In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet and her spellbinding nature. In her solitary moments, Lacy inhabits an inner world so extraordinarily detailed that it begins to seep into the outside world. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker captures a child’s experience of time passing and the ineffability of a daughter falling out of love with her mother, in this singularly sublime film debut.
“Annie Baker‘s understated miracle of a directorial debut…is gloriously packed with the carefully observed details of the lives of its central characters, who are embodied with warmth and endearing strangeness by Ziegler, an incredible discovery, and the typically fantastic Nicholson, who gives one of her finest performances to date. It also marks Baker’s transition from heralded playwright into major cinematic voice.” —Esther Zuckerman, IndieWire
“Baker’s Chekhovian powers of intimate observation have few equals among contemporary dramatists. It’s no surprise that her debut feature as writer-director, JANET PLANET, is an oddball marvel of comparable beauty, its apparent simplicity yielding an emotional weight that creeps up on you throughout.” —David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
"Baker’s tingling delicacy of touch makes it a subtly distinctive experience: it’s a film I already looked forward to revisiting while tiptoeing through it the first time.” —Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph (UK)