Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.What kind of space traveller visits Janet Planet in the striking new film of that name? Mostly bodies in need of healing, seeking out the acupuncture practice run by Janet (Julianne Nicholson) in semi-rural Massachusetts. The year is 1991, and the vibe American new age. Sandals are everywhere. The waft of patchouli is almost palpable.Still, the gravitational pull is strong enough for Janet’s 11-year-old daughter Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) to plead to return early from summer camp. Back to the strange world of adults.Amid a fine cast, Nicholson included, Ziegler steals the show, bringing to life the pale and quizzical soul through whose gaze we see the next weeks with her mother, and her mother’s friends and lovers. But Lacy is also a creation of Annie Baker, the playwright who won a Pulitzer for 2013’s The Flick, and here makes a resonant debut as scriptwriter and director. More attuned to the language of cinema than many playwrights would be, her movie is softly spoken and often absurdly funny, but also deceptively un-cosy. Sometimes at the centre of a scene, sometimes in the corner of a frame, Lacy looks at the flawed adults on show with a frank scepticism anyone older than 20 may find it hard not to take personally. If the obvious genre for the film would be coming-of-age, you can all but hear her asking: coming of age into what?★★★☆☆In UK cinemas from July 19 and US cinemas now
