User Reviews

I am a huge fan of Social Realist Films. I consider this to be one. I can usually find some empathy for one or several characters involved. The closest I could come with this one was some incipient sympathies. The porn star thing feels like a gimmick to me to perhaps make the film "daring"...as people have called it. The best thing about it is Dree and Stella, they did an awesome and believable job. Also, the dog adds some style and substance. Overall decent but I don't by the "daring" moniker. Also, some time shortly after the LA Erotica convention the film switches to what appears to be DV with cheap lenses (sun flares across the shots and poor sound). This detracts greatly from the flow of the movie for me. The character "Sadie" has no more lines on camera and she appears to have had a stroke (left eye droop). If this is true, it kind of explains the shift in feel and the abrupt ending. Worth a watch though. Btw...I consider "Florida Project" a masterpiece so...all is forgiven.

(Spoilers)"Starlet" is a bit difficult to rate. It has a lot going for it and on the whole was a fairly good parable even if the ending is obvious and out-in-the-open despite its intended juxtapose. It had a chance to be an excellent movie but takes some dings due to a couple mis-steps by the storytellers that seem amateurish and rather disappointing. The 2 major annoyances for me were the awful in-your- face Porn scene with graphic smut that went "beyond the pale", and to a lesser degree the lower quality picture, camera-work, and shakiness. Sadly those are highly fixable problems. I enjoyed the acting, storyline, and the accompanying music a lot. Loved the relationship with the 2 leads and the Hemingway with the dog did it better than Witherspoon in comedy "Legally Blonde". Anyway, so the movie is like reading a good story that has been terribly proofread, and with glaring, obvious errors. Good though and Recommended. 7/10

'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.

I will start with the unnecessary (but not necessarily negative) interjection of the adult film industry theme into this film which I feel detracts somewhat from the ultimate story. It is not that adult film performers don't have normal emotions but it just seems distracting from the ultimate story, which is simply the emotional bond that forms between a young woman with an aimless lifestyle and good heart who confronts her own guilt about a wrong she commits against an old woman by undertaking her version of atonement for that wrong.

The plot is deceptively simple, a young woman discovers $10,000 hidden in a thermos flask she buys in a yard sale from an old woman. She then confronts the moral dilemma and guilt of keeping the money and ultimately decides, after hearing that the old woman she bought the thermos from does not need the money, to spend the money primarily on making the old woman happy and seeks out the old woman's companionship. This premise, and the skillful mining of that premise, is expertly accomplished by the talented cast and director.

One or two commenters say the theme has been done before. But what theme or plot has not been done before? It is the trip itself that is the reward and the viewer is treated to good acting, crisp and insightful scripting,and a wonderful ride.

Another commenter thought the ending was abrupt and uncertain. It was anything but. The old woman at the end after learning of the money, in a masterful and understated ending showed her forgiveness for the young woman's guilty errors and heartfelt atonement, and showed her closeness and feelings for the young woman by indirectly disclosing her deepest personal secret through the simple act of asking flowers to be placed on a grave.

I have to think hard to come up with a more masterful ending to a movie then the subtle ending of this low-key immensely entertaining indie film. Highly recommended.

I want to make it clear, Dree Hemingway is a legitimate actress, not a real pornstar. But here she plays Jane renting a room in someone else's home, going about her daily business, at first with no indication of what she does for a living. It is gradually revealed, she is a pornstar. But in most respects seems like a normal 20-something.

The room she rents is pretty bare, so she drives around one day, going from yard sale to yard sale, to pick up a few things to decorate her space. One of the places is the home of an older lady, approaching 90, Besedka Johnson as Sadie. There she buys a tall thermos bottle, intending to use it as a vase. Sadie warns her "the sale is final" and this plays into the further scenes.

This is a curious slice of life story, I find myself unable to attach a legitimate "score" because it depends on what one looks for in a small, independent movie. It ultimately is about the unlikely relationship that forms between Jane and Sadie, and things that are gradually revealed by each.

(An interesting aside, Jane and Sadie have a short conversation about their astrological signs. The actress who plays Sadie is new to the acting business, she had been an astrologer!)

SPOILERS: When Jane got the thermos home she found inside a number of rolls of $100 bills, $10,000 in all. Wrestling with her conscience she decided to bring it back, but the old lady said "No returns" and shut the door. But Jane persisted, she found ways to be where Sadie was, offered her rides, befriended her. In the process Jane found out Sadie didn't lack for money, her husband had been a very successful gambler, and the $10,000 in the thermos was no doubt his. So eventually Jane hatched a plan to spend all the money on Sadie, to bring her to Paris for a week, a place Sadie "loved" but had never been. Even though Jane's jealous house-mate went over and told Sadie "Jane has a lot of your money", Sadie was happy in the fact that she had found a friend.

