12/9/2023 0 Comments Starlet film online![]() Jane’s job demands that she numb her emotions to the degree that she seems oblivious to the lyrics of the hardcore rap music playing in her car, coasting by in a state more in tune with the electronic lull of Manual’s score. Whether spent running errands or playing bingo, their time together provides a welcome distraction from the pettiness Jane faces back at the apartment - and a possible substitute for the mother to whom she barely speaks. Though Sadie is understandably suspicious of the young stranger’s motives, Jane is guileless - and persistent enough in her attempts to assist the old woman that an unlikely friendship emerges. “No refunds!” the flustered woman repeats as Jane stands awkwardly on her overgrown front porch, looking completely out of place in her slutty-chic shorts. Still undecided about whether to return the money, Jane finds her way back to the house where she bought the Thermos. Jane does what any girl might, going on a shopping spree that includes an extravagant manicure and a new rhinestone collar for Starlet, before the moral implications of her discovery set in. Hidden inside a tall Thermos are rolls of hundred-dollar bills, nearly $10,000 in all. Radium Cheung, these early scenes are casually observational and far too airy to feel like exposition, and it’s not until Jane gets home and starts to clean one of the afternoon’s treasures that an earlier exchange with a prickly old lady, Sadie (Johnson), gains significance. ![]() ![]() Bored, Jane decides to take Starlet out for a tour of neighborhood yard sales, the film spying as Hemingway rummage-hunts in character.Īs lensed by d.p. Downstairs, her roommates (Stella Maeve and James Ransone) behave like selfish kids, playing videogames and selling pot. The sun has been up for hours, bathing everything in luminous pastels, but Jane’s day is wide open. Blonde hair tosses into the frame as Jane stirs. The film opens on the blank yellow walls of an unfurnished bedroom. For better or worse, Baker lacks Bob Fosse’s career-end cynicism, as evidenced by the fact that his stereotype-bending glimpse at the adult-movie world takes the form of an affectionate cross-generational friendship. Bemused but never judgmental, Baker treats this polarizing line of work as a legitimate life choice, bringing the same verite approach to one of Jane’s shoots that he uses to film her sleeping, shopping and otherwise passing her free time.Īlthough attitudes have changed considerably in the 29 years since Hemingway’s mother made “Star 80,” one can’t help but think of the scandal Mariel endured for playing a Playboy model (and that film didn’t include a scene of oncamera penetration tipping it into NC-17 territory). Baker encourages auds to identify with his characters for 45 minutes before revealing what they do for a living.Īs spoilers go, it will be hard for the film’s eventual distributor to keep a lid on the fact that Hemingway’s character, a 21-year-old Florida transplant named Jane, is breaking into the porn biz. Over the years, many have satirized this sun-stricken cultural crossroads, where people with good, old-fashioned values mix with those who appear to have none. Here, lost souls with dreams of stardom coexist with all-American squares oblivious to the drug deals and porn shoots happening just down the block. ![]() Coming off strong reviews for his Gotham-set “Prince of Broadway,” writer-director Sean Baker jumps coasts, burrowing into the strange suburban scene found just north of the Hollywood Hills.
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