Film Review: PALM TREES AND POWER LINES: Blunt Direction Amounts to Brute Emotional Force [Sundance 2022]

Palm Trees and Power Lines Review

Palm Trees and Power Lines (2022) Film Review from the 45th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Jamie Dack, starring Lily McInerny, Jonathan Tucker, Gretchen Mol, Armani Jackson, Auden Thornton, Kenny Johnston, Yvette Tucker, John Minch, Michael Petrone, and Yolanda Corrales.

Content warning: this review contains brief discussions on grooming and sexual abuse.

Sometimes flair is just that: unnecessary stylistic accoutrement. Sometimes, all you need to get the point across is to say it plainly. Sometimes, that plainness makes certain things seem “normal”, and then once you realize that, the thematic and emotional whitewashing of normalcy becomes all the more apparent. The lack of flair can be, in and of itself, a striking style. This is the case with Jamie Dack’s feature debut Palm Trees and Power Lines, a simple yet no-holds-barred approach to abuse that implies an unfortunate, damning sense of normalcy.

Lea (Lily McInerny) spends her summer vacation as any teenager would: smoking weed, hooking up with boys, and sunbathing in the California sun. With only an emotionally-distant mom (Gretchen Mol) at home, who spends as much time as she does filtering through partners, Lea stays out as much as she can for fear of catching her future reflection.

When some dine-and-dash shenanigans don’t go as planned, the passing-by Tom (Jonathan Tucker) helps her escape the restaurant’s reprimands. Tom tries to be open and friendly after the restaurant encounter, but given his vast age difference and stranger status Lea is unsurprisingly wary. Yet her infatuation with him continues to grow, and her annoyance with her friends’ lack of maturity causes her to drift away into Tom’s arms. Lea thinks she’s getting the adult-like attention and respect she deserves with Tom and is more than willing to play the girlfriend to his strong protector archetype. Her obsession with him blinds Lea to numerous red flags (besides the already-glaringly-obvious one), and by the time she makes them out it might be too late for her to reverse course.

Even if you haven’t seen her short film from 2018 that shares the same name (as well as some shot recreations and parallel themes), you can see where the feature-length version of Palm Trees and Power Lines is going. No, it’s not a queasy mumblecore romance nor a melodramatic exploitation as it’s washed-out palette and lackadaisical design might suggest. Regardless of movement non-conformity, though, there’s really only a few possible ways that Lea’s story can go, and from the start we know (and the film doesn’t argue otherwise) which way that’s gonna be: the worst one. Palm Tress and Power Lines is frill-less and straight-to-the-point – and while that’s not immediately captivating, it’s ultimately inescapable.

Dack eschews showiness for directness, revealing the severity of Lea’s predicament as the slow and spiraling entrapment it is. Her matter-of-fact approach offers no fantastical allure to Lea and Tom’s relationship … but Lea doesn’t know that, and part of the tragedy is watching her story unfold and being unable to help her.

The film’s blunt but nearly emotionless presentation of grooming and child sexual abuse prods the boundaries of Haneke-like edginess, making us question our complicity in such viewership (and also question whether Dack is inadvertently shaming Lea for succumbing to her own coercion). But really, it’s just a metaphorical reflection of our world’s own feet-dragging apathy when it comes to this gendered violence, reinforced by a stinging final scene that paints our society’s messed-up mores and lack of proper psychological education even more starkly. By the time Lea understands the weight of her situation it’s too late for her to leave, and even by then the final scene suggests she hasn’t fully grappled with it. Needless to say, we can’t leave, either, as the film’s claws are buried too deep for us to wriggle out.

While Dack’s direction is the highlight of this film (and rightly won her the Best Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic competition at this year’s Sundance), McInerny is not to be overlooked with her tempered performance. Her emulation of teen angst and misguided rebellion is affable, but so too is her vulnerability that conjures up our sympathy. She showcases this internalized balancing act only at key moments, and does so with psyche-tearing intensity.

Palm Trees and Power Lines is neither an easy nor an enjoyable watch, but it is a confrontational one that uses sheer brute force to tear under your skin. It doesn’t tread any new ground as a cautionary tale, but as a broad condemnation it sure does hit hard.

Rating: 6/10

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