STARLET (2012) **** Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, James Ransone, Stella Maeve. Remarkable big-screen debut for filmmaker Sean Baker and his incredible star, Hemingway (Mariel's daughter) as a blissfully unaware young up-and-coming porn star in sun-baked Cali who strikes up an unlikely friendship with an elderly woman (equally amazing 'newcomer' Johnson) after purchasing at a yard sale turns out a cache of hidden money instilling a sense of guilt - and for her first time - responsibility enacting her to get close to the off-putting octogenarian. With almost an improvisatory pseudo-docu/verite style thanks to Baker's collaboration on an original screenplay with Chris Bergoch, the film slowly deepens its main characters with enough empathy and also cringe-worthy moments of anomie (namely the impressively nasty Maeve as Hemingway's skeezy roomie). Heartfelt, heartrending and poignant as all-get out with enough sentiment, humor and plain honesty rarely seen in film today. A true gem sleeper. Kudos to the adorable Chihuahua pup pet of Hemingway's :D

This darkly funny and warm-hearted indie struck me the right way, although if you're easily offended it may not be for you. It can be quite sexually explicit at times with very raw language throughout.

Set in Los Angeles, Dree Hemingway, whose screen presence and mannerisms remind me so much of her mother Mariel, stars as Jane, a young woman who decides to give her room a make-over. She starts to buy items at various yard sales, one of which is a large thermos that she purchases from an elderly woman named Sadie. Sadie is magnificently portrayed by Besedka Johnson, who has a remarkable personal story as well that I read on Wikipedia. This was her first movie, as she was discovered working out at a gym at the age of 85. Sadly, she passed away earlier this year.

In the thermos Jane purchased she discovers after bringing it home that it contains thousands of dollars in rolled up hundreds. She's undecided as to how to handle this, and at one point brings it back to Sadie but is rebuffed before she can say much by the irritable woman.

Jane finally decides to keep the money, but also decides in very clever ways to insert herself into Sadie's life, to help her with errands or in any way she can. This remarkable possible bonding between the two is the real heart of the movie, and I thought extremely well scripted and presented by the director Sean Baker, who also co-wrote the script with Chris Bergoch.

We don't find out till about half way through the film that Jane is a porno actress, as is her emotionally volatile housemate Melissa, ably played by Stella Maeve. They're both sharing the house with Melissa's boyfriend Mikey (James Ransone), who seems like a nice guy but has no guilt about selling drugs, pimping, or shooting porno movies to raise cash.

When Jane goes to work on the set is where the scenes can be quite sexually explicit, and they don't leave much to the imagination. There's also, as mentioned plenty of nudity and raw language as well.

The surprise ending I thought was very poignant and touching, in my opinion. Of course, let me not forget Starlet, the incredibly cute Chihuahua of Jane's. He's a rescue dog and won my heart early on and he becomes an important part of the film as well.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked this indie that I picked up at my local library.

I am a big fan of Sean Baker films and most of them have a very unique style and the stories always have an element of intimacy and interconnection between the main characters to show a different slice of life that is quite refreshing and gives one hope for the indie film market.

This film Starlet had a lot of potential and some unique moments and decent directing yet unlike his other films it was poorly cast with its support actors and not as realistic as his other films except for Dree Hemingway and Besedka Johnson. Both did a phenomenal job especially Dree who pretty much carries the entire film. And of course the adorable dog makes up for the shortfalls of the poorly written back stories.

I still enjoyed the film but it was rather pathetic that Baker thought adding some totally unnecessary gratuitous X rated sex scenes (which required a body double for Dree) was a wasted scene and added little extra dimension of realism to the story except to cheapen its very essence. The dichotomy between the 2 porn actresses was pretty obvious without forcing it on the audience. Unlike his other new film Red Rocket which easily could have had XXX flashbacks to Michael Saber prior porn life, but Baker decides to include an X rated scene for no reasons except maybe he is obsessed with Porn or perhaps he felt it made it more realistic which basically backfires and makes it look like a B rated Boogie Nights.

However his story telling is fabulous and unique and worth watching yet for some odd reason he seems to force quick endings which is a shame but it still works in this film. The mystery at the end of Dree Hemingway Jane character pondering at the gravestone. (spoiler) and realizes that Sadie had lost a daughter and that brings a new depth to the character.- yet it could have been so much better if it was revealed in the 2nd act and their friendship and story could have gone much deeper.

Baker is definitely improving with each film that he makes and looking forward to his next film.. hopefully with no reference to his porn world obsession.

A 5 mostly for Dree Hemingway and the Dog.