Annie Baker – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

JANET PLANET (Melbourne IFF 2024) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

August 26, 2024August 26, 2024 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Annie Baker, Janet Planet, julianne nicholson, Melbourne IFF 2024, Zoe Ziegler

Janet Planet is an intimate snapshot of an intense mother-daughter relationship as each of the two characters attempts to move through the world. On the cusp of adolescence, Lacy clings to Janet, her mother, the latter of whom is trying in her own way to forge an identity beyond ‘single mother’. Nostalgic but never naff, Janet Planet fills the screen with warmth and compassion for its charming, flawed and very human characters.

Festivals

New York Film Festival 2023: Female Filmmakers in Focus – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

September 15, 2023September 16, 2023 Margaret Barton-Fumo Agnieszka Holland, Alice Rohrwacher, Annie Baker, Catherine Breillat, Deborah Stratman, female filmmakers, Joanna Arnow, justine triet, New York Film Festival, Niki de Saint Phalle, NYFF 2023, sofia coppola

The New York Film Festival is set to return to the city with a packed schedule of international films. A little over one-fifth of the features this year are directed by women, with several standouts in the coveted Main Slate. Sofia Coppola’s highly anticipated Priscilla is one such feature, scheduled to be the festival’s “Centerpiece” screening. Many critics are eagerly situating Coppola’s film, which is based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir, Elvis and Me, as the femme-centric antidote to Baz Luhrmann’s bombastic rock ‘n’ roll biopic. All assumed comparisons aside, the subject matter is certainly well-suited to its director, given Coppola’s accomplished history of directing moody tales of alienated women.