Starlet (Sean Baker, 2012): USA

Reviewed by Robin Eriksson at November 5 on the AFI Festival in Hollywood.

Starlet is about two girls who are totally different, Jane (Dree Hemingway) and Sadie (Besedka Johnson). Sadie is a 85 year old lady who amazingly plays her first role as an actress. Jane  has a little dog called Starlet that is a big part of this movie.

The film begins with two young beautiful gilrs who are best friends and even live together. But at the beginning of the film Jane goes off to buy some new furniture for her room. Since she didn’t have much money, she went around to a few different yard sales. When she came home,  she had bought a thermos that she intended to use as a vase. But there was ten thousand dollars in that thermos. In the beginning she used the money for all sorts of things, mostly to herself and the dog but after a while she began to feel guilty for the older lady that she had bought the thermos of. So she went back to Sadie and tried to offer her a lot of services like drive her to the store and stuff like that .

Many of the conversations and interactions that Jane and Sadie have together are really awkward, but fun to watch from an audience perspective. Sadie is short and harsh with her responses and overreacts to some of the things that Jane does such as when Jane lets her dog Starlet drink from the same glass that she just did. It utterly shocks Sadie. The back and forth between the two, though sometimes uncomfortable, ultimately forces the both of them to really think about their developing relationship and their lives moving forward. You know the two have really bonded when Sadie describes to Jane the way to get the perfect bowel movement (a big breakfast, no lunch, and a salad for dinner).But Jane also had another side that Sadie did not know about. She was a porn actress, that was one thing that never really Sadie found out either.

I thought the movie was very entertaining, so I think you should see it. It is a drama film but I thought it was a little comedy in it too.

 

 

 

 


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