Janet Planet

After begging her mother Janet (Julianne Nicholson) to take her out of summer camp, 11-year-old introvert Lacey (Zoe Ziegler) spends the next couple of months before sixth grade quietly watching her mom navigate a series of relationships, romantic and otherwise. Set in Western Massachusetts, Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Annie Baker’s feature filmmaking debut has the wry observational detail and deadpan charm of her best work. It’s also an impressively immersive and controlled look at the awkwardness of childhood, particularly of that age when the mysterious ways of adults slowly become clearer to us. Lacey understands the world in fragments – through those fragments, Baker weaves a captivating and occasionally hilarious tale reminiscent of the best work of Jim Jarmusch and Jia Zhangke. (Telluride Film Festival)