Annie Baker’s film tells a story set in the early 1990s in western Massachusetts. The Janet Planet of the title is an acupuncture center that Janet (Julianne Nicholson) runs in her home. What’s surprising about Baker’s film is that its title bears virtually no relation to the events narrated by the filmmakers. We find out what Janet Planet is basically by accident. The picture created is a story mostly treating the adventures of Janet’s daughter Lucy (Zoe Ziegler), who in a beautifully natural way discovers the world as a creative, curious, and very brave 11-year-old. 

What is most beautiful in Annie Baker’s film is outside the events. Janet Planet is a colorful emotional work that is devoid of artificial elements. The almost mythical 1990s in the United States is a period about which films have been made in abundance. Baker has opted for a very slow film that draws us in mesmerizingly with each scene. The events are divided into acts, whose titles and events are related to Janet’s successive partners. These are not necessarily love relationships, more spiritual, as Janet Planet is charged with spirituality. Although the word charged in the context of an extremely quiet film may not be very appropriate, in fact every scene has such a strong aura that it makes you feel like you want to be there.  

Janet Planet presents a very interesting look at the “post-hippie” movement. Janet as well as the other characters were hippies in the past and don’t want to let go of the ideas that once drove them. Annie Baker, who also wrote the screenplay, made excellent use of her experience from writing scripts for theatrical productions. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning The Flick was very well received, and yet it was only ten years later that she began working on screenplays for films. 

One of the more intriguing treatments is the portrayal of the “cult-like” atmosphere that emanates from the settlement located near where Janet lives. Under the leadership of Avi (Elias Koteas), there is a community that is not at all perceived as a cult by its members, which they over-emphasize. During a fair event, Avi and the rest of his community form a theater group that puts on a peculiar show in psychedelic style. Almost all events are observed through the eyes of Lucy, who is either beside or in the spotlight. Her adventures are devoid of conventions, and being additionally very stubborn herself, she spares no one brutal honesty. Movie has been very interestingly summed up by Katie McCabe in her review on the British Film Institute website – If Janet Planet is about a mother-daughter marriage, Baker’s transcendent summer tale unfolds as an amicable separation. 

Janet Planet (dir. Annie Baker) is to be seen during 18. Mastercard OFF CAMERA in American Indies.

List of screenings: 

• 28/04/2025 | 20:45 | Sala Czerwona | Kino Pod Baranami 
• 01/05/2025 | 13:30 | Sala Czerwona | Kino Pod Baranami 
• 03/05/2025 | 18:15 | Sala Czerwona | Kino Pod Baranami

Marcin Telega