Janet Planet

It has been a while since a film came along as pleasant and well-made yet pointless as Janet Planet.

The aimless feature directorial debut from playwright Annie Baker unfurls over the course of summer 1991 as tween Lacy (newcomer Zoe Ziegler) contends with the people that her free-spirit acupuncturist mother Janet (Julianne Nicholson) brings into their home.

No great drama arises via their interactions with Janet’s boyfriend Wayne (Will Patton), friend Regina (Sophie Okonedo), and pseudo intellectual Avi (Elias Koteas), and yet these emotionally muted scenes prove oddly compelling, as if reconnecting with old acquaintances. Each performance is dialed back to a whisper, resulting in a vibe more meditative than cinematic.

However, the string of inconsequential dialogue and extremely minor, easily solved frictions don’t add up to much, even amidst consistently lovely natural scenery. Nevertheless, in the film’s final scenes at a contra dance, the wholesomeness remains high and makes one curious what Baker might cook up next.

Grade: B. Rated PG-13. Now playing at the Fine Arts Theatre

(Photo: A24)