Starlet

MOVIE #1,607 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 05.06.24 𝘚𝘌𝘈𝘕 𝘉𝘈𝘒𝘌𝘙: 𝘋𝘐𝘙𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘖𝘙 𝘍𝘖𝘊𝘜𝘚 This is the second-to-last Baker movie I need to watch (or rewatch) to fill in the gaps in his filmography, and it’s a good one. I’ve found myself thinking about it alot over the last 24 hours. The casting is excellent and itself resonates on a thematic level: the younger Jane is played by a classic nepo-baby (daughter of Muriel Hemingway, and great grand-daughter of Ernest Hemingway) and the older Sadie, portrayed by Besedka Johnson, is making her acting debut at the age of 85. The title is derived from the name of Jane’s dog (a boy, but she was set on the name before she got him) but it also clearly has a deeper meaning. Set in the Valley, we see Hollywood royalty portray a fledgling porn star and a cinema newcomer as an elderly, adopted mother/grandmother. I have no idea if these casting decisions were intentional but it’s easy to connect the dots of the greater themes.

The Sadie character is cagey by design, but I found the inroads to the younger Jane more difficult. This falls under the umbrella of an unlikely friendship story but their connection is constructed solely as a one-sided exercise by the latter. It's like an oblique, self-imposed morality test. She passes the test early (Sadie does not need this money) but she continues to see her. It doesn’t seem to follow the tropes one might expect until the very end when a reveal makes the dynamic of their relationship more clear.

There’s so much more depth to this than meets the eye at first glance. Baker’s films are immediate and in-your-face but his best work only uses these salacious elements to draw you in.

---

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,606 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,608 ⫸

---

Starlet is a 2012 independent drama film directed by Sean Baker and starring Dree Hemingway and newcomer Besedka Johnson. Starlet explores the unlikely friendship between 21-year-old Jane and 85-year-old Sadie, two women whose lives intersect in California's San Fernando Valley. It was released on March 11, 2012.