Starlet Blu-ray Review
Star '13.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, May 4, 2013
Note: It's next to impossible to discuss
Starlet without at least hinting at one major plot development which might be
considered a spoiler. I've tried mightily not to divulge this plot point outright, but for those of you who are "good at guessing" and don't
want the surprise spoiled, it's probably best to skip the main review (and even the supplements section) and simply focus on the technical
aspects of the review.
Mariel Hemingway received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Woody Allen's
Manhattan when she was still just a
teenager, but some at least may argue that it was Bob Fosse's underrated 1983 opus
Star 80 where
Hemingway
really attempted to prove she wasn't just another pretty face. There was a certain smarminess to
Star 80 that
probably kept the film from being better received, but even many who didn't like the film
per se commented
favorably on the work of Hemingway (as doomed
Playboy centerfold Dorothy Stratten) and Eric Roberts (as her
husband who eventually murdered her). Some may wonder if there's some kind of generational requirement for young
Hemingways to play roles in films with "star" in the title, for Mariel's daughter Dree Hemingway is front and center in the
2012 independent feature
Starlet, though in this case the two "star" films couldn't be more different.
Starlet's title in fact refers not to Hemingway's character (at least not ostensibly) but that of her little
Chihuahua, and the film is less a
seedy exposé of the roiling lives of would be celebrities (though that definitely comes into play here) than a quiet and
unassuming examination of an unlikely friendship
between a young supposed actress (more about that in a moment) and an elderly widow who become friends (more or
less, anyway) due to some unexpected
circumstances. The film is built around several episodes in the burgeoning relationship between the two women and if
it's
ultimately perhaps a bit too much of a "fly on the wall" drama for its own good, it proves that there is a rather
formidable "acting gene" still quite active in the
Hemingway clan.
If you've ever been to Los Angeles and environs, you may have noticed the almost surreal disparity between tony
neighborhoods like Beverly Hills and the vast, smog laden expanses of the San Fernando Valley. My sister-in-law's
parents live on one of
the most prestigious streets in Beverly Hills, in a gorgeous mansion that is almost like a
mini
art museum (replete with glass enclosed display tables and inserts in the walls), but the rest of our California relatives
live
in enclaves like Encino, and driving up and over "the hills" and into the San Fernando Valley can be an exercise in a
radically shifting worldview. That's at least hinted at in
Starlet, for the denizens of the film are resolutely stuck
in
the Valley while at least some of their dreams attempt to waft up and over into the land of movie stars and paparazzi,
and perhaps even farther than that.
Jane (Dree Hemingway) seems to be something of a slacker, a gorgeous young blonde who lives with two stoner
videogame playing housemates, Mikey (James Ransome) and Melissa (Stella Maeve). One day to relieve the boredom
Jane sets out around the San Fernando Valley with her little dog Starlet to hit yard sales. We see her in a montage
picking up various useless items, including a huge floral thermos that Jane wants to make into a vase. We don't really
have much of a sense of who Jane, Mikey and Melissa are, other than seemingly unambitious twentysomethings, but we
start to get a clue in an interesting scene relatively early in the film when Jane is in the kitchen attempting to clean the
thermos while Melissa arrives back from a still undefined workplace in hysterics. Jane really isn't paying that much
attention to the drama unfolding in the background because she's shocked to discover that a
lot of money has
been stuffed into the thermos in neat little rubber banded rolls.
Jane almost immediately goes on a spending spree, getting goodies for herself and for Starlet, but ultimately her
conscience gets the best of her, and she tries to return the thermos to the elderly lady from whom she bought it, but
the woman simply cuts her off with a curt "No refunds!", leaving Jane to contemplate her next move. She follows the
elderly woman one day when the woman takes a cab to the grocery store. Jane runs to the cab and pays him off, and
then magically "shows up" offering to drive the old woman home. Thus begins a highly unusual and awkward
relationship where it even takes Jane a while to learn that the old woman's name is Sadie (Besedka Johnson). Sadie is
a rather crusty old broad, not especially glad to have a newfound companion seemingly stalking her, and things get
even worse when Jane shows up to Sadie's weekly excursion to a church bingo game. An ensuing melée with some
concerned police officers at least has the upshot that Sadie figures out—perhaps incorrectly—that Jane is only trying to
be nice and supposedly has no ulterior motives.
The rest of the film plays out in small character driven moments between Jane and Sadie, as well as between Jane and
Melissa. Without spoiling one of the major plot points that occurs surprisingly late in the film, it turns out Jane and Melissa
work for the same company in an industry for which the San Fernando Valley is somewhat infamous. Melissa, however,
has discovered Jane's stash of bucks and has a few ideas of her own. One of the most interesting things about
Starlet is how discursive all of these elements are, with the one notable exception of the "reveal" (an
appropriate term, for those who can read between the lines) regarding Jane's nascent career. We're really not privy to
that much information about either Sadie or Jane, and yet both characters are fully formed and very believable.
Anchoring the film are two remarkable women, the young Dree Hemingway (who looks kind of like a cross between
Gwyneth Paltrow and Bridget Fonda) and an elderly newcomer by the name of Besedka Johnson, a senior citizen who in
typically unpredictable Hollywood fashion was "discovered" when she was 85 while she was swimming laps in a YMCA
and suddenly found her long ago dreams of being an actress a reality. (Johnson sadly passed away just a few weeks
ago at the age of 87.) Hemingway and Johnson play beautifully off of each other, and as the relationship grows,
there's some real heartfelt emotion that reaches through the screen and will touch all but the most hardened viewer.
Jane's slow realization of what is right is what drives the film, but Sadie's own crusty shell gives the film its bitter edge.
