The Big Picture

Janet Planet
is a captivating debut film that captures the delicate textures of a mother-daughter relationship.
The movie finds its own rhythm, focusing on character development and small moments over conflict.
Julianne Nicholson’s performance and Annie Baker’s direction make
Janet Planet
a quietly evocative yet essential journey.

Right out of the gate in Janet Planet, the spectacular feature debut by acclaimed playwright turned writer-director Annie Baker, produced by A24, a quiet rhythm begins to grab hold of you, and won’t let go for the next two hours. Much as the title suggests, it is like we are being drawn into the orbit of something immense. Conversely, and this is crucial to its understated beauty, it is also something small. In wondrous detail, it shows how one person can become an entire world. As you take in the film, it is almost like you are floating through time with the gravity of its central subject pulling you in closer. Everything moves gently but confidently, capturing the delicate textures of a mother-daughter relationship that comes to vibrant life before you. Janet Planet is not unlike the work of great directors like Kelly Reichardt, especially her recent film Showing Up, while also creating its own distinct experience. While not the first great film of 2024, it is certain to be one of the best come year’s end.

What Is ‘Janet Planet’ About?
This all begins with the 11-year-old Lacy, brilliantly played by newcomer Zoe Ziegler, who is away at summer camp. She is not having a good time there and, being a kid, calls her mom to come get her. Lacy then packs her things, tragically discovering she may actually want to stay as there are other kids there who are going to miss her, yet departs anyway. It is then we meet Janet. Played to perfection by Julianne Nicholson, she is a kind yet often troubled mother who isn’t sure of what path to take. Namely, this surrounds the people that come into the life she has built in their rural corner of Western Massachusetts in 1991. Initially, it is a man named Wayne, played by Will Patton of the series Silo, who comes with her to pick Lacy up. He has his own struggles that will come rushing in just when things seemingly start to settle. With the inquisitive Lacy taking all of this in, the film then adopts a sharply observational approach that results in scenes both silly and somber. Split into sections that are marked by the different people that drift into Janet’s orbit, it is a film of small moments and how they can accumulate into something that feels like it may last a lifetime. Even as it takes place throughout just one summer in the confines of a handful of settings, everything in how it is precisely framed and edited ensures you feel the echoes that will carry on into Lacy’s future.

While this may sound like your typical coming-of-age movie on paper, Baker takes a far less conventional approach that is almost devoid of conflict that gets deeper into character. There are certainly challenges, but they are not ones that the film spends much time on. Instead, much like life, the most pressing questions the film is interested in surround the way we become set in certain trajectories and whether we can find a way free of them. The longer it goes on, the more it balances the way Lacy navigates her young life with the realizations that her mother is discovering for herself. For all the ways that Janet draws people in, she is also not immune from being pulled in certain directions. In one conversation about midway through where she reconnects with someone from her past, which opens her mind in more ways than one, she speaks aloud what it is that she knows to be true about herself.

Namely, it is that she knows she can get people to love her. Whether she loves them back or, just as importantly, loves herself in these situations is notably left unanswered. The way this scene results in the film’s most simultaneously humorous and heartbreaking moment, when we realize that Lacy has been in the room listening to all of this, is what makes Janet Planet such a magnificent work. Every layer it peels back is done with both care and clarity, crafting a portrait that feels so fully realized even as it carries the potential that it may all soon slip away.

Julianne Nicholson Is at Her Best in ‘Janet Planet’
Just as credit must be given to Baker for how she so completely captures a moment in time and place, it is Nicholson who inhabits this world so naturally that you feel like you’re just peeking in on Janet’s life. There is never a moment where you aren’t completely enthralled with the way everything progresses, even when we are far removed and not able to hear what she is saying. Some of this comes from how genuinely great Ziegler is at authentically expressing the awe we experience when young, giving one of the best debut performances in recent memory just based on some of her line deliveries alone. However, it is also when we step away completely into the outside world near the end that Janet Planet achieves something transcendent. Far from the house tucked away in the woods where we spend most of the story, we experience a moment of freedom for both the character and the film.

It relies on an effective misdirect, pushing us to reflect on what Janet wants in her life just as she finally does herself. This combined with a fitting coda makes Janet Planet into a journey that is not just quietly evocative, but absolutely essential. It proves to be as emotionally vast as the universe itself just as it burrows down into those living a simple life in their small corner of the world. Like those who pass through Janet’s orbit, including and especially the growing Lacy, you’ll come away forever changed just as you too must eventually drift away.

Janet Planet (2024) REVIEWJanet Planet is spectacular feature debut from writer-director Annie Baker with great performances by Zoe Ziegler and Julianne Nicholson that’s one of the best films of 2024 so far.ProsThe film finds an understated beauty in its small corner of the world, delicately exploring the relationship between a mother and daughter.Janet Planet explores life’s most pressing questions about how we can become set down certain paths and whether we can find a way free of them.Julianne Nicholson inhabits this world so naturally, it feels like you’re just peeking in on Janet’s life.The film ends with a fitting coda, cementing it as an evocative and essential work.

Janet Planet had its World Premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival and showed at the 2024 Sun Valley Film Festival. It will be released later this year.