Electrick Children

Admittedly I'm a bit jaded these days because I just watch to many darn movies. And a lot of them have been pretty bad of late. Well this one happens to be quite an unexpected gem!

The story is pretty enthralling from the beginning. And quite an unexpected plot. I can usually see plots unravel two steps ahead, but here it was smoothly unexpected or I was just enjoying it to much to notice.

I see this movie as a "human interest" and then partially a "coming of age" story. Smoothly eliciting a response that is very touching and self reflecting in greater or lessor degree about religion, cultural norms, life, romance, and in the end love.

One thing I didn't even get from the movie but read in the IMDb summery and from the one other comment is "Mormons". I think it's a mistake and unnecessary to the story. I've known a lot of Mormons for decades and none of them are like this. It might offend some with movie stereo types. I don't even recall them referring to them self as "Moron" in the movie. I just saw it as okay, some sort of fundamentalist/extremist religious group. It could of been of any faith, Amish, German Baptist, etc., that might share a remotely similar puritanical type lifestyle. Not a big deal, just saying calling them "Morons" detracts from the movie a little. Just forget the reference and enjoy the movie as it is.

The acting performances were very good, especially the lead who carried it through the whole movie. I hope to see more from this talented writer/director and the factors.

Highly recommended!

'Electrick Children' follows the story of a pregnant, 15 year old Rachel living in a Mormon society in present day. She claims that the father of her unborn child is the voice of a singer on a rock cassette she listened to, insisting that 'God got her pregnant through the tape'. When being forced to confess to her parents that she has sinned, frustrated that they won't believe her miracle and are persistent in arranging a marriage for her the next day, Rachel steals her father's truck and journey's into Las Vegas in order to find the singer on the tape. This 'coming of age' story is the first feature film of director Rebecca Thomas and stars actress Julia Garner, who is very convincing in her performance of the naïve, 'fish-out-the water' teenager alongside our skater/stoner character that happens to take a shine to her when they meet in Las Vegas. Clyde, played by Rory Culkin, does a great job in capturing the emotions of his character and is beginning to step out of his brothers' shadows in becoming a star in his own right. The film is enticing up until the last half hour when a charge of events and little time for the audience to comprehend them leads the ending to seem quite messy. Regardless, this film is successful in capturing teenage emotion and I have nothing but praise for Julia Garner and Rory Culkin who performed their roles wonderfully.

This is an amazing job for a first feature film by a writer-director who was still in film school. A fine effort by a talented amateur with very little money on hand.

But, seriously, it's not a particularly good film overall. It starts strong--the scenes in the religious country home all ring true. I think that's because this is the part that the writer-director was actually familiar with in real life. Once Racheal gets to Vegas, however, the movie falls apart into random, loosely connected scenes that feature what seems to be very, very poorly improvised dialog. The poor actors just seem to be at a loss as to what they are supposed to be saying or doing. And the effect isn't "natural," it's just the opposite. You are totally aware that these are actors trying to think of what to say and do, not real people who just don't know what to say. Like a bad home movie or a the plot part of a porno. Incongruities abound as Racheal, who was so sheltered that she had never heard pop music, talked on a cell phone, and didn't even know what a tape recorder was all the sudden starts tossing around terms she would never have heard before like "rock and roll" and "cell phone." And the revelatory scene (can't tell you what it is)is implausible beyond belief. It, and many other parts of the Vegas section, was an interesting idea that the filmmaker apparently just didn't have time to work out in a way that worked.

The acting was pretty good, when dialog was scripted. Billy Zane as the religious nut dad was smooth and professional, but seemed way too nice and reasonable to be the relative heavy of the piece; a hint of darkness in dad would have made the whole movie a bit better. The woman who played the mom was very good too, in a limited role.

The guy who played Racheal's newly found boy friend was easily the most accomplished young performer in the movie, even handling his part in the pointless, rambling Vegas scenes as though he actually knew what was going on (I don't think anyone else did).

But I have to say that, when they were given written dialog, the other young performers were for the most part very appealing. The girl who played Racheal was quite charming. She drifted from sheltered religious cult girl to valley girl without warning, but she was very expressive and had a good presence.

But overall, what we have is a very good 20 minute short film about a girl in an isolated Mormon cult who discovers rock and roll. And that is followed by over an hour of what seems like a first draft of a story that the filmmaker hoped would come together as they went along.

And who knows? If she had been afforded the time and resources of even a low budget Hollywood film, maybe she could have brought it together at that. There is obvious talent there!

Electrick Children is the best kind of indie film, about characters unlike any you've probably seen before, experiencing genuine human relationships under intriguingly unusual circumstances. The scenes and characters stay with you in an almost haunting way long after you've watched it. More than just about any other film I've seen, Electrick Children "got" the true essence of a mother-daughter relationship, and there is much more to the story than that. You get the sense that the director genuinely cares about these characters and offers the viewer an honest, almost voyeuristic view of their lives. This film is no slapstick comedy, but it does have humor and warmth.

Overall, I thought this picture was entertaining and enjoyable with good performances all around, especially by Julia Garner in one of her first feature film roles. However, there is something that needs to be pointed out. Evidently, there are a lot of people that don't understand the meaning of the term "Immaculate Conception". The term originates in the Catholic church and is a teaching referring to the birth of Mary - and that she was conceived and born free of original sin. That's all. It does NOT refer to the birth of Jesus or "virgin birth" and to use it in that sense is wrong. The term has a specific definition regardless of popular belief. Look it up. I know what it means and I'm not even Catholic.