Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

euroGary When I attended a screening of this indie at the 2013 Glasgow Film Festival there were only four other people in the auditorium! But we happy few saw a real gem: Dree Hemingway plays a young porn star who buys a flask from an old woman (Besedka Johnson), only to discover the flask contains several thousand dollars. When Johnson, thinking she's after a refund, refuses to discuss the flask, Hemingway resolves to do the older woman good turns instead, and gradually a relationship develops between the two.In a way it's a shame there's so much swearing and sexual content (including a scene of unsimulated sex) in the film, as the central soapy portrayal of the friendship between the two women means it would fit nicely in the inoffensive Sunday afternoon slot on BBC2, if it were more family-friendly. It's not perfect: Hemingway's Valley girl drawl is wearing at times, and some of the dialogue has the smell of "workshopped-dialogue-don't-know-how-to-bring-this-scene-to-a-close" about it, but minor gripes aside this is a nice character piece and I'd happily watch it again, even if it means breaking my 'no performing animals' rule (thankfully the dog - the 'Starlet' of the title - isn't asked to do anything dogs don't normally do).

Steve Pulaski Twenty-one year old Jane (Dree Hemingway) is a porn actress simply trying to make ends meet in a cruel world, living with her two deadbeat roommates, one of them a fellow actress. After purchasing a vase from an older woman and finding over $10,000 inside, she decides that the least she could do is try and befriend the woman to provide some resemblance of joy and happiness in her life. I suppose friendship is the least you can offer someone after taking the money they didn't know they had.The woman is eighty-five year old Sadie (Besedka Johnson), who spends her days calmly and in a true state of loneliness, tending her garden and quietly playing bingo at a senior's center. Meeting each other is a generational shock for the both of them in a way that doesn't revolve around the expected political/social norm changes. Instead, the details are shown just by the way they communicate and adapt to their own lifestyles accordingly. Jane would much rather go out of her way to get something more than textbook happiness, while Sadie feels disturbing consistent flow is a personal sin she can not commit.Sean S. Baker's Starlet is a sweet, tender little story detailing a generation gap that I love to see explored. It's a film, too, that boldly shows a lifestyle in a way that isn't comical or condescending. While the adult film industry only makes up a small part of Starlet's overall focus, it nonetheless makes its view on the industry respectable and mature. The maturity of director Baker, even as he treads dangerously close to smug depiction, remains visible throughout making this a truly sentimental work.The film is carried by the gifted performances of Hemingway and Johnson, who strike up a valuable, potent chemistry when they're on-screen together. Hemingway's brash qualities and aware attitude contrast boldly with Johnson's reclusive, control-freak persona, making for a relationship that is erected from more than smiles and good-feelings.Baker adopts the style of filmmaking known simply as "cinéma vérité," a style that heavily emphasizes the brutally honest, naturalistic side of life in filmmaking. I mention it here because the texture and look of the film plays a big role in its likability. Visuals are often mild and possess a sunny disposition, the filmic atmosphere is accentuated beautifully through the use of lens flare and flushed-out colors, and the warmness comes off as not a put-on, but a comforting feature.There are moments in Starlet that hold deep, uncompromising emotional drama, mainly in the scenes at bingo, where a coldly detached Sadie is left staring at her bingo card as if she really cares what the odds are. There's emotional honesty in the scene because we can see she is not really happy and Jane knows it as well as the audience does at that point. The scene is beautifully captured and scored perfectly so as not to be too mawkish or too downplayed.Ultimately, Starlet ends the way we kind of expected and its presence is more significant than a footnote but not so much as a genre-piece or a game-changing masterwork. It's short, simple, but above all, an effective illustration of emotion and tone as a coming of age story and a slight meditation on age and its downsides. It provides warmth and heart in its material, but most importantly, an unmissable soul as it shows both generations in full bloom and the naive impulses they give off that often prevent entire personal connection.Starring: Dree Hemingway and Besedka Johnson. Directed by Sean S. Baker.

