Starlet is a 2012 independent drama film directed by Sean Baker and starring Dree Hemingway and newcomer Besedka Johnson.

Starlet explores the unlikely friendship between 21-year-old Jane and 85-year-old Sadie, two women whose lives intersect in California's San Fernando Valley.

Jane, also known as Tess, is a young woman who shares an apartment rented by Melissa and her boyfriend Mikey.

When Jane asks about her family, Sadie answers that she was married to a successful gambler, became a widow long ago and never had children.

After an argument with her boss, Melissa is fired from her job where she, Mikey, and Jane are adult film stars.

Jane contacts their boss, who provides her a room in a large house which serves as a dormitory for a stable of porn actresses.

In an act of revenge or as a way of feeling morally superior, Melissa tells Sadie about the stash of money.

[11] IndieWire's Katie Walsh wrote that the film "signals the arrival of Dree Hemingway as one to watch".

[12] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times made the film a "critic's pick" and described it as "a thrillingly, unexpectedly good American movie about love and a moral awakening".