Starlet explores the unlikely friendship between 21 year-old aspiring actress Jane (Dree Hemingway) and elderly widow Sadie (Besedka Johnson) after their worlds collide in California’s San Fernando Valley. Jane spends her time getting high with her dysfunctional roommates and taking care of her chihuahua Starlet, while Sadie passes her days alone, tending to her garden. After a confrontation at a yard sale, Jane finds something unexpected in a relic from Sadie’s past. Her curiosity piqued, she tries to befriend the caustic older woman. Secrets emerge as their relationship grows, revealing that nothing is ever as it seems. Director Sean Baker continues in the naturalistic style of his previous films, the Spirit Award nominated Prince of Broadway and Take Out, capturing the rhythms of everyday life with a rare authenticity. Featuring exceptional debut performances by Dree Hemingway (great granddaughter of Ernest and daughter of Mariel) and 85 year-old Besedka Johnson, who received a Special Jury Recognition at SxSW, Starlet is at once provocative, haunting, unpredictable, and surprisingly sweet.
"What stays with you is that there's a genuineness and complexity of their connection."
Walter Addiego
San Francisco Chronicle
"It's a hushed marvel of a movie."
Sean Burns
Philadelpiha Weekly
Critic’s Pick! “A thrillingly, unexpectedly good American movie."
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
"One of the year's most arresting, heartfelt indies."
Robert Abele
Los Angeles Times
"An emphatic, absorbing tale of the old and the beautiful."
Melissa Anderson
Village Voice
"STARLET represents a welcome throwback to the smoggy West Coast character studies of the 1970s."
Scott Tobias
NPR
"STARLET is refreshingly unsentimental in its depiction of both youth and age."
Nathan Rabin
AV Club
"A poetic meditation on loneliness and friendship."
Dennis Lim
New York Times
“Dree Hemingway gives a performance of flaky charm, and tender sensitivity.”
Mark Olsen
Los Angeles Times
“Besedka Johnson is equal parts heartbreaking, lovely and inspiring.”
Katie Walsh
The Playlist on Indiewire
Film Independent Spirit Awards 2013 - John Cassavetes Award Nominee
Film Independent Spirit Awards 2013 - Robert Altman Award Recipient
Winner! Locarno International Film Festival 2012 - First Prize Junior Jury
Locarno International Film Festival 2012 Golden Leopard Award Nominee - Sean Baker
Winner! Hamptons International Film Festival 2011 - Breakthrough Performer, Dree Hemingway
Winner! Reykjavik International Film Festival 2011 - Fipresci Critics' Award
Winner! SXSW Film Festival 2011 - Special Jury Prize
Behind the Scenes documentary
Besedka Johnson Audition tape
Audio Commentary by director Sean Baker
Exclusive cast and crew interviews from the SXSW premiere
Theatrical trailer
English SDH