Turfseer 'Starlet' refers to an adorable Chihuahua of the same name, owned by Jane (Dree Hemingway), an actor of the adult entertainment variety. Perhaps Jane aspires to be a starlet herself but is content when we first meet her, to room with two other denizens of the adult entertainment industry, coke-addicted Melissa and her pimp, Mikey, in a small but comfy San Fernando Valley apartment.Director Sean Bake has propelled Jane on a journey of redemption when she meets Sadie, an elderly woman, who is selling some of her personal items at a garage sale. After Jane buys an old vase from Sadie, a veritable curmudgeon, she brings it home and suddenly discovers $10,000, in rolled up $100 bills, hidden inside. Jane finds the money does come in handy and decides to keep it. But by the same token, she feels guilty and then attempts to befriend the old woman, perhaps as an act of penitence.At first Sadie is extremely suspicious of Jane's motives, culminating in Sadie's pepper spray attack on Jane, as the friendly porn actress drives her home. But now Sadie feels guilty how she treated Jane and decides to allow Jane into her life. There are forays to Sadie's weekly bingo game and later out to the cemetery, where Sadie wistfully places flowers on the grave of her long-deceased gambler husband (perhaps the husband stashed the money in the vase without Sadie's knowledge; or perhaps Sadie just plain forgot the money was inside the vase).Meanwhile, there's a sub-plot involving Melissa, who has a meltdown over her alleged mistreatment at the hands of her porn industry boss, with level-headed Jane coming to her rescue. When Starlet drags out the purse containing the pilfered cash, Melissa discovers the stash and decides to help herself to a few hundred for a few car down payments. Jane of course doesn't even notice. Eventually, the second act crisis involves Melissa, in a fit of jealousy, revealing to Sadie that Jane took her money.Jane and Melissa perhaps represent the dichotomy in the adult entertainment world. Porn actresses such as Jane, despite their involvement in a world that many consider sleazy, can still operate with their head above water. Case in point: her humanitarian concern for Sadie. Melissa, on the other hand, represents the dark side of porn--she is narcissistic, angry, jealous and vindictive. Mikey perhaps is more the comic relief--even both Jane and Melissa find that the pole he installs in the living room (for pole dancing), is ridiculous.Starlet's central problem is the poorly developed Sadie. She's played by Besedka Johnson, a neophyte, discovered at a local YWCA gym. Johnson can do little with a character that is so one-note and who we find out so little about. Some may find the relationship between Jane and Sadie to be touching but ultimately it really doesn't go anywhere. I would go so far as to say that the appeal of the relationship is strictly sentimental at its core. Nonetheless, Sadie's decision not to listen to Melissa's tirade against Jane, and ending up going with her to Paris, is proof of the film's inherent optimism. In the end, my feelings about 'Starlet' are ambivalent. I found the scenes involving the machinations within the adult entertainment world to be somewhat interesting. Less so with the perfunctory relationship between Jane and Sadie. 'Starlet' wins points because it suggests that even a porn actress can have a good heart. It also does well in examining the flip side: the aforementioned dark side of porn, embodied by the character of Melissa. Ultimately, the relationship between the principals proves to be too ordinary and lugubrious, to be considered dramatically effective.

Culver Bronsan STARLET is a bold and original independent film. It's not afraid to go places most indies would shy away from, mostly due to not landing a distribution deal etc. That is just one of the many reasons why STARLET has true independent spirit.I saw STARLET at SXSW earlier this year and it was the most exciting narrative to come out of the fest. Sean Baker is a fearless filmmaker that has already established himself with a diverse body of work. He's one I'll be watching for a longtime to come.And of course this short review/praise would be incomplete without mentioning the breakthrough performance by Dree Hemingway. You could tell she had complete faith in Baker and it showed in her performance. It's a risky role that she seemed to handle gracefully. STARLET is a film that challenges it's viewers. It challenges our prejudices and preconceived notions, but it does so with a heart.Honorable mention: The brilliant, and almost effortless, performance by the dog, "Starlet".