"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." - Chase Hutchinson, Collider
"Watching it feels eerily akin to running one’s fingers along a scar sustained in childhood and being magically projected back to the moment that injury was sustained." - Peter Debruge, Variety
"There is nothing artificial here, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t mystery. It’s the mystery of people and their unusual behaviors and the way they can flit in and out of our lives and our consciousness." - Esther Zuckerman, Indiewire
Opens June 28 | In her sublime debut film, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker dreamily teleports back to 1991, where droll, 11-year-old Lacy is spending the summer in rural Massachusetts with her magnetic and spellbinding mother, Janet (a brilliant Julianne Nicholson, finally getting the screen time she deserves). As the warm months pass, three visitors—all equally captivated by Janet—enter the duo’s orbit, evolving and impacting Lacy’s perception and understanding of her mother. As she did with her 2013 play The Flick, Baker again expertly captures the passage of time, offering an unhurried, confident, and tragicomic observation on change. Heralded by Little White Lies as “not just one of the great films of its year, but one of the finest first films in the annals of the medium,” JANET PLANET premiered to universal acclaim at both the Telluride Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.
Awards & Nominations
Official Selection - Telluride Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, New York Film Festival
Nominee - Panorama Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu