It’s crazy to think that boyish-looking Jonathan Tucker, known for roles in “The Virgin Suicides” (1999), “Hostage” (2005), “In the Valley of Elah” (2007), and “The Ruins” (2008), is now 40 years old. And beyond roles like “Charlie’s Angels” (2019), the perennially youthful-looking actor generally plays nice guys, introverts, and the like. But in “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” an acclaimed 2022 Sundance Film Festival title that’s finally coming out now, Tucker plays something much more chilling and disturbing.
Directed by Jamie Dack, her feature-length directorial debut, but with a lot of shorts under her belt, the film stars Lily McInerny in a breakout performance, alongside Tucker and Gretchen Mol. “Palm Trees and Power Lines” centers on a 17-year-old girl (McInerny) who has a life-changing encounter with a manipulative man twice her age (Tucker). Dack won best director at the Sundance Film Festival that year.
The film is evidently challenging and sometimes hard to watch. About the film we wrote, “Fearsome and fearless at the same time, ‘Palm Trees and Power Lines’ practically dares viewers to watch what’s happening on screen without flinching.” We also interviewed Dack at the time and you can read that interview here. Here’s the official synopsis:
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.
Momentum will release “Palm Trees And Power Lines” in theaters and VOD on March 3. Watch the new trailer below.
