Palm Trees and Power Lines

'Palm Trees and Power Lines' is about Lea (Lily McInerny) and her best friend Amber (Quinn Frankel) enjoying the summer as teenagers. After a random encounter, Lea meets Tom (Johnathan Tucker), a man twice her age, who offers to drive her home. Through a series of chance meetings, Lea develops feelings for Tom and they end up in a relationship, but she realizes too late that Tom's ulterior motives are underhanded and exploitive.

Acting and script are decent, characters are believeable, and the flow is solid. The main takeaway from this film is that Lea's mother, Sandra (Gretchen Mol) has her own busy interpersonal life and foesn't appear to take a serious interest in Lea. Her friends aren't mature enough for her, her boyfriend is a jerk, and Tom seems to be the answer to it all. The way the film presents the two of them feels organic and realistic.

Worth a watch!

In telling a cautionary tale, a film must be on point if its message is to be effectively conveyed. Regrettably, such is not the case in this story of a silver-tongued, 34-year-old sexual predator (Jonathan Tucker) in his efforts to win the affections of a disconnected adolescent from a fragmented household (Lily McInerny) and manipulate her into a life of degrading, subservient behavior. It's a troubling tale, to be sure, one that has an important point to make. However, the execution leaves much to be desired. The film's glacial pacing (especially in the first half) becomes tedious quickly, particularly with the inclusion of considerable needless incidental footage depicting mundane everyday activities, events that are undoubtedly intended to reflect the teen's monotonous worldview but that grow eminently tiresome in short order. This is compounded by uneven character development, most notably that of the vulnerable protagonist, whose persona wavers wildly from incisively streetwise to exceedingly naïve and plainly outspoken to severely inhibited, undermining the believability of who she's really supposed to be and her reactions to the circumstances she faces. That's perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the conclusion, which, in my view, also stretches credibility somewhat (though I know there are those who would definitely beg to differ with me on that point). To its credit, the performances are all quite good, having earned two of the picture's four Independent Spirit Award nominations for the portrayals turned in by Tucker and McInerny. Still, this overlong offering suffers from both the aforementioned issues, as well as some questionable camera work and a need for tighter editing. Writer-director Jamie Dack's debut feature may have its origins in good intentions, but its followthrough frequently - and often widely - misses the mark.

This movie is hard to watch (no spoilers but there are some very uncomfortable scenes that might trigger some folks so be warned). It's a good tension driven plot but ultimately fails to move forward and ends up being not quite as impactful as it could have been.

Many of the scenes in this film are "fly on the wall" shots with no camera movement and it's like you're in the room. I applaud the director for that, it's a great way to convey tension and force the viewer to "be there". Scenes with the mom and boyfriend both do this. This technique also drives this placid kind of ethereal feel throughout.

Overall I liked this film, it just fails in the plot development part especially the last bits. It will annoy a lot of viewers and it did annoy me, but it's still worth a watch. The acting is pretty good for an indie too.

At seventeen you have a mother who's distracted, a boyfriend to whom you're clearly not attracted, it's the summer time is free, and so it's with some joy and glee, that you let an older man, have you extracted; as he takes you out and you start to get close, he treats you well, and doesn't hide in the shadows, although alarm bells should be ringing, a waitress knows what he is bringing, there's lots of cons and only one important pros; but you let him take advantage and engage, you're streetwise, have a quite mature gauge (or so you believe), he wants to introduce a friend, has something you can help distend, you could profit, and make him a living wage.

Great performance from Lily McInerny.

Very solid first feature film from director Jamie Dack.

Really nice little indie coming of age film.

Peaceful and realistic slice of life kinda story.

I really liked it.

It was really nicely crafted.

I could understand motivations of every character.

There were some really nice family and frienship drama that i did relate in some levels.

But i can also see that this film will be very divisive.

There has been lot of conversations about age gap relationships in films lately.

But in this film that relationship is clearly supposed to be super uncomfortable and inappropriate.

And i mean super uncomfortable at so many momens.

Red flags were seen everywhere.

But i can really see that these kinda relationships are happening in real life.

Really well made film.

Nice looking.

Really naturalistic.

Mostly no soundtrack at all.

Nice performances.

I can see that Lily McInerney has bright future ahead.

She was really good in this.

Nice supporting performances too.

If this gets some really good studio to distribute it, i can really see it finding own audience.

I really hope so.

Or then it wil remain as little Sundance hidden gem.

I enjoyed my time watching this.