Director Sean Baker strikes some clever balance in Starlet, extending the admiration of the two heroines into their eccentricities, but they don't turn into fools or saints. Jane's friendship with Sadie is something that takes away the numbness. Although the film is so low-key, and even the emotional revelations leave audiences feeling flat, Hemingway and Johnson's performances and unhurried performance also ensure that Sean Baker achieves his ultimate goal
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Starlet's portrayal of youth and age is fresh and unsentimental. Johansson's Sadie is not a lovely old woman full of life experience, or an old woman with a sweet tooth, she likes a quirky granny life; she's angry and distrustful, she's grumpy, Interested in living the rest of her life in relative peace, not making a new friend who is completely foreign to her in terms of world and emotions. However, the perseverance and sweet talk of Hemingway's Jane will eventually influence Johnson. The film amounts to an unusually subtle and quiet character study, which, especially given the underlying erotic themes, makes for a quietly powerful climax
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