pulitzer-winning playwright Annie Baker – Lacy calls Janet from a pay phone at her Summer camp, demanding that she be brought home or else she’s going to kill herself. You read this and imagine that Lacy is some nightmarish construction of adolescent solipsism, a dramatic posturer revving up toward the tragedy of puberty. The reality is that Lacy is mostly a lonely, quiet child who spends most of her time with adults and speaks to them with stunning clarity and frankness for her age. These days, we might say that Lacy is on the spectrum, but Janet Planet takes place in the early 90’s in the rural Northeast. Lacy’s unique character earns her points amongst Janet’s many friends and admirers, but it mostly leaves her socially stranded amongst her peers, with no one but her mother for company.

Newcomer Zoe Ziegler plays Lacy, alongside Julianne Nicholson who plays Janet. Janet runs an acupuncture business out of their home, a rustic cabin filled with overstuffed bookshelves and surrounded by lush forest. Mother and daughter still spend most of their nights sleeping in the same bed, a fact that some find strange. This includes a cantankerous boyfriend named Wayne (Will Patton), whose annoyance at Lacy cutting short her camp stay is obvious in his mood. The only thing Lacy likes about Wayne is his daughter Sequoia (Edie Moon Kearns), who is of similar age and the only child in the film that Lacy ever has something close to a friendship with. Otherwise, Wayne’s frustrations come out in terse, almost threatening ways, and Janet soon realizes that the relationship must end.

Even at her age, Lacy can tell that her mother has a talent for attracting men, even if that talent doesn’t extend toward men of particularly high standing. Lacy feels like there is practically no one her age she can connect with, and she admires Janet’s ability to commune with people, but in somber moments, Janet confesses her own loneliness. Getting older means dealing with the same problems in different ways. Later in the Summer, Janet reconnects with an old friend, Regina (Sophie Okonedo), who’s been left penniless by a charlatan boyfriend named Avi (Elias Koteas). Regina stays with Janet and Lacy to try and rebuild her life and find a job. Avi, she explains, is like a cult leader, whose Tibetan buddhist philosophies shield toxic manipulation. Regina is a welcome change of pace to the carousel of boyfriends, but she also finds a way to overstay her welcome as Lacy and Janet do their best to coexist within the complicated worlds of those that surround them.

Fitting somewhere in between the homespun starkness of Kelly Reichardt and the bracing surreality of Lucrecia Martel, Janet Planet defies formal definition while paying homage to the great atmospheric directors that have come before her. The lingering meditations can occasionally stretch into the tedious, but Baker’s instincts are sharper than you might initially perceive. What feels untamed and sprawling is actually something well-curated. And fitted between these drawn out sequences are crisp dialogue scenes that cut to the heart of the matter. Janet and Lacy are moving briskly through this life, but their moments with one another are patient and caring. If the loose narrative doesn’t quite feel like something that would come from the structured world of drama, the puncturing dialogue (and the fantastic delivery from Ziegler and Nicholson) certainly does.

Nicholson, a veteran actress who has worked steadily for the last twenty-five years, gets one of her few leading opportunities here. The character of Janet is caught somewhere between a frustrated reality and Lacy’s idealized point-of-view, and Nicholson performs that friction beautifully. Her Janet wants to be encouraging to her young daughter, but she also wants to be honest – she wants Lacy to have every opportunity but also wants her to understand how limited those opportunities might end up being. Nicholson has always preferred subtlety, and her generosity as an actor has always made her perfect in supporting roles. Getting this chance to be a film’s figurehead really unlocks the full package of her skill. She performs the real and the ideal, crafting a beautifully authentic picture of a melancholy mother.

This is allegedly the first acting performance of any kind from Zoe Ziegler, and it’s a testament to Baker’s directorial skill that she’s able to get such a full character from the young performer. Her chemistry with Nicholson aside, Ziegler perfectly captures the dichotomy of childhood: the wonder of the macro against the boredom of the micro. Even if she can’t quite put her finger on it, she picks up on Janet’s sadness and is resourceful enough to give her mother the proper affection. Her main concern are her own anxieties, but growing up in a single-parent household has taught her resourcefulness and emotional intelligence. Baker understands that children like Lacy can possess these qualities without even realizing it, and Ziegler’s performance of that duality is wonderful.

I was very much on board with this vibes-y movie, even if the endgame wasn’t always very clear throughout. Baker’s curiosities lead her to dwell on the idiosyncratic, but Janet Planet is a very rewarding experience for those willing to meet it on its level. Its humor is plentiful if subdued, and the emotional impact of its heavier scenes can be missed if you’re not paying full attention. There is no sweeping statement or raging catharsis. At one moment, the film is about human connection, and at another its about the fleeting nature of relationships. It shares a lot with Mike Mills’s great 2016 film Twentieth Century Women, another film about an idealized mother. That film is about the impossibility of truly knowing anybody. Baker is less absolute. We may not know the people we love as much as we’d like, but one of life’s greatest pleasures are the glimpses they’re willing to share.

 

Written and Directed by Annie Baker