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Janet Planet

2025-03-24 17:12:53.293379+01 by Dan Lyke 0 comments

Saturday night we were completely toast, and since we have the remnants of a Max membership for something likely completely forgettable (we've been working through the music documentaries on it), we were thumbing through the options and Charlene said "what's Janet Planet?" So we watched that.

And. At first I was like "wow, I'm glad I'm not up for much, 'cause this is slow and...", and then it started to feel super familiar.

The movie is set in an unspecified place in Western Massachusets. I spent my kindergarten year, so '73-'74? in Great Barrington Massachussets, at what I remember as the "Pumpkin Hollow Waldorf School", which I think is now Berkshire Waldorf School, and from 1st through 7th grade living on the border between West Lebanon and East Chatham New York, and attending the Hawthorne Vally Waldorf School. So leaving there in '81, a decade before the setting of this movie. But holy cow did I get flashbacks.

Cleveland Review of Books: Love, Safety, and the 1990s: On Annie Baker’s Janet Planet mentions that one of the buildings used for a lot of the shots was "...built in 1979 and once home to a Waldorf operation.", and I could feel it.

The movie centers on Lacy, a 11 year old girl who's being used by her mom, the eponymous Janet, for emotional support and guidance. Both Janet and Lacy are struggling with being liked, and how to use relationships for approval, and for power, and for connection, and ... it wasn't my family, but I sure saw echoes of the charismatic parody of a community leader, the intergenerational trauma, and just the foliage and setting, from my childhood.

Despite the slow pace, and the fact that it was shot (on 16mm film(!)) very much for the theater, lots of wide shots and scenes played through subtle facial expressions, we may end up watching this one again.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Books Music Movies Invention and Design Theater & Plays Space & Astronomy Sociology Writing Work, productivity and environment Community Architecture New York Rocky Horror Picture Show Woodworking ]

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