Female Film Critics 24/375
A teenage girl looking for connection and affection falls prey to an older man who says all the right things — but has all the wrong intentions — in Jamie Dack’s wrenching drama Palm Trees and Power Lines. Often difficult to watch as it follows lonely Lea’s (Lily McInerny) willing entry into Tom’s (Jonathan Tucker) untrustworthy orbit, the film is ultimately part character study and part grooming cautionary tale.
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You’ll hear “disturbing” or “cautionary tale” and I do not deny those things are true. Palm Trees and Power Lines does not caution so much as scream to be shared with young women, so they might recognize the trap of a hunter before falling prey. The presentation is often yellowed or at times cast in greyed darkness, with an almost dingy grain that suggests what lies within is tainted. That is another truth. Equally undeniable, the ending is as ominous as a razor blade across the carotid.
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It’s impossible to turn away from this compelling film but impossible not to watch with a sense of dread. Lily McInerny is a natural who is well cast. She nails what 17 really looks like in appearance and demeanor — an insecure, naïve, awkward kid raised on social media who’s hungry for someone to pay attention to her and easily enamored of a “cool” guy. That such vulnerability is so casually exploited is the film’s unwavering course, particularly as it progresses into its horrifying third act.
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Filmmaker Jamie Dack’s Palm Trees and Power Lines was incredibly frustrating to watch. Based on the 2018 short of the same name, Palm Trees and Power Lines follows Lea (Lily McInerny), a 17-year-old girl with a typical teenage life: she gets high with her friends, occasionally has sex with one of them in the backseat of a car, and doesn’t really care for her mom’s (Gretchen Mol) revolving door of men. Only when she meets Tom (Jonathan Tucker) after a morally misguided mishap at a local diner does Lea start to feel seen.
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