Electrick Children (2012)

'Electrick Children' follows the story of a pregnant, 15 year old Rachel living in a present day Mormon society. 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'. Her family insists otherwise, and Rachel goes to Las Vegas to search for the father

Electrick Children is fresh, vivid, indie feel is what makes this film I love the colors and textures in the movie to feel like it was filmed on actual film stock. The warm lights of Las Vegas, indie rock, and the desert all make way for a beautiful place for this story to unfold.

Writer/Director Rebecca Thomas understood what she meant to say, but as with so many independent filmmakers, she felt no obligation to communicate that message comprehensibly. Depicting events that could not possibly happen does not create symbolism. Failing to come up with an ending does not make the plot "open to multiple interpretations."

Fmovies: I am a huge fan of indie films. When I came across this the other night I added it to my netflix list to watch. I started watching it last night and couldn't wait to finish it today. This movie's story line is genius. I would have to say that the way the story develops is brilliant. I love the fact that my brain was stimulated the whole time. There were so many levels to this movie, which made it so very intriguing to watch.

Now can I just say this... Rory Culkin is sexy in this film. I don't know quite what it is, but I get these weird attractions sometimes. I don't want to get into detail about the movie, but I suggest you watch it. I was hooked. After the movie was over, I was like that was a great movie.

<3 Heather May

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.

Electrick Children fmovies. 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!

I watch A LOT of movies. As I watched this movie, I thought that in some sense it reminded me of the movie 'Perks of Being a Wallflower'. I didn't even realize that Julia Garner is in 'Perks of Being a Wallflower'! Every scene in this movie is perfect. The music is perfect. The way they incorporate narration or conversations in each scene is unique but works very well and again, creates a certain mood. Although this is no average plot, by the end of the movie, the characters to the viewer are well-known. It's like a good book; when the book is over you almost miss the characters - and I definitely felt that in this movie. The movie felt very Nostalgic. What a beautiful film!

In a Mormon community in Utah, the fifteen year-old Rachel Angela McKnight (Julia Garner) discovers that she is pregnant. She believes in Immaculate Conception by the music of a blue cassette tape that she had listened to in a cassette recorder. Her father and religious leader Paul (Billy Zane) blames her brother Mr. Will (Liam Aiken) and expels him from home; he also arranges a marriage in the community for Rachel. However she decides to go to Las Vegas to seek out the father of her baby. She steals Paul's pickup truck and heads to Vegas, and Mr. Will that is sleeping in the trunk goes with her. They meet the skater Clyde (Rory Culkin) and his friend, the musician Johnny (John Patrick Amedori), and Clyde invites Rachel and Mr. Will to go with them in their van to the place where they live. Rachel and Clyde become romantically involved and Clyde offers to marry her. However Rachel wants to find the musician on the tape.

"Electrick Children" is an absurd story about a naive and innocent girl that was raped by her religious stepfather and believes in Immaculate Conception by the music of a blue cassette tape. The film keeps an ambiguity but what has happened is clear. Rachel is not moron, but Mormon, and certainly was induced by her stepfather to believe in Immaculate Conception. When she listens for the first time a cassette recorder, she commits a sin and concludes that the baby was generated by the music in the cassette tape. Her brother knows that Paul is the father and maybe that is why he is expelled from home. The plot is made to please the viewer but is offensive to the Mormon community and how she finds her biological father is unbelievable. But most of the characters are nice and this Indie film entertains despite the absurd. Just as curiosity, Rachel's mother is the Libby from "Lost". My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Fita Azul" ("The Blue Tape")