< Sharply funny 'Janet Planet' perfectly captures the feel of a long, hot summer

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. "Janet Planet" is the first feature film from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker. The movie is set in 1991. Julianne Nicholson stars as a woman looking after her 11-year-old daughter in Western Massachusetts during a long, hot summer. "Janet Planet" is now in theaters. Here is Justin's review.

JUSTIN CHANG, BYLINE: Amid the current crop of summer movies, I can't think of one that captures the feeling of summer more evocatively than "Janet Planet." Much of the story takes place in a rustic house in woodsy western Massachusetts. By day, sunlight streams in through enormous windows, and at night, chirping crickets flood the soundtrack. The celebrated playwright Annie Baker, here writing and directing her first film, has uncanny powers of observation and a talent for evoking time and place. She also has two memorable lead characters and a sharply funny and moving story to tell.

It's the summer of 1991. The story begins when 11-year-old Lacy, played by the terrific newcomer Zoe Ziegler, calls her mom from camp and demands to be taken home early. Her exact words are, I'm going to kill myself if you don't come get me. Lacy is a shy misfit with big, owilsh glasses and a flare for deadpan exaggeration. She and her single mom, Janet, who's played by a subtly luminous Julianne Nicholson, are extremely close, as we can see when Janet duly comes to fetch Lacy and bring her home. Later at their house, Janet puts Lacy to bed and listens to her vent.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JANET PLANET")

ZOE ZIEGLER: (As Lacy) You know what's funny?

JULIANNE NICHOLSON: (As Janet) What?

ZIEGLER: (As Lacy) Every moment of my life is hell.

NICHOLSON: (As Janet) I don't like it when you say things like that.

ZIEGLER: (As Lacy) But it is.

NICHOLSON: (As Janet) You actually seem very happy to me a lot of the time.

ZIEGLER: (As Lacy) It's hell. I don't think it'll last, though.

CHANG: As you can tell from the dialogue, Baker isn't one to hurry her characters along. Her plays, the best-known of which is her Pulitzer-winning 2013 drama "The Flick," have been justly praised for bringing a new kind of naturalism to the stage, especially in the way the actors retain the stammers and silences of normal conversation. She brings that same sensibility to "Janet Planet." Baker includes a few loving nods to her background in theater. At various points, Lacy plays with a small puppet theater, complete with handmade clay figurines. And in a later scene, she and Janet attend an outdoor performance featuring actors in elaborate costumes. But the movie never feels stagy. It was shot on 16-millimeter film by Maria von Hausswolff, who previously filmed the visually stunning Icelandic drama "Godland," and her use of natural light and precise fine-grain details feel transportingly cinematic.

The movie is divided into three loose chapters, each one focused on a friend or significant other of Janet's who becomes a house guest for a spell. First up is her boyfriend, Wayne, played by a gruff Will Patton, who has a daughter around Lacy's age but doesn't take too kindly to Lacy herself. He's soon out the door.

In the second chapter, we meet Regina, played by a wonderful Sophie Okonedo, a free-spirited drifter who comes to stay with Janet and Lacy after leaving a local hippie commune - basically a cult, though everyone is careful not to use that word. Regina initially brings a breath of fresh air into the house, though she proves insensitive and tactless, especially around Janet, and soon overstays her welcome. The third house guest, Avi, played by Elias Koteas, is Regina's ex-partner and the leader of that hippie commune. Avi is the most mysterious presence in the movie, and it's through his short-lived relationship with Janet that we fully grasp how profoundly unhappy she is.

The title "Janet Planet" has many meanings. It's the name of the acupuncture studio that Janet operates out of the house. It's also a passing reference to the nickname that Van Morrison gave the songwriter Janet Rigsbee, who inspired a lot of his love songs during their five-year marriage. But the title is most meaningful as it frames our understanding of Janet, whose quiet magnetism really does seem to draw other people, especially men, into her orbit. As we see in Nicholson's heartbreaking performance, it's been as much a curse as it is a blessing.

One of the movie's subtlest achievements is the way it clues us into Janet's perspective even as it keeps Janet herself at a bit of a distance. Much of the time, we're studying Janet through Lacy's eyes, and what's uncanny is the way Baker captures a sense of the girl's growing disillusionment, that intensely specific moment when a child begins to see even a doting parent in a clear - and not always flattering - new light. By the end of "Janet Planet," not much has happened, and yet something momentous seems to have taken place. You want Baker to return to these characters, to show us how Janet and Lacy continue to change and grow - together and apart - in the years and the summers to come.

BIANCULLI: Justin Chang is a film critic for The New Yorker. He reviewed "Janet Planet." On Monday's show, why have cast members of the popular reality TV show "Love Is Blind" accused the show's creators of exploitation and false imprisonment? New Yorker staff writer Emily Nussbaum tells us about her article "Is 'Love Is Blind' A Toxic Workplace?" And we'll talk about her new book, "Cue The Sun: The Invention Of Reality TV." I hope you can join us.

(SOUNDBITE OF DON STIERNBERG, RUSTY HOLLOWAY AND JEFF JENKINS' "HOW HIGH THE MOON")

BIANCULLI: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @NPRFreshAir. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our senior producer today is Roberta Shorrock. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering support by Joyce Lieberman and Julian Hertzfeld. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Joel Wolfram, Heidi Saman and Kayla Lattimore. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I'm David Bianculli.

(SOUNDBITE OF DON STIERNBERG, RUSTY HOLLOWAY AND JEFF JENKINS' "HOW HIGH THE MOON")

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.