Palm Trees and Power Lines (2023)
Director: Jamie Dack Run Time: 110 min. Rating: R Release Year: 2023
Starring: Armani Jackson, Auden Thornton, Gretchen Mol, Jonathan Tucker, Lily McInerny
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
Best Directing, U.S. Dramatic, 2022 Sundance Film Festival
Palm Trees and Power Lines (2023) received four nominations at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay, and acting nominations for Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker.
Seventeen-year-old Lea (Lily McInerny) spends her summer break aimlessly tanning in her backyard with her best friend, tiptoeing around her needy mother, and getting stoned with a group of boys from school. This monotony is interrupted by a chance encounter with Tom (Jonathan Tucker), an older man who promises an alternative to Lea’s unsatisfying adolescent life. But as things progress between them, red flags about Tom’s life begin to surface, and Lea chooses to ignore them. Under Tom’s influence, Lea begins to see her mom as unfit and her friends as a waste of her time. Isolated from those around her, Lea discovers Tom’s true intentions and finds herself in a situation that she never could have imagined.
“a remarkably sharp-eyed and bruising debut from writer-director Jamie Dack”
—Adrian Horton for The Guardian
About the filmmaker:
Jamie Dack is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her short film Palm Trees and Power Lines premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival as a Cinefondation Selection, and received the 2nd Place King Award at New York University’s Graduate Film Wasserman Awards. The film was also selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick. Her short documentary Penny & Dee screened at numerous festivals throughout the country and premiered online at the award-winning Narratively. Her debut feature Palm Trees and Power Lines premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival where it won Best Directing in the U.S. Dramatic competition. She is a recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Grant. She received her MFA from NYU’s graduate film program.
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