Electrick Children: Movie Review

Electrick Children: Movie Review

Cast: Julia Garner, Rory Culkin, Billy Zane, Liam Aiken, Cynthia Watros
Director: Rebecca Thomas

It's back into the world of the weird we go for Electrick Children, written and directed by Rebecca Thomas.

Julia Garner stars as Rachel, a girl turning 15 years old in her fundamentalist Mormon home in Utah - and who finds a cassette tape, hidden in the bowels of her home. She places the tape in a cassette player and has a religious experience, listening to the cover version of Blondie's "Hanging on the Telephone."

Her brother, Mr Will (Aiken) finds her listening to it and following a scuffle, tries to recover it from her. Discovered tussling on the floor by her mother, the pair are separated.

Then, Rachel finds she's pregnant, and believing it's an immaculate conception caused by the tape, she sets out to the nearest town - Las Vegas - to find the singer....and the person she believes is responsible for her pregnancy.


However, her fundamentalist family do not feel the same - and banish Mr Will, threatening Rachel with an arranged marriage...

Electrick Children is the very definition of indie and first time film-making.

Garner gives a bravura performance as the teenager finding her way in the world that she knows scant little about in any shape or form. When she falls in with Rory Culkin's rocker and her brother Mr Will tries to discover himself in the seedier grimier side of Las Vegas, the film finds its groove as it dwindles away from the conception thread. And Garner's frailty and watchable performance grounds a film which demands a lot from its audience.

Culkin is solid as the feckless rocker, Zane is zen-like as the preacher and Aiken gives good solid support (as well as a few laughs) as the Mormon exposed to the not-so-bright lights of Sin City. All in all, the cast offer up sensitive and nuanced performances of subtlety throughout but Electrick Children is not without problems though. There are far too many coincidences which pepper the second half of the film and feel more like deus ex machina moments rather than plotted narrative and reasoning.

And the main thread which makes the film so appealing in the first place (immaculate conception or not) is abandoned halfway through proving maddeningly frustrating to what you've initially invested in. So be warned, if you're looking for answers, they may not be coming.

Electrick Children is quite indie; but it shows promise from Thomas which isn't quite fulfilled as it spills out - occasionally quite dark and murkily - on the screen.

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