Palm Trees and Power Lines

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.

Yes difficult to watch but very convincing. My daughter who is a psychologist works for a charity that counsel teenage Mothers and I know from talking to her how difficult and sometimes impossible it is to make these people see that the relationship they are in is really toxic. It doesn't always come from a particular type of girl some have a reasonable back story in as much as it isn't full of trauma and neglect but still they are attracted to a wrong'un and they won't be talked out of it. I don't know if some were not happy with an unsatisfying ending but that's how it goes in real life, people don't just suddenly wake up and see the mistake they made. Abusers are not always pimptastic and obviously abusive, some are very practiced and subtle and sadly that keeps their victim where they want them.

Palm Trees and Power Lines is a slow descent into hell.

Good art is all about making people feel something. The emotions this film brings up are visceral. Evil is often a straw man set up by people with a philosophy to push, but "often" isn't the same as "always" and this film is a case in point if when there is no possible way to justify someone's behavior.

The film highlights how loneliness, social isolation, and the demands of modern life can cause havoc in young people's lives. This is a work of fiction that could have been inspired by a news story in any city or town in the U. S. It is a modern story in the classic Brothers Grimm style, without being sanitized by Disney animators. With standout acting and photography that is both beautiful and shows the banality of modern living, it is a cautionary tale that hits hard and makes you want to scream.

This is a very stunning debut film. The authenticity - the atmosphere, the acting - is stellar. The small-town teenage malaise is palpable. Lily McInerny is amazing, her portrayal of a doe-eyed adolescent longing for love but completely naive to life is excellent. Jonathan Tucker is completely believable as a charismatic "bad boy with heart."

My only gripe is that the story turns a bit fast and kind of strains credulity. Grooming takes time. And the situation would've been much more believable with drugs, which so often help people dissociate and bury trauma. But overall, an excellent take on a tough story.

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.