What’s it rated? PG-13
When? 2023
Where’s it showing? HBO Max
Eleven-year-old Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) lives in rural Massachusetts with her mother, Janet (Julianne Nicholson), an offbeat acupuncturist who stumbles from one romantic situation to another until she tires of them. This quietly ambitious film is a meandering love story of a mother and daughter and the tenuous time between childhood and young teen. In many ways, Lacy acts as a caretaker and spouse to her mother, and the two have a closeness that is both endearing and claustrophobic at times.
The film is quiet and introspective, framed around and through Janet’s various love interests. First, we meet Wayne (Will Patton), whose daughter, Sequoia (Edie Moon Kerns), soon becomes a best friend to Lacy. Wayne is not long for their world, however, and after they part ways, the mother-daughter duo attends a performance put on by Avi (Elias Koteas), a local cult leader. She meets old friend Regina (Sophie Okonedo), who moves in. Then Janet is pulled into Avi’s orbit, however briefly.
It’s a slow meander, a quiet walk through Janet and Lacy’s world, and Ziegler and Nicholson’s performances prove engrossing. If you don’t mind a bit of a slow burn, give Janet Planet a watch. (113-min.) Δ
This article appears in Holiday Guide 2024.