Janet Planet

“Janet Planet” begins with 11-year-old Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) away at summer camp. Homesick, she calls her mom, Janet (Julianne Nicholson) in the middle of night, threatening to kill herself if she is not picked up and taken home. By the time Janet arrives, Lacy has changed her tune, but nope, mom says it’s too late now, she’s made her choice and they hit the road. It’s a deft introduction, encapsulating in Lacy that old adolescent feeling of angst, melodrama, and misery. It also establishes the relationship between mother and daughter as the movie’s most important, evoked in how we first see Janet in sun-dappled long shot, suggesting Lacy’s idealized view of her. Their rural western Massachusetts home undergirds a sense of isolation and dependence on one another, the two often sleeping in the same bed. Is it any wonder that Lacy refuses to board the bus when it’s time to go back to school? That moment departs from Lacy’s point-of-view, seen its own long shot, as if going back to school is an out of body experience. And so, whether the title of writer/director Annie Baker’s feature film debut was culled from an Outkast lyric, or the nickname Van Morrison gave his wife, I don’t know, in the context of “Janet Planet,” it denotes a daughter essentially gravitating in the orbit of a mom.

Lacy, though, is not the only satellite in Janet’s orbit. In what passes for plot, three different people pass in and out of mother and daughter’s lives. There is Wayne (Will Patton), Janet’s terse boyfriend, Regina (Sophie Okonedo), Janet’s old friend and an ex-hippie who is part of a commune that may or may not be a cult, and Avi (Elias Koteas), the leader of the commune or may or may not be a cult who takes interest in Janet. None stick around too long. If they bring their own annoyances or aggravations to the mix, Baker is keen to show just how much Lacy annoys and aggravates them. There might be a palpable menace in the air when Wayne lashes out at Lacy for asking him pointed personal questions despite his suffering an intense migraine, but it’s hard not to feel a little sympathy for Wayne too. Being with Lacy is a challenge, and Baker makes it as challenging for us as much as them to be so much in her prickly, possessive presence. And even if the world of “Janet Planet” is of a decided bohemian, liberal bent, no doubt Baker at least partly writing what she knows, this idea of raising a child as endurance test is an idea with which everyone can identify.

Gradually, though, Lacy drifts further and further from her mom’s orbit. If this marks “Janet Planet” as akin to a coming-of-age story, it’s notable how many of the genre’s trappings Baker eschews, like pop hits of the era for lazy hits of nostalgia. No, this movie is firmly in the present, and in Lacy’s presence, though even then, it never quite lets us all the way in. There is no voiceover to provide Lacy’s perspective, and though occasionally Baker writes dialogue that elucidates the character, she just as frequently envelopes scenes in an unsettling silence. The way Lacy watches Regina while eating an ice cream cone is a quirk or two away from full-on horror. This approach, though, means that “Janet Planet” is often enigmatic to its own detriment. It’s telling how many reviewers have relied on Baker’s explanations of ideas in interviews to fuel their own interpretations. Yet, if that inscrutability can be frustrating, it can also be freeing. Throughout, Lacy returns to a small shoebox theatre in her bedroom, arranging her figurines and then pulling the curtain closed, a profound metaphor for every child’s churning secret drama. Adults yearn for access, much like viewers of “Janet Planet” might, and Lacy is unwilling to grant it.