NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The has been hailed as one of the preeminent voices of her generation, but the movies have long lingered in her mind and in her work.
In her play, a trio of workers clean up between showings at a smalltown arthouse theater. In 鈥淭he Antipodes,鈥� a writers room brainstorming session grows increasingly abstract but has the conference-room shape and mostly male composition of a Hollywood pitch meeting.
Now, Baker, 43, has made a film. It鈥檚 a first-time feature but, thrillingly, the evident product of a masterful dramatic veteran. For Baker, it鈥檚 less a new beginning than the realization of a long deferred dream. When Baker moved to New York to attend college, she did it, she says, 鈥渢o be as near as many movie theaters as possible.鈥�
She nearly applied to film school but opted instead to study dramatic writing. Her career as a playwright took off. Her first play, 鈥淏ody Awareness,鈥� won an Obie Award in 2009, as did her follow-up, 鈥淭he Aliens." Baker adapted 鈥淯ncle Vanya鈥� in 2012 and, in 2014, won the Pulitzer for 鈥淭he Flick.鈥� In 2017, she was .
Occasionally, Baker tried her hand at screenwriting. But being a celebrated American playwright tends to be a full-time gig. Movies faded as a possibility.
鈥淚 decided around 38 or 39 that it was never going to happen and I was going to be OK with it,鈥� Baker said in a recent interview over lunch at the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. 鈥淚 remember saying it out loud to someone. I think I said: 鈥業鈥檓 just not going to get to direct a movie in this life.鈥欌��
But almost as soon as Baker made that pronouncement, fate intervened. On Friday, A24 will release Baker's debut, about a single mother named Janet (Julianne Nicholson) living in 1990s Western Massachusetts with her 11-year-old daughter, Lacy (Zoe Ziegler).
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a lesson throughout my whole career. You just have to let go of ambition and start working from another place inside of yourself,鈥� Baker says. 鈥淚 do wonder if saying it out loud enabled me to do it.鈥�
鈥淛anet Planet鈥� is a cinematic experience as precisely attuned to daily rhythms as Baker鈥檚 stage work is. The film鈥檚 perspective is largely from that of Lacy, whose watchful eyes follow a string of her mother's relationships as they pass through their home. As in Baker鈥檚 plays, little may be appearing to happen but the sense that something profound is transpiring under the surface is palpable. In an unspoken coming of age, Lacy begins to see her mom less as a lofty parental figure and more as a regular person.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have nostalgia for that time period. I find it aesthetically interesting, but I don鈥檛 have a romantic take on it,鈥� says Baker. 鈥淚 feel like the movie has a lot of mild dread in it.鈥�
鈥淛anet Planet鈥� isn鈥檛 strictly autobiographical but it draws heavily from Baker鈥檚 own childhood growing up with her divorced mother in Amherst. Baker鈥檚 film, shot in Western Massachusetts, is also authentically woodsy. Just as several of her plays 鈥� including the Vermont-set 鈥淏ody Awareness鈥� 鈥� have sought to capture quotidian lives and subtle social shifts in smalltown New England, Baker resolved that she would make 鈥淛anet Planet鈥� in rural Massachusetts 鈥� or she wouldn鈥檛 make it, at all.
Drawing such a line, when it鈥檚 typically cheaper to shoot closer to New York City, can be risky. But just as Baker writes plays with specific actors in mind, like Matthew Maher for 鈥淭he Flick," she figured she would do the same for movie locations.
鈥淚t鈥檚 scary when you鈥檙e making your first movie to be like, 鈥楴o,鈥� because the movie might not happen if you say no too much,鈥� says Baker. 鈥淣ow when you see the movie, you know you couldn鈥檛 shoot that in Mamaroneck.鈥�
For Nicholson, the location and subject matter of 鈥淛anet Planet鈥� was eerily close to home, too. From the ages of 7 to 11, she lived in nearby Montague. She was a camp counselor in Goshen.
鈥淭he whole summer blew my mind,鈥� says Nicholson. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 even go too deep into because I鈥檒l literally burst into tears. It just felt so huge at every turn to be walking these places that were so formative.鈥�
Nicholson, who brings her typically radiant naturalism to the role, found herself thinking less about her mother, a herbalist, than some of the other women in her mother鈥檚 life.
鈥淭here were people in that world much more lonely or seeking meaning, connection,鈥� says Nicholson. 鈥淚 remember even as a kid recognizing people who felt lost. And Janet feels a little bit lost.鈥�
In her plays, Baker is renown for exquisite stillness and artfully timed pauses, a sensibility that's earned her comparisons to Pinter and Chekhov. The script to her play 鈥淭he Aliens鈥� opens with explicit instructions on the length of silences. 鈥淎t least a third 鈥� if not half 鈥� of this play is silence," she wrote.
Part of the excitement of 鈥淛anet Planet鈥� is seeing how Baker鈥檚 keen sense of time and rhythm gets applied in a new medium. Baker holds some shots long. To capture the nature sounds around the house they were filming in, Baker and her sound designer kept a microphone recording nonstop for two straight weeks. Nicholson says that stillness and in-between moments were encouraged, but 鈥渢here isn鈥檛 a word or bit of punctuation in the movie that wasn鈥檛 in the script.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 going to make theater for the rest of my life. I love both forms equally and never want to stop making both of them,鈥� says Baker. 鈥淥nce you really get your hands in both mediums, you can really feel palpably how different they are. It鈥檚 not an intellectual thing anymore. Directing a movie made me really excited to write my next play.鈥�
It鈥檚 clear speaking to Baker, a passionate cinephile who drew inspiration for 鈥淛anet Planet鈥� from the films of and , that she鈥檚 galvanized from her first hands-on exploration of a new medium, and eager to go further.
Not that there weren鈥檛 challenges. The relentless demands of directing a movie 鈥� from preproduction through editing 鈥� was a fresh experience for Baker. Not everything could be controlled. A mistake by a 16mm film processing lab ruined a portion of the movie.
鈥淚t was the hardest thing I鈥檝e done,鈥� says Baker, sounding more energized by film鈥檚 difficulties than lamenting them. 鈥淧eople complain about theater tech and it鈥檚 like five days of 10-hour days. I鈥檒l never complain about tech again.鈥�
Baker wasn鈥檛 new to film sets. Her husband, the academic Nico Baumbach, is brother to the director (Baker appears in his 2014 film ). is her sister in law. Whether those affiliations leant anything to her experience making 鈥淛anet Planet,鈥� Baker declined to say.
Baker recoils, generally, from drawing direct lines between herself and her work. She picked out a hillside for 鈥淛anet Planet," she says, not because she ran down it as a child but for its 鈥渨itchy鈥� quality. To hear Baker discuss it, writing a play or making 鈥淛anet Planet鈥� is more about the evolution she undergoes in transforming memory into something outside of her, into something else.
鈥淚 do have some selective amnesia with everything I write where I can鈥檛 quite remember why I wrote it or who I was when I wrote it," Baker explains. "There鈥檚 some sort of way I work through things through my work 鈥� my own crises and questioning. And when I鈥檓 done, I never think about it again.
鈥淲hatever I wrote the play about is a skin I get to shed,鈥� Baker says just before she departs. 鈥淢aybe that鈥檚 why I do it.鈥�
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